Compare the Education Resolution Passed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church with its SBC Counterpart

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                        Vol. XIX, No. 6, August 2006

The Education of Covenant Children

The Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly repents for the sins of the Church of Jesus Christ and its members in failing to provide a biblically based education for their covenant children. This Assembly herein maintains that:

Whereas, ecclesiastical leaders and Christian parents have willingly (often defending their actions as ‘missionary endeavors’), committed the education of their children, to the public school system. However, contrary to their gross ignorance, the public school system promotes secular humanism in their educational instruction, which is contrary to biblical teaching. (Psalm 1:1-2)

Whereas, the Bible commands fathers (mothers) to bring up their children in the covenant and train them in the admonition of the Lord and not by the state (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4), and

Whereas, the Bible teaches that Christian education begins with the fear of the Lord (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7,; 9:10; 15:33) and is to be applied to every area of life (Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Romans 12:2), and

Whereas, those covenant children who have attended public schools have been influenced, not to holiness of life, but rather towards anti-biblical thought, resulting in their conversion to secular humanism, in-spite of those adult Christians who have sought to share their Christian faith among public school students, and

Whereas, the Church and Christian parents have squandered a great opportunity to instruct these children in the truth of the Scripture and its application to every area of life, faith and practice;

Therefore, be it resolved that the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly requires all of her officers and communicant members remove their children from public schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) and provide a thoroughly Christian education, thereby seeking God’s covenant blessings for their children and families, in order to glorify God and for the good of Christ’s Church. [Passed the first week of May 2006.]

Note the very strong, godly stand in the last paragraph: “... requires all ... officers and ... members remove their children from public schools...”

Now consider the resolution clauses of the SBC education resolution passed in June:

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina, June 13-14, 2006, encourage Southern Baptists to heed our Lord’s admonition to be salt and light in our society; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we affirm the hundreds of thousands of Christian men and women who teach in our public schools, and we encourage our young people who are seriously considering the teaching profession as a possible calling of God to pursue that calling; and be it finally

RESOLVED, That we encourage all Southern Baptist churches to solicit individuals from their membership to engage the culture of our public school systems nationwide by running for election to their local school boards and exerting their godly influence upon these school systems.

Our SBC resolution reflects: (1) a willing ignorance that government schools are consistently, intentionally, and successfully destroying the Christian faith of their students; and/or (2) spineless pastors and other church leaders fearful that taking a stand will cause problems in their churches, and/or (3) allowing pragmatism to trump theology. Why do we ignore the terrible spiritual impact government schools have on our children? Do we not love them? How can we flout God’s commands and assume there will be no consequences? Do we not care about our country’s future?

Much good happened at the 2006 SBC meeting, but this resolution is shameful.