June 20, 2005
Home-schooling families in the Southern Baptist Convention are urging the denomination to vote on a resolution that calls on Baptists to shield their children from homosexual indoctrination in public schools.
According to an Associated Press report, Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) president Rev. Bobby Welch doubts that resolutions urging members to remove their children from public schools will be debated at the denomination's national meeting in Nashville this week. Proposed resolutions must first be approved by a committee, which will decide whether to present them to the whole convention.
At the same time, the Southern Baptist Church and Home Education Association (SBCHEA) is endorsing a resolution submitted by Bruce Shortt and Voddie Baucham that encourages parents to investigate whether homosexuality is being promoted in their local public schools. SBCHEA also is backing a resolution that asks Baptists to pull their children out of public schools and, instead, either home school them or put them in a private, Christian school.
But Dr. Welch says many Southern Baptists cannot afford to home school their children or send them to Christian schools. In addition, he says that "public schools offer the greatest mission field" and are "a great place to make a difference."
SBCHEA founder Elizabeth Watkins says many home-schooling families realize what public school children are missing spiritually and want to rescue them from that environment. And she says she passionately supports both resolutions because of what she has witnessed in her daughter's life.
"She was in public school until the middle of fifth grade, and she is beginning her tenth-grade year now as a home schooler," Watkins explains. "I can just see the difference in her since I brought her home -- academically, spiritually, her relationships with her family and friends, her confidence. And I can just see the Lord really working in her life."
Watkins also expresses frustration over what she views as a lack of support from the denomination's leadership. SBC leaders, she says, are employing a troubling double-standard by not speaking out on the issue of whether young Christians should be attending public schools.
"What's been surprising to me is that even though publicly the Southern Baptist leadership is not voicing their support, the [children of the] leaders of the [SBC] ... went to public schools," she shares. "But now [the vast majority of] their grandchildren are being home-schooled -- and they want their grandchildren home-schooled."
Watkins believes for mainly financial reasons, SBC leaders are hesitant to speak publicly in favor of home schooling over public schools.
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Southern Baptist Church and Home Education Association (http://www.sbchea.org)
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