Southern Baptist Convention Does Not Reject Public Schooling

The Southern Baptist Convention's Resolution Committee declined to forward a resolution for an 'exit strategy from public schools' to delegates at the full Convention later this year. The resolution was authored by Roger Moran of Troy, Mo., and Texas author Bruce Shortt. Shortt, the author of a book entitled The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, criticizes the nation's public schools for two primary reasons: That schools teach that a homosexual lifestyle is acceptable and that schools do not teach a curriculum of intelligent design.

The resolution committee will further debate an alternative resolution entitled On Engaging the Direction of the Public School System which calls instead for parents to teach their children to exert a godly influence in public schools. Delegates to last year's convention passed a resolution encouraging parents to exercise their right to examine textbooks and curricula at their community schools and to speak to the schools' leadership about material to which they have an objection. A similar measure to Moran and Shortt's was voted down at the convention two years ago.