COLUMBIA, SC, May 4, 2004 (LIfeSiteNews.com) – A Baptist group, which calls itself Exodus Mandate (EM), is calling for Baptist parents to pull their children out of state-run schools. EM will table a proposition next month at the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that all Baptist parents send their kids to private, Christian schools, or home-school them.
The proposition, authored by a SBC leader and a Baptist lawyer, calls for “all officers and members of the Southern Baptist Convention and the churches associated with it to remove their children from the government schools and see to it that they receive a thoroughly Christian education, for the glory of God, the good of Christ’s church, and the strength of their own commitment to Jesus.”
The authors, in their proposal, argue, “Government schools are by their own confession humanistic and secular in their instruction, [and] the education offered by the government schools is officially Godless.”
Co-author of the proposal, attorney and home-schooling father Bruce N. Shortt, in an interview with WorldNetDaily news, said that he promotes the private and home-schooling model because “government schools are killing our children morally, spiritually and academically.” Shortt warns that the issue may not be well-received because many Christians would find private, Christian schools more expensive, or home-schooling inconvenient.
Shortt wants to see more private, Baptist schools opened around the U.S. “There are people who feel called to home-school,” he said, “and I think it’s a wonderful thing if they do. I also think there are some parents who for one reason or another believe that they can’t [home-school] or would prefer not to.”
Shortt and co-author, retired brigadier-General T.C. Pinckney, will bring the resolution before the SBC at the annual meeting in Indianapolis in June. Read WorldNetDaily coverage at: https://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38322 Also see related LifeSiteNews.com coverage, “Largest Ever Study on Life After Homeschooling Reveals Very Positive Outcomes,” which revealed that 94% of homeschooled adults strongly agreed or agreed to the statement, “My religious beliefs are basically the same as those of my parents,” at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/oct/03102903.html