Southern Baptists, Methodists Look at Education
United Methodist Women's Campaign for Children brings together around 150 women to discuss educational issues
Some education advocates in the Southern Baptist Convention want to pull children out of public schools, and two months ago in Nashville, they almost succeeded with the passage of a resolution that recognized the dangers of public schools on faith. Last week in the same city, educational advocates from the United Methodist Convention also voiced their concerns regarding public schools, but from the opposite end of the critical lens.
“Public school is the primary route for most children into full participation in our economic and community life,” speakers at a UMC-sponsored education summit said.
The summit, part of the United Methodist Women’s Campaign for Children, brought together about 150 women from rural, urban and suburban settings to answer questions like “What can we really do to impact education in our country?” and “What are the tools we need to impact it?” according to the United Methodist News Service.
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They answered parts of the question with the help from speakers representing the Parent-Teacher Association, the National School Board Association and the United Church of Christ’s Public Education and Witness Office.
To those gathered there, the issue was not about the role faith plays in developing education - though the denomination last year readopted a resolution on “Public Education in the Church.” Rather, the attendants focused on ways Christians could be better informed on how to support public schools and in that way, impact the nation in a Godly way.
Jan Love, chief executive of the Women's Division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries and one of the keynote speakers, said providing access to basic skills through publicly funded education is a viable solution.
The issues around making quality public education available to all are the result of "our unwillingness to make it work! We know a variety of ways to fix what's wrong with public education. The problem is we lack the will," she said.
"The issue of public education is relevant to us not only as women of faith who know the saving power of Jesus Christ, but also as citizens of the United States who know the liberating experience of democracy and freedom," Love said. "I believe the crisis of public education is not only an issue that goes to the heart of our Christian faith and faithfulness. I believe it is also a struggle for the soul of our nation and our world."
This view of public education as a means to economic and democratic freedom stands in stark contrast with the resolution adopted by the Southern Baptists in June, which looks at the issue as a faith-crisis. That resolution urged parents and churches to monitor the various secular influences of public education on children and to “hold accountable” the institutions involved. It also acknowledged workers in the public education industry, but for their desire to witness their faith in such schools.
Many Southern Baptists flat-out oppose public education, and they expressed their concerns at a Kingdom Education Summit in late June – also in Nashville.
“It’s called Kingdom education and that cause is purely biblical,” said Ed Gamble, executive director of the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools, during the summit. “We’re either going to keep doing education the way we’ve been doing it -- which is not biblical and [is] disobedient, resulting in kids who don’t think and act biblically who then grow up to be parents who raise kids who don’t think and act biblically -- or begin homeschooling and building Christian schools.”
The Methodist solution is far different.
Speakers at the Methodist education summit discussed public education as a justice issue, and said providing educational opportunity for all children should be a rallying cry for Christians.
"Surely, this call for justice is relevant to needed reform in America's public schools, for public education is the largest civic institution in the United States," said Jan Resseger, a member of the National Council of Churches and the United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries, and one of the summit speakers.
"Simply put, in a society that depends upon information, some American children are given better access than other children," she said. "Inequity in educational opportunity is a significant injustice because education is the gatekeeper to opportunity."
Ultimately, Resseger said, “we are called to justice as a public expression of our love for God and all the children whom God has created.”
The Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church are the nation’s two largest denominations, with 16 million and 8 million members respectively. The summit was held from July 29-31, 2005.
