Southern Baptists continue to resist public school concerns (OneNewsNow.com)

Southern Baptists continue to resist public school concerns

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow - 6/14/2008 4:15:00 AM

SBC logo Messengers at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis approved a resolution supporting a ballot initiative in California that will define marriage as only between one man and one woman; however, an amendment that would have called on Christians in the state to remove their children from public schools was soundly defeated.

Recently, California's Supreme Court ruled that it is legal for homosexuals to marry. Concerned residents had already started collecting signatures to put a referendum on the ballot. The resolution supports the referendum and asks pastors in California to speak strongly, prophetically, and redemptively about the issue.

But during a time of debate on the floor, Ron Wilson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Thousand Oaks, California, proposed an amendment. "The engagement of the culture seems to be that we're going to use our children as cannon fodder in that engagement. In that light, I would like to amend that motion or resolution .... At the end of the third Resolve from the bottom, where it states, 'and to pray for the people of every state, where biblical marriage is under attack, and Be it further,' add this: "Resolve that we encourage all Christians in California to remove their children from the public schools, which are the main training ground for the teaching of same-sex marriage," Wilson said.

Darrell Orman is pastor of First Baptist Church in Stuart, Florida, and also served as chairman of the powerful Resolutions Committee. He said the committee was trying to stay focused on the same sex-marriage issue. "We do not wish to dilute the emphasis of this resolution by bringing in the corollary issues of the education system at this time," Orman pointed out.

That amendment was worded virtually the same as a proposed resolution that was not reported out by the committee. Bruce Shortt is a messenger from Texas who has been leading the call of some Southern Baptists the past several years for a comprehensive "exit strategy" from the public school system. He was not surprised the proposed resolution never made it out of committee. However, he says an organized grassroots campaign, known as California Exodus, is gaining momentum.

Shortt says Southern Baptists in other states should not be complacent about the issue. "It may be happening in California today, but I can assure you, the very same special interests that pushed this thing through in California are looking at how they can do it in Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Illinois, and in Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and probably in a few other states – Washington and Oregon. And it's coming. The wolf will be at the door of a lot of states, and I think people will be very surprised," Shortt contends.

Until that happens, Shortt says he will continue supplying Southern Baptist leaders with information and research regarding the inroads homosexual activists are making in the public school system. He believes the nation's largest evangelical denomination must do more to rescue children from what he and others see as a failing and anti-Christian system.