BOB ABERNETHY: For a growing number of Christian parents, the solution is not to put God back into the public schools, but to pull their children out of a system they believe is fatally flawed. These parents are opting instead for home schooling or placing their children in new Christian schools. They say they're acting to protect their children, but supporters of public education say these parents could wind up hurting their children by killing the very institution that has helped teach the moral and democratic values that hold the country together. Paul Miller has our report.PAUL MILLER: Dominion Christian High School in Marietta, Georgia, gets more inquiries from prospective students and parents these days, families alarmed by the Colorado school shooting. Concern about school violence is not new; Jarrett Scott asked his mother for a transfer to Dominion last summer.
Ms. TAWANA PITCHFORD: And he said, "You know, Mom, I really am tired of worrying about somebody walking into school with a gun." And I think I was more worried about the lack of values in the school, which is the thing that precipitates the violence.Ms. TERRI SMITH: We wanted something that had Christian values, strong Christian values, that were gonna say, "This is right and this is wrong."
MILLER: Terri Smith's daughter Jennifer was among the original students at the two-year-old Christian school, which boasts it offers what public schools do not: moral certainties and a Bible-based education. There is prayer, religious instruction, a God-based worldview and creationism, not evolution. Schools like Dominion have attracted fundamentalist Christian families for years. But there's a new feeling among some evangelicals that all Christians must leave public schools, both to protect their children and to kill off what they see as a hopelessly flawed educational system.
Reverend RAY MOORE (Founder, Exodus 2000): Most Christians believe that the public schools are basically secular humanists, and we're not allowed to pray in the public schools. And it's just not a safe place morally, spiritually, academically, and now safetywise, it's not a safe place for Christian children to be.MILLER: Ray Moore is a South Carolina pastor who leads the Exodus 2000 movement. He says there are 15 million evangelical children who could and should leave public schools.
Rev. MOORE: We're given a stewardship by God of our own children first, and we must care for them first.
MILLER: The many Christians who support public education disagree, saying people of faith have a responsibility to the entire community. Some public educators say Exodus 2000 is dangerous. They don't believe many students will actually leave the public schools, but those who do, they say, will help loosen the glue that holds this country together.
Dr. LEE BERG (National Education Association): Public education is the foundation of democracy because it brings the diversity of our country together in a common pursuit of education and a common pursuit of understanding the values that make our country great.MILLER: Ray Moore says Christian values are most important and best taught at home. Moore and his wife Gail home schooled all four of their children until they were teenagers. Daughter-in-law Tina, who has been teaching public school, has stopped, and her children will be educated either in a Christian school or at home.
MILLER: In Loudoun County, Virginia, the four Domenech children are being taught at home. Seventeen-year-old Ben will attend the College of William and Mary next fall.
Ms. DOMENECH: I think it's just that passion to see them be excellent across the board in -- in what they think about and what they do with their lives and a desire to see them walk with God and -- and obey him and please him.
Reverend OLIVER THOMAS (National Council of Churches): I find that the vast majority of teachers in public schools are people of faith.
MILLER: Thomas says the National Council of Churches is calling on congregations to get involved with local schools. It's joined with many other groups in drawing up guidelines that promote religious liberty for all, allow student-initiated prayer, and permit kids to opt out of instruction they consider contrary to religious teachings. Christians are divided on the question of whether public schools can be saved. Next fall's enrollment figures could indicate which side is winning the debate. I'm Paul Miller for RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY in Marietta, Georgia.
