The resolution never hit the floor of the 2004 Southern Baptist Convention for debate.<\/p>\n\n
An effort to insert some of its biting language into another resolution was easily defeated, with enough church messengers from across the nation raising their peach-colored voting cards on June 16 that a formal ballot was not required.<\/p>\n\n
No doubt about it, Southern Baptists are upset about the state of American culture and, to get specific about it, the moral climate in public schools. But leaders of the nation\u2019s largest non-Catholic flock were not ready to start another media tsunami by saying the SBC \u201cencourages all officers and members of the Southern Baptist Convention and the churches associated with it to remove their children from the government schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This failure to produce a major story in Indianapolis was a story in its own right.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt seems like year after year, the Southern Baptist Convention has been passing one or more resolutions that kept getting more counter-cultural and polemical,\u201d said philosopher David Gushee, senior fellow of the Carl F.H. Henry Center for Christian Leadership at Union University in Jackson, Tenn. \u201cThat didn\u2019t happen this time. It seems like they found an outer boundary and couldn\u2019t go over it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s crucial that the debate centered on separation from public schools, institutions woven into every corner of American life, said Gushee, who helped draft a famous SBC resolution condemning attacks on abortionists and another calling for racial reconciliation in churches. Questioning the quality of public schools is one thing. Urging educators to show openness to the views of religious traditionalists is another. But sounding a last trumpet of retreat?<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThat would be tantamount to saying, \u2018We are going to withdraw from all of American culture,'\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t say that. Southern Baptists don\u2019t want to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The original resolution came from Bruce Shortt of Spring, Texas, and retired Air Force Gen. T.C. Pinckney of Alexandria, Va., a former SBC second vice president. This was the second year in which guidelines prevented messengers from proposing resolutions on the floor, so reporters saw this controversial text in advance.<\/p>\n\n
While praising Southern Baptist adults who \u201clabor as missionaries\u201d in public schools, Pinckney and Shortt argued that the \u201cgovernment school system that claims to be \u2018neutral\u2019 with regard to Christ is actually anti-Christian, so that children taught in the government schools are receiving an anti-Christian education. \u2026 The government schools are by their own confession humanistic and secular in their instruction, the education offered by the government schools is officially Godless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
When his resolution failed to survive the resolutions committee \u2014 which included five home-schooling parents, out of 10 members \u2014 Pinckney tried to add an amendment to another resolution mourning the secularization of American life. This time, he urged Southern Baptist pastors, parents and churches to commit to providing children with a \u201cthoroughly Christian education.\u201d The amendment defined this as \u201chome schooling, truly Christian private schools or some other innovative model of private Christian education.\u201d It was defeated.<\/p>\n\n
Resolutions Committee chair Calvin Wittman noted the approval of 11 resolutions on education issues in the past two decades, which offered ample evidence of concern about issues in public, private and home schooling. In a press statement he said: \u201cSouthern Baptists have spoken to this issue sufficiently, and it does not need to be readdressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Gushee said it is crucial to note the images and the issues that were written into the secularization resolution, as well as those omitted. The convention said \u201cGod expects His people to embrace and reflect His passion for societal justice, relief for the oppressed, and protection of the helpless.\u201d It urged Southern Baptists to \u201ccry out in desperation to God and seek His face in repentance and forgiveness for our part in the cultural decline that is taking place on our watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis is a call to engage the culture in love, not hate,\u201d said Gushee. \u201cYet that \u2018desperation\u2019 reference stands out. It\u2019s obvious by now that Southern Baptists are very upset about the junk that\u2019s out there in the culture and our schools. I mean, all you have to do is turn on your television. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s like the convention is saying, \u2018Dear God, will you please intervene before we head off a cliff?'\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The resolution never hit the floor of the 2004 Southern Baptist Convention for debate. An effort to insert some of its biting language into another resolution was easily defeated, with enough church messengers from across the nation raising their peach-colored voting cards on June 16 that a formal ballot was not required. No doubt about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[696,720,786,813],"class_list":["post-1286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-public-education","tag-religion-news","tag-separatism","tag-southern-baptists"],"yoast_head":"\n