Christians Are Needed in Public Schools

It is interesting to me how Christian conservatives rightly howl when the left advocates a cut and run policy in Iraq but then turn right around and advocate the same policy for  Christians in the public school.  Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee member Roger Moran and Dr. Bruce Shortt have vowed to offer a resolution at the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro, N.C. in June which will call for churches to develop an "exit strategy" for Christians to remove their children from the public school system.  While I agree the public school system is in disarray and pagan to the core I must respectfully disagree with my brothers on the best way to bring about change.

The cut and run arguement goes something like this.  The public school system in America is corrupt beyond repair or redemption so it is time for Christians to bail.  That is certainly the easy solution because it is always easier to retreat than to fight.  But is that what Chrisitans are really supposed to do?  And what if we apply this solution to every arena of public life? Certainly the government is corrupt so should Christians withdraw from every area of governemnt service?  How about the culture in general?  Much of our society today has rejected the teaching of God's Word and mocks the morality of born again believers.  Should Christians withdraw completely from the culture because the culture is bad or should we remain and work redemptively to bring about change?

In a recent public statement supporting the cut and run resolution Bruce Shortt chastized people who disagree with his solution saying, "Unfortunately, many Christian pastors and leaders still try to evade the cold, hard facts by talking about 'school reform' and 'salt and light'. Well, we've tried that strategy for 40 years and more, and, after trillions of dollars of reform, anyone who takes a serious look at the consequences of our government school habit can see that the Church has been hemorrhaging children for more than a generation and that public schools are stuck on stupid morally and academically."

Again, Dr. Shortt has accurately defined the current situation but he has failed to place the blame where it belongs.  If Christians has been the salt and light we should have been instead of burying our heads in the sand and heading for door the first time evolution was mentioned we might not be in this situation today.  Since when is it prudent or scripturally accurate for a Christian to give up ground to the enemy?  The cold hard fact is we as believers in Jesus Christ don't believe our God is big enough to stop and reverse the decay of the public school system.  We would rather run to the safety of our Christian Schools and Home School organizations where the only discussion we will have is with ourselves when it comes to Christian principles.  Where evil has been allowed to thrive it makes no sense to stem the tide of evil by