Resolution Supports SBC President's Call for More Churches to
Start Christian Schools
From: Christian Newswire <newsdesk@christiannewswire.com
Date: 2007/05/02 Wed PM 05:11:28 EST
To: moorefam@bellsouth.net
Subject: Resolution Supports SBC President's Call for More Churches
to Start Christian Schools
Resolution Supports SBC President's Call for More Churches to
Start Christian Schools Call to Expand Christian Education Gaining
Momentum within Southern Baptist Convention
Resolution Also Supports President Page's Call That Churches Make
Christian Education Available to Children Whose Families Cannot
Afford it
SBC Second Vice President Endorses Resolution
COLUMBIA, SC, May 2 /Christian Newswire/ -- The call for an "exodus"
from the public schools continues to build momentum within the
Southern Baptist Convention.
As the controversy over public schooling among Southern Baptists
and other Christians continues to gather force, for the first
time a president of the Southern Baptist Convention has publicly
called upon churches to start more Christian schools and to make
sure that provision is made for the children of families that
would not otherwise be able to afford to attend. In an August
2006 interview with Jim Brown of Agape Press, the newly elected
President of the SBC, Dr. Frank Page, stated that he prays that
more churches will begin offering Christian schools, both for
families who can and for those who cannot afford such education.
In response to Dr Page, Dr. Voddie Baucham and Dr. Bruce Shortt
have jointly submitted a resolution urging the messengers of the
2007 SBC Annual Meeting to give their full support to Dr. Page's
call to expand Christian education within the SBC. Dr. Baucham
and Dr. Shortt were also the co-sponsors of the 2005 SBC education
resolution that resulted in the passage of Resolution No. 1, On
Educating Children, at the 2005 SBC Annual Meeting,
Dr. Page's call for more Christian schools reflects an expanding
debate among Christians about educating Christian Children in
government schools that began with a resolution submitted to SBC's
2004 Annual Meeting and that was subsequently fueled by resolutions
urging churches and parents to investigate collaboration by school
districts with homosexual activists (2005) and in support of Dr.
Albert Mohler's call for the SBC to develop an "exit strategy"
from the government schools (2006).
In addition to Dr. Page and Dr. Mohler, past and present officers
and members of the SBC's Executive Committee have begun to speak
out on the need to provide Christian children with an alternative
to government schools. Moreover, in the last three years increasing
numbers of clergy and laymen have been raising this issue in Southern
Baptist state and regional conventions.
Dr. Voddie Baucham notes, "Dr. Page's call for more Christian
schools is the beginning of the 'exit strategy' that Dr. Mohler
has urged be developed. If the SBC and American Christianity are
to survive in any culturally relevant way, we are going to have
to repent of our unfaithfulness in the education of our children.And
we need to do this sooner rather than later."
According to Bruce Shortt, co-sponsor of the current resolution
and of education resolutions submitted for the 2004, 2005, and
2006 SBC Annual Meetings:
"Dr. Page's bold recommendation demonstrates how far the
debate over how we educate our children has moved since 2004.
This is because Christians and others find it increasingly difficult
to avert their eyes from the metastasizing spiritual, moral, and
intellectual pathologies of the government school system. Southern
Baptist churches and the SBC's institutions must get about the
business of creating a new public school system - one that is
"public" in the sense that it is open to anyone, but
controlled by parents and churches, not bureaucrats and politicians."
Pastor Wiley Drake, Second Vice President of the SBC's Executive
Committee and sponsor of the 2006 "Exit Strategy" resolution
in the CaliforniaSouthern Baptist Convention, endorses Dr. Page's
recommendation and the resolution:
"Dr. Page is right: Southern Baptists, and Christians generally,
need to plan a Christian educational future for our children.
First, Christian parents are obligated to provide their children
with a Christ-centered education. Anyone who thinks that a few
hours of youth group and church will have more influence on a
child's faith and worldview than 40 to 50 hours a week of public
school classes, activities, and homework is simply not being honest
with himself. Second, the open collaboration between homosexual
activists and many school districts, together with the overall
level of crime and violence in the public schools, makes the public
schools an unsafe place for our children."
Chaplain E. Ray Moore, founder of Exodus Mandate, points out,
"The Southern Baptists are setting the pace in debating this
critical issue. Other denominations such as the Presbyterian Church
in America are also having this debate. It is our prayer and hope
that this debate will take place in all Bible based denominations
over the next few years and that both Christian parents and the
institutional church will come to understand clearly the urgency
of rescuing our children from the government schools."
Dr. Baucham is a pastor with a national teaching ministry and
is the author of The Ever Loving Truth (Broadman & Holman)
and the forthcoming The Family Driven Faith (Crossway).
In addition to co-sponsoring this year's education resolution,
Dr. Shortt co-sponsored education resolutions at the 2004, 2005,
and 2006 SBC Annual Meetings. Dr. Shortt is also a member of the
board of directors of Exodus Mandate and is the author of The
Harsh Truth About Public Schools (Chalcedon).
Additional information, including the text of the 2007 Resolution,
can be found at www.exodusmandate.org
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Christian Newswire ( www.christiannewswire.com)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To: National Desk
Contact: Dr. Voddie Baucham, 281-404-9368;
Dr. Bruce Shortt, 832-483-8882;
Pastor Wiley Drake, 714-865-8132;
Chaplain E. Ray Moore, 803-714-1744
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