SBC UPDATE
The Southern Baptist Convention, er, convention is a little over two weeks away and there are now two proposals dealing with the g-schools. The first has received most of the press. The second, less-renowned, proposal is meant to counter the first:
That publicity prompted Tennessee pastor Jim West to offer his own counterproposal, which calls for Southern Baptists to “affirm the American public education system and encourage its members to participate actively in the life of society so that they may indeed perform the dual functions of salt and light.”
…West told the Baptist and Reflector, newsjournal of Tennessee Baptists, his essential concern is theological. “Christians aren’t supposed to withdraw from the world. They are supposed to minister to the world,” he said.
He said the resolution submitted by Pinckney and Shortt sends a sign of withdrawal to the world. “It says, ‘We don’t want to have anything to do with you.’ You can’t be salt and light if you are hiding behind the walls of the church,” West said.
I agree 100% with Rev. West. Christians are supposed to be in the world. Adult Christians. I seriously doubt kindergartners and first-graders are doing much ministry. If you accept Pinckney’s premise, that g-schools are not just neutral on religion but actively anti-Christian, I don’t see how you can fault his conclusion.
For the record: Our church is affiliated with the Baptist General Conference, not to be confused with the General Baptists.
UPDATE: EdWeek has more. Via Izzy.
6 Responses to “SBC UPDATE”
 Comment by Rae May 29th, 2004 at 6:29 pm |
We were initially told that to by our oh-so-supportive pastors, friends, Sunday School teachers, etc. We got the most grief for home educating from the people in the church. Most of our “secular” friends thought it was pretty interesting and always asked the most fun questions. I finally had to ask our minister to stop asking our girls if they “did” school that day. I very politely told him it wasn’t his business and that we “do” school everyday, whether by his standards or not. He took it well, as I don’t think he understood how rude it was. I was once told by a minister (my former Campus minister) to respond to the whole “salt and light” issue by telling people that we were “sending the children to Africa as missionaries as we needed to work.” That got the best response ever. This kind of thing is exactly why we don’t belong to an organized denomination. I can’t stand it when someone tells me they understand far better how I should raise my family. Good one, Daryl. And, btw, can I see you dance? *not edited, running out now to get dinner |
 Comment by Daryl Cobranchi May 29th, 2004 at 6:34 pm |
Rae, |
 Comment by Laura May 30th, 2004 at 8:22 am |
My daughter’s public school is not actively anti-Christian. She wouldn’t be there if it was. Schools differ greatly in the way they handle issues related to religion. A lot depends on the school board, which presumably reflects the community. |
 Comment by Rae May 31st, 2004 at 2:05 pm |
Laura, that was half the problem for us. The principal of the high school was in our Sunday School class and co-taught with R. We had three of the 9 board members at our church. The district nurse, two football coaches and numerous elementary, junior high, and high school teachers, and of course, the many hundreds who had their children educated by g-schools who would proclaim “Johnny turned out just fine…” It was so challenging at times. The worse was when we were told that it was fine for us to home educate because we were “intelligent” enough and they could see we were actually doing it by observing our children. Oh, so they could say if my children were educated properly, but I couldn’t. Very annoying, but I finally learned to just ignore comments and feign deafness. I just go exhausted with being the poster woman (and my children being the poster children) for home educating, by both the pros and antis. Whew-but I have forgiven and forgotten, can’t you tell? |
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Comment by Rae May 31st, 2004 at 2:06 pm |
P.S. Yes, suit approved (is that really you?). |
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Comment by Daryl Cobranchi May 31st, 2004 at 2:22 pm |
Yep. Here’s the full post. |
