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July 4, 2004 Vol. 4, No. 7
T H E S C H O O L L I B E R A T O R
Listen to a 15 minute interview of Marshall Fritz
by Israel Wayne of Home School Digest
http://getthekidsout.org/interview040615.php
An Update from GetTheKidsOut.org
Our mission is to assist Christians to work within their own
denominations to alert parents of the staggering loss of faith and
morals in children who attend the officially neutral "public
schools," and help them find ways to move children into Christian
education, whether in campus schools or homeschooling.
We're building on the excitement from the Pinckney-Shortt resolution
to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting held in
Indianapolis June 14-16, 2004.
The Alliance is strictly educational and leaves all lobbying,
electioneering, referenda, and litigation to other groups.
The Alliance neither seeks nor accepts government grants.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Marshall Fritz
President, www.HonestEd.com
(Alliance for the Separation of School & State)
Advisor,
www.GetTheKidsOut.org
1071 N Fulton St, Fresno CA 93728
(559) 499-1776 fax 499-1703
DEAR FRIENDS OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AND EXODUS MANDATE:
(Report from Indianapolis, June 13-16) - Our family attended the SBC
Baptist Convention as observers.
Two members of our ministry, Houston Attorney, Bruce Shortt and T.C.
Pinckney, Brig General USAF ret, Alexandria, VA,former 2nd Vice
President of the SBC, sponsored the now famous SBC Christian
education resolution for Baptists to pull their children out of
public schools and only home school or put their children in
Christian schools. This has become a major national news story in
both the Christian and secular media. Millions are reading about and
discussing this issue now. Stories have appeared for six weeks in
hundreds of newspapers all over the USA.
Bruce Shortt and T.C. Pinckney have done hours of interviews on
Christian or secular radio talk shows and in the print media. T.C.
Pinckney was a guest on ABC National News on June 15.
The story has been on television in both local and national markets.
With respect to the print media literally thousands of stories have
been printed on the resolution. I have given some similar
interviews, too. We estimate 1/3 to 1/2 million people received
information through e-mail, many of whom are Christian leaders.
The official SBC media was generally negative about the resolution
while the outside print media, Christian and secular gave
significant support. The resolution received notable endorsements
such as WORLD MAGAZINE (Joel Belz), the BOSTON GLOBE (Jeff Jacoby),
the WASHINGTON TIMES (Cal Thomas)and WALL ST JOURNAL (Diana West).
Having gotten the support of such opinion leaders as these no one
can now claim the "Exodus Mandate" message is not taken seriously.
Also, Michael Smith, President of Home School Legal Defense
Association (HSLDA), sent out an endorsement to the HSLDA e-list. It
was personally gratifying as well as helpful to be endorsed by the
premier home school organization in the nation.
Our discussion of the media would not be complete if I did not
mention Joe Farah, Publisher, and writer, Ron Strom of
WORLDNETDAILY.COM. Ron Strom's article on May 4 was the first major
story on the resolution. All our supporters need to know that the
early coverage by
www.WORLDNETDAILY.COM was responsible for much of the remaining
media picking up the SBC resolution story.
The resolution was introduced on the floor on June 16 but failed to
pass. With the resolution being introduced on June 16, we have
definitely advanced the "K-12 Christian education football" by
creating a major national debate in the churches over the necessity
for Christian families to homeschool or place their children in
Christian schools.
We have challenged the churches, pastors and Christian leaders, and
not just in the SBC, that they must begin to provide K-12 Christian
education services for their families and memberships. We have
wounded the government school giant and things will never be the
same again. The warning has sounded forth.
A trumpet has been blown in Zion and a new banner has been raised
for the body of Christ.
As for the SBC Annual meeting, the issue we raised was the only
truly controversial matter under consideration. We learned the
morning of June 16 when resolutions were to be voted on that a total
of six resolutions had been submitted concerning education.
This was over 20% of all resolutions submitted.
Only eight resolutions were sent to the floor for consideration and
none of the education resolutions were submitted to the floor by the
Resolutions Committee. Given the level of controversy, it is not
surprising that the Committee did not report any resolutions out
dealing with education. Nevertheless, despite the efforts to prevent
a discussion of our resolution before the body of SBC messengers,
T.C. Pinckney and Bruce Shortt made an effort to amend another
resolution decrying the secularization of American culture. This
amendment contained the core of the original Pinckney/Shortt
resolution and fit well with the secularization resolution since we
feel Christian families sending their children to government schools
is a prime cause of the secularization of both the Church and
American culture. The debate lasted about 15 minutes before the
8,500 messengers whether Christian children should be in government
schools.
The amendment offered by Pinckney failed to pass.
Please continue to support and pray for us as these developments
from Indianapolis and elsewhere unfold over the next few years.
Although the SBC resolution failed to pass on June 16, it was a
major news story and partial victory that it was introduced and
discussed. It was not a defeat for our cause as millions have heard
our message and 100,000's will respond and join with us in the
future because of the leadership of Bruce Shortt and T.C. Pinckney
at the SBC in Indianapolis on June 16. We have defined the real
issue for Christians now and our efforts are driving the education
debate nationally and the culture of the Church.
The theological trajectory for the SBC on K-12 Christian education
is good as so many of the young pastors and families are either home
schooling or supporting Christian day schools.
While it was impossible to be exact we estimate that 25-30% of the
SBC messengers were supportive of our agenda and goals. We made many
new friends.
Our prayer is that Psalm 126 and Psalm 46:4,5 would be fulfilled
with the children over the next few years. We trust that the Lord
will prosper the Exodus Mandate Project and the growing number of
allied ministries, churches and organizations who are advocating
K-12 Christian education through home schooling or thoroughly
Christian schools as the standard for all Christians and a key to
the revival of our families, churches and our nation. Brethren, pray
for us. 1 Corinth 16:9.
Blessings.
In His grip,
E. Ray Moore, Jr.
Chaplain (Lt.Col.) USAR ret
www.Exodusmandate.org
FRONTLINE MINISTRIES
PO Box 12072
Columbia, SC 29211
tele (803) 714-1744
FINAL THOUGHT
"The present ban on religion in government schools aids the statist
viewpoint. As all totalitarian regimes know, religions posit a
scheme of values prior to and superior to the state. It is not the
case, however, that no religion is taught in government schools. If
religion is broadly defined to include even 'one's ultimate
concern,' it becomes obvious that the religion taught in government
schools is that interventionist government is the ultimate human
value. Government schools forbid the teaching of any religion but
state worship."
--James Ostrowski in "A Real Education" as posted at
http://www.mises.org
SIGN THE PROCLAMATION or get a family member to:
"I proclaim publicly that I favor ending government involvement in
education."
http://www.honested.com/Proclamation
WANT TO SOUND OFF? Discuss education issues with fellow articulate
School Liberators. Go to
http://www.sepschool.org/misc/yahoogroups.html
COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS? Send us your message at mailto:
ccuthbert @ fix. net
WORD OF MOUTH is the most efficient means of marketing the Separator
philosophy. Please forward this newsletter to your family, friends
and associates.
THE SCHOOL LIBERATOR is a FREE service of The Alliance
for the Separation of School & State, 1071 N Fulton St
Fresno CA 93728 (559) 499-1776. We are a non-profit, grass roots,
educational organization dedicated to informing people worldwide how
education can be improved for all--not only the poor--by liberating
schools from politics. For more information go to http://www.honested.com
Publisher: Marshall Fritz
Editor: Cathy Cuthbert
Assistant Editor: Kate Jimenez
Copyright 2004, The Alliance for the Separation of School & State,
Inc. All rights reserved.
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