Texas Baptist Forum_40504

Posted: 4/02/04

TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Anti-voucher predators

Your editorial regarding education (March 22) was not accurate, as the facts do not support what you wrote.

The public schools in Washington, D.C., spend more per student than any public school system in the U.S.A., and their performance is near the lowest. Vouchers have worked well in Cleveland.

That is why the black mayor of Washington and the black parents there have essentially forced Congress to try vouchers in D.C.

E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com

The highly respected Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, have an organization to specifically promote vouchers.

Thomas Sowell, an economist with the Hoover Institute, studied the relationship of school financing to student performance and documented repeatedly that many schools with highly performing students spend considerably less per student than the majority of public schools where performance is poor. Sowell grew up in Harlem and has had his work verified by another black economist, Walter Williams of George Mason University.

Your statement, “Vouchers would leech money out of school districts even as they provide their beneficiaries with training that is inferior to what they could receive in most public schools” is so contrary to the facts that it seems less than honest.

To deny the children the opportunity to a quality education by forcing them to remain in a disintegrating educational system is almost discriminatory, as these are mostly minority children without the financial resources to escape to decent schools.

Just as the lotto preys on this group, so do people who oppose school vouchers.

Dick G. Ellis

Fort Worth

Christians in schools

Thanks for your editorial about why Christians should be concerned with public education. As a teacher with 35 years of experience, I say this critical subject must be addressed by Christians.

As you noted, Christians should care about basic Christian needs, justice and fairness; strengthen our state; and provide for the future.

Public schoolteachers do not often hear from Christians supporting honesty, integrity, purity, hard work, respect for authority, respect for others, respect for property, discipline, accountability, decency and perseverance.

We hear from parents who say we give too much work, we're too hard on their kids, their kids can do no wrong and we have injured their self-esteem by correcting them. We can't challenge enough of our students to hang tough, work hard and not cheat.

Teachers would love it if Christians would get more involved in their schools. I fail to understand why so many think the Christian response is not to be involved. We need them to do so!

It will help our students and teachers. It will help us return to moral values in our public schools. It will help the growing problem of teachers leaving the classroom.

Wray Boyd

Hallsville

Church contributions

I am very grateful for the wise leadership of Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Some Texas Baptists are concerned about Southern Baptist Convention leadership. It is their right to voice objections. I can understand their concern.

However, the action of our budget planners in reducing world mission percentages in order to increase BGCT Cooperative Program funds has proved counterproductive.

As I travel around the state as an intentional interim, I have been in contact with many churches. Generally, they understand the great need to support many BGCT institutions, such as our schools, hospitals, children's homes and Baptist Student Ministries and the work of our BGCT Executive Board staff. They want to continue to support this cause, but they do not want to do it by taking it away from our dedicated foreign missionaries. Therefore, they continue the percentage–67 percent BGCT, 33 percent worldwide–which was in effect three years ago.

Dr. Wade has rightly recognized their good spirit. Many of these churches are growing and continuing percentage giving to the Cooperative Program, thus their dollar gifts to Texas causes is increasing.

The church I pastored so long has seen its BGCT contributions grow from $2,500 annually to over $300,000 this last year. They did this under the wise leadership of my successor as pastor, Jeff Warren, through a strong evangelistic outreach and maintaining percentage giving.

I am thankful Charles Wade recognizes the contribution of many churches like this.

Jim Puckett

McKinney

Money is a moral issue

Doug Fincher is concerned that politicians are overly concerned about money and not concerned enough about “moral issues” including same-sex marriage and abortion (March 22).

I would respectfully suggest that money is a moral issue. Check your Bible and note how many times money is mentioned versus the two “moral issues,” same-sex marriage and abortion. One verse in particular stands out in these times when we see politicians being bought by the highest bidder: “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10).

Much of the misery in America, including the 13 percent increase in hungry people in the last three years, can be attributed to the influence of money on our political leaders and their desire to keep the money flowing.

Carl L. Hess

Ozark, Ala.

Pledge must be qualified

Brent Walker said he would be happier if the words “under God” were not included in the Pledge of Allegiance (March 22). What?

Does he really believe our children and other citizens should be encouraged to recite an unqualified pledge of allegiance to the state? Does he believe that people of any faith, in good conscience, can pledge allegiance to their nation above or equal to their allegiance to their God?

Even atheists, secularists and humanists cannot, in good conscience, pledge allegiance to their nation above or equal to their allegiance to their own concept of right and wrong. The fact that they are striving to change the Pledge of Allegiance proves that even they could not honestly pledge “my country, above all, right or wrong.”

But they would rather recite such an unqualified pledge than admit that the word “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance refers to whatever commands one’s highest allegiance and defines what is right and wrong. They refuse to admit that everyone has a God and that only those few people whose God is the state can sincerely pledge allegiance to a nation that is not under God.

Donnell Hewett

Kingsville

Glad Bush acknowledges his faith

The letters related to politico’s Bibles and to the marriage amendment (March 8) caught my attention.

The first referenced an earlier editorial that encouraged voters to see if politicians’ walk matched their talk. Sage advice and I assume it was given without other motivations. As we follow that advice, however, we need to do it with spiritual wisdom and not secular wisdom.

For instance, to give a man a fish is one thing, but to teach him to fish is quite another. Secular wisdom would be inclined to be shortsighted and count how many fish were being passed out.

The other writer stated, “homosexuality presents no danger to heterosexual marriages.” He also stated, “Let us follow Christ … .” If we are going to follow Christ, we cannot remain silent about homosexual activity or any other sins. Jesus felt great compassion for the sinners, and so should we, but that did not cause him to ignore the sin.

I sensed that both writers were taking shots at President Bush because of his Christian testimony. We are all called to give testimony of our faith in Christ, and to do so is not bragging.

I for one am honored that we have a president who acknowledges his faith in Christ and is willing to take a stand on moral issues.

Gary J. Teague

Fort Worth

Correction

Due to a typographical error, the letter from Donald Baker (March 22) incorrectly stated he believes the Democratic Party believes in “no fetus left behind.” His letter states he believes the party believes in “no fetus left alive.”

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