Sure, We're Against Sin, But Don't Go to Meddlin'

In the July 2006 issue of Classis, the bulletin of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools, Harvard-educated attorney Bruce Shortt, author of The Harsh Truth About Public Schools, recounts his recent efforts to persuade his fellow Southern Baptists to confront their besetting sin:

Like the children of almost all evangelical denominations, the children of Southern Baptists overwhelmingly attend government schools. ... Conservative evangelicals will generally tell you they are dead set against sin. Southern Baptists are no exception. My Baptist brethren, however, tend to specialize in denouncing the sins that the overwhelming majority of us don't commit, such as entering into homosexual "marriages." In a recent outburst of moral courage, the messengers at our 2006 Annual Meeting discussed with great intensity and passed a resolution that both condemned drinking alcoholic beverages and recommended barring drinkers from holding any position of leadership within the SBC. … As a denominational group, however, our besetting, but not only, sin is our disobedience in the education of our children, and this we will not discuss.

While many factors contribute to the embarrassing condition of American evangelicalism, no factor is nearly as culpable as our government school habit, nor is discussion of any topic as studiously avoided by mainstream evangelicals as that of whether we are being faithful in the education of our children. Government schools are truly the Golden Calf of American Christianity. … All too often, those of us committed to Christian education have been reluctant to speak out about the sin of educating our children in schools that are effectively pagan seminaries. By speaking boldly to our friends and neighbors and in our churches and communities about the need to rescue our children from the government’s schools, we will be sowing the seeds of reformation and revival in our homes, churches, and culture. This is something we simply must do. Returning American Christians to faithfulness in the training up of their children is a hill worth dying on.

The entire article is worth reading.