Updated 12:47 pm.EST, Sun November 22, 2009

Opinion|Wed, Jun. 18 2008 08:52 AM EDT

Southern Baptists Embrace Calif. Marriage Amendment but Reject Exit Strategy

By Dr. Tony Beam|Christian Post Guest Columnist

While resolving to stand with the people of California to protect traditional marriage, the messengers refused to allow the much proposed school exit strategy to be added to the resolution. For the past four years, those who believe the way to win the battle to stop the advance of secularism in public schools is to withdraw from the battlefield have strongly suggested that we must demand that all Christians remove their children from the public school system. School exit proponents are right to decry the moral chaos that is being sanctioned by the California public school system. In October, the California Legislature passed and Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 777, which now bans in both school texts and activities any discriminatory bias against those who have chosen alternative sexual lifestyles.

But calling for an exodus from the public school is not the answer. The solution is not retreat but a recommitment to retake the public schools for Christ. Our willingness to allow the encroachment of pure secularism, especially in the schools, has pushed the system to brink of collapse. We should repent for allowing our children’s minds to be inculcated with immoral ideas born from the unholy union of humanism and moral relativism. Jesus Christ has called us to engage the culture, specifically to be “in but not of the world.” In His prayer to the Father before being betrayed, Jesus, speaking of His disciples said, “I am not praying that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” He went on to clarify that our mission is to go into the world saying, “As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” Certainly we shouldn’t simply send our children out into a hostile world alone. We should go with them and become the light that counters the darkness of the message they hear. We should be the salt and we should shine the light of God’s truth, knowing that darkness cannot overpower the light.

Whether standing for marriage for fighting for our children’s future we must stay in the fight bringing the transforming power of the Gospel to bear in every arena.

___________________________________________________________________

Dr. Tony Beam is Vice-President for Student Services and Director of the Christian Worldview Center at North Greenville University in Tigerville, South Carolina.

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  • Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:00 am Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

    Quite frankly, I am glad my children have finished public school (& college) -- and survived it all.

  • Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:40 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

    hlerwin
    Thanks for the research. But conservative and moderate Republican (ie: RINO) are two totally different animals. The real issue is what worldview they hold to on this issue of ethics, positive law and society. They obviously ignored the will of the majority and the will of God.

    Meanwhile, we have kids from Christian families getting brainwashed in PS regardless of this latest wacky court ruling and a church body that does nothing about it.

  • Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:28 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

    Here's a June 19 "Pensito Review" (what ever that is) article:

    Jon Ponder | May. 19, 2008

    When judges make decisions that favor gay civil rights, rightwingers label them “activist judges,” and howl, “Let the people decide.”
    Yet more evidence — as if any were needed — that the rightwing position on gay marriage is based on bigotry, politics and fundraising, not principals or “moral” values.
    But last year, when the California legislature — a.k.a. “the people” — passed bills that would have legalized gay marriage — twice — the right wing cheered when GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the laws both times.

    Now, in the wake of the California Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this month legalizing gay marriage, the right will have trouble making their name-calling stick, because three of the four “activist judges” who voted in favor of extending civil rights to gays were Republicans:

    Voting for:

    Chief Justice Ronald George, 68, a moderate Republican appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1991. He wrote the 4-3 opinion striking down the state ban on same-sex marriage, which he said violates the “fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship.”

    Justice Joyce Kennard, 67, a Republican appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1989. She is considered a moderate and joined the majority opinion.

    Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, 72, a Republican appointed by Wilson in 1994. She is considered a moderate and was part of the majority in the ruling.

    Justice Carlos Moreno, 59, the court’s only Democratic appointee, named to the bench by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. He is considered a moderate and voted with the majority.

  • Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:24 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

    I will check my facts about how many CA judges are "conservative." I'm not sure, really.

  • Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:23 pm Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

    You must know that this "activist" court in CA was mostly made up of conservatives, Republican apointees, at that. I think it was difficult for some of them to make the decision they did. But with a clear understanding of the constitution, they could not vote "for" discriminatory practices. The SBC has every right to use every resource to fight for what it believes God's plan is. The SBC is a church organization. Our government cannot procede that way.

  • Thu Jun 19, 2008 11:31 am Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

    Dear CP readers.

    Some may have noticed that a large number of comments have disappeared from a number of articles. We would like everyone to know that we are currently in the process of launching our new site within this week and experienced a minor glitch. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to be able to restore the comments to the site.

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  • Thu Jun 19, 2008 10:53 am Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

    When I was at Keesler AFB in the summer of 78 there was already issues being raised with sending Christian kids to public schools in Alabama, the church I went to let me know that very few SBC churches were involved with this because many of their members were public school employees, I think it was the homeschooling issue that was being debated. Here in Southeast KY the idea of pulling Christian kids out of the public school system would go over like a lead balloon. Once again the schools here are very open to having churches involved in school activities and many of the employees at all levels are church members, but what they fail to realize is that most of the books they use are steeped in secular humanism and for those Christian parents who are truly concerned about their kids getting a Christian Worldview when it comes to education they often times have to reteach or unteach their kids. As most of you know I am a Southern Baptist, but this is one area where we need to wake up and smell the secular humanism that runs rampant within our public schools and develop a game plan to deal with this issue. But as long as many of our own church members remain intrenched in the public school systems themselves I'm not sure that will happen any time soon.

  • Thu Jun 19, 2008 2:41 am Agree: 0   Disagree: 0

    You both are right. It's taken 80 years or so for our PS system to sink this low and it will take longer (if ever) to get it turned around to any semblance of a Christian Worldview environment. The battle is between the parents and the state; our children should not be left in the system as sacrificial pawns. The SBC should endorse removal of children from all public schools across the nation and challenge the adults to take on the battle with the state.

  • Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:11 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 0

    Talk about a "blind leader"

    Removing our children from the public schools is not retreating from the battle field, its removing our children from a part of the battlefield that we never should have put them on in the first place.

    Education
    http://www.polemos.net/Home%20Schooling.html

    Some Good Quotes: Public Schools
    http://www.polemos.net/Quotes%20Public%20Schools.html

  • Wed Jun 18, 2008 5:26 pm Agree: 1   Disagree: 1

    I consider my Southern Baptist and would like to share that the SBC is deluding themselves if they think they can "retake the public schools for Christ." As a retired public school educator I was able to see first hand how the system has so totally been saturated by the far left agenda in every way that only a fool would think it can be "taken back." The best that could be done would be to slow down the total drift to total immorality. When a school principal states when one reports two students in a corner having intercourse "Well, we cannot infringe upon their right to freedom of expression" we have crossed the mark. Yet, please do not allow Christian t-shirts, prayer meetings, the Bible or anything else religious to occur in a public school. We cannot even decorate in green and red at Christmas as those colors might "offend" Muslims. Too bad. God must be very disappointed in the SBC for their timidity. I wonder if those fathers or mothers would vote the same when it is their daughters literally being raped in a school building dark corner!

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