Baptist leaders reject school-exit plan

GREENSBORO, N.C. — There will be no Southern Baptist exodus from the nation's public schools — for now.

Leaders of the nation's largest Protestant denomination Wednesday refused to support a resolution that would have urged the formation of an exit strategy for pulling Southern Baptist children from public schools in favor of home-schooling or private Christian schools.

The proposal, offered by Roger Moran of Troy, Mo., and Texas author Bruce Shortt, came as many of the nation's 16.2 million Southern Baptists are concerned about how classrooms are handling topics such as homosexuality and intelligent design.

Instead of putting the exit strategy before delegates to the Baptists' annual meeting, the denomination's resolutions committee called on members to "engage the culture of our public-school systems" by exerting "godly influence," including standing for election to local school boards.

Those ideas were part of a more moderate resolution overwhelmingly approved Wednesday at the final session of the meeting. Delegates also approved a resolution urging school districts to accommodate parents and churches wishing to provide off-campus biblical instruction during the school day.

Moran called the two resolutions "one more sign we're moving in the right direction."

The public-schools issue has simmered for several years. A resolution similar to the one offered by Moran and Shortt failed to pass two years ago. Delegates at last year's annual meeting approved a resolution urging parents and churches "to exercise their rights to investigate diligently the curricula, textbooks and programs in our community schools."

The proposal from Moran and Shortt complained that curricula teaching "the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable" are being implemented in schools. It also criticized a court ruling last year that banned a Pennsylvania school system's classroom mention of intelligent design, the notion that life is so complex it must have been created by a higher intelligence.