INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — Southern Baptists adopted resolutions June 16 lamenting America's “cultural drift…toward secularization” and urging Christians to vote according to “biblical values,” but they stopped short of calling for a full-scale withdrawal from public schools.
The 8,500 messengers attending the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Indianapolis adopted eight resolutions — most with little debate or opposition. The statements, often a flashpoint for controversy during the annual meeting, were presented to messengers by a 10-member committee.
The committee-recommended resolutions included statements supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment, promoting Christian citizenship, honoring the military, and praising the life and presidency of Ronald Reagan. But the committee declined to act on a highly publicized resolution proposed by T.C. Pinckney of Virginia and Bruce Shortt of Texas asking Southern Baptists to remove their children from “godless” and “anti-Christian” public schools.
A motion by Pinckney to add the anti-school language to the resolution on secularization failed on a show-of-hands vote.
Pinckney's proposed amendment encouraged all Southern Baptists to provide their children with “a truly Christian education” through Christian schools and home schools and asked churches to “provide counsel and assistance” to help parents do that. “Government schools are becoming actively anti-Christian,” Pinckney said.
Resolutions Committee chairman Calvin Wittman of Colorado said the SBC did not want to “usurp” the responsibility of parents to decide how to educate their children. “This is a responsibility that God has given to the parents of the individual child and we encourage parents to exercise their God-given responsibility,” he told messengers.
Wittman noted the SBC in recent years has spoken “sufficiently” on the issue of schools and Christian education, with 11 previous resolutions lamenting the secularization of public schools and supporting Christian schools, home-schooling and Christians teaching in public schools.
Jim Goforth of Missouri, speaking against Pinckney's amendment, said pulling Christian children out of public schools means “darkness will completely take over the schools.” He told about his son leading a fellow public-school student to faith in Jesus. “Teach them the truth. They'll know it when they hear it, and they will reject the falsehood,” Goforth said.
Shortt, who spoke in favor of the amendment, said the belief that children will positively influence schools as “salt and light” is “misapplied theology.” Childhood is a time of discipleship, he said, and placing children in an “anti-Christian” school will corrupt them.
After defeating the Pinckney motion, messengers passed the resolution on secularization unchanged. The statement said “the cultural shift in our nation toward secularism obscures moral absolutes under the guise of tolerance.”
Southern Baptists took blame and repented “for our part in the cultural decline that is taking place on our watch” and urged Southern Baptists to “aggressively engage the culture by speaking the truth in love concerning every aspect of life, public and private.”
The statement added: “America's only hope is a spiritual awakening by the power of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
A resolution on Christian citizenship urged “all Christians to vote in accordance with biblical values rather than according to party lines, personalities or candidate rhetoric.” It called on churches to conduct voter registration and education.
The resolution supporting the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage and “the legal incidents thereof” nationwide, would counter attempts to legalize same-sex marriage, the statement said. The resolution also said the amendment would counteract recent actions by some elected officials to issue “counterfeit marriage licenses.” It asserted that “the institution of marriage is in a state of crisis.”
The resolution commending Reagan called him “a man of prayer and strong faith” who “exemplified the hallmarks of a Christian leader.” It credited Reagan with respecting the sanctity of life and liberating millions of people from communism.
The resolution on the military called Southern Baptists to pray for soldiers and “to find tangible ways” to support them, but it did not take a specific position on the war in Iraq.
Another resolution expressed appreciation to God and to the “many faithful men and women who made sacrifices to lead the conservative resurgence” that wrested control of the denomination from moderates, beginning 25 years ago. Other resolutions commended LifeWay Christian Resources — the denomination's publishing arm — for producing the new Holman Christian Standard Bible and thanked the people of Indianapolis and those who organized the annual convention.
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