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Southern
Baptists Told To Probe
Public Schools
For Pro-Gay Positions
by The AP from
365gay.com on the Web May 16, 2005
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Houston, TX May 14 -- A
Houston lawyer who called on Southern Baptists to remove their children from
public schools last year is now asking churches to investigate whether schools
are teaching acceptance of homosexuality.
Bruce Shortt's resolution was rejected last year, but he is proposing another to
be considered at the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Nashville
next month.
If churches find that public schools are teaching acceptance of homosexuality,
the resolution calls on parents to remove their children and either home-school
them or enroll them in Christian schools.
The resolution was co-written by the Rev. Voddie Baucham Jr., a popular
Christian speaker and writer from the Houston suburb of Spring. He is to
speak at the Southern Baptist Convention's pastors conference in Nashville next
month. ''We need to raise the awareness that there is an aggressive effort
to teach our children acceptance of homosexuality as an acceptable alternative
lifestyle,'' Baucham said.
The proposal has been submitted to the Resolutions Committee, which will decide
whether to present it to the whole convention. There's no guarantee it
will ever reach the floor of the convention, Southern Baptist Convention
spokesman John Revell said.
With more than 16 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is the
nation's second-largest denomination. Resolutions approved by the
convention are nonbinding, and all member churches are autonomous in their
ministries.
The resolution says schools promote acceptance of gays through officially
sanctioned gay clubs, diversity training, anti-bullying courses, and safe sex
and safe schools programs.
It also claims homosexuality is more dangerous than smoking cigarettes and is
associated with a ''drastically increased risk of contracting various cancers.''
Shortt, who wrote a book titled The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, has been a
steady critic of public education.
''Christian parents are obligated to provide an education that imparts a
Christian world view, and we cannot expect a public school system to do that,''
Shortt said. ''The public school system is resolutely anti-Christian.''
The Shortt and Baucham resolution also says the nation's largest teachers union,
the National Education Association, and its affiliates are pressuring state
legislatures to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.
''It really baffles me how a caring parent could find fault with public schools
for trying to teach children to be respectful of others,'' NEA spokeswoman
Melinda Anderson said.
Eliza Byard, deputy executive director of the New York-based Gay, Lesbian,
Straight Education Network, said the resolution was an example of adults' using
students to push a political agenda.
''All children in a pluralistic society will meet people with whom they will not
agree,'' she said. ''But it's important they learn to treat all with
respect.''
The resolution submitted last year by Shortt and T.C. Pinckney, publisher of a
Baptist newsletter, urged parents to remove their children from ''godless''
public schools. That resolution was rejected by the committee.
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