Missionary man

Church & State, Apr 1999 by Boston, Rob

Like many Religious Right figures, D. James Kennedy can't decide what to do about public education.

On one hand, Kennedy has endorsed calls for fundamentalist Christians to remove their children from public schools. On the other, he and his followers seem to want to take over the system in the name of Jesus.

During Coral Ridge Ministries' Feb. 26-27 "Reclaiming America for Christ" conference, several speakers discussed strategies for injecting fundamentalism into the schools, and one outlined an ambitious agenda for using public school students to spark a revival in America.

During a conference breakout session, Benny Proffitt, founder and president of First Priority of America, urged churches to band together to coach junior high and high school students on how to form Christian clubs on campus and then use the clubs as instruments for aggressive proselytism.

Under Proffitt's plan, local churches join forces to train students and fund their activities. Students then rely on the Equal Access Act - federal legislation that allows pupils in public secondary schools to form religious clubs under certain conditions - to gain a foothold in the school. Students are instructed to spend time seeking converts and regularly report the number of conversions to First Priority, which has offices in Nashville, Tenn., and Alpharetta, Ga.

Proffitt, a former public school teacher who resigned in 1979 after he was told to stop preaching to students, scorned the Supreme Court rulings of 1962 and '63 that removed government-mandated prayer and religious worship from public schools.

"I saw first-hand God removed from the school system," said Proffitt. "I saw the destruction and devastation that had on a generation of young people."

He insisted that the 1962 ruling was especially offensive because the prayers challenged were Christian prayers, calling it "an attack on our Christian heritage." (In fact, the prayer at issue in the Engel v. Vitale case was not "Christian," but a "nondenominational" prayer composed by the New York Board of Regents, the state school board.) Proffitt added that a few years later the Supreme Court ordered "God removed from every public building in America." (In fact, there is no such high court ruling.)

Proffitt also blasted public schools for teaching evolution, asserting, "We wonder why they [students] carry guns and kill each other. Well, we've told them, `You're nothing, you're a freak, you're an accident of nature. That's all."'

According to Proffitt, America can be saved only if fundamentalism finds a way into the schools. "The only way we're going to change America is to raise an entire generation with the message of the Gospel," he said. He added that it's too late for "Generation X" to be saved but insisted that the next generation is ripe for the Gospel.

"If we miss this next generation, God will walk away from this nation completely....If we don't think He will, we have our heads in the sand," he said. "If we're going to reach a generation, we've got to take the message to that place where the generation is - the schools."

Proffitt claims to have established First Priority clubs in 3,000 schools spread over 200 communities, but his scheme may have some legal pitfalls. The Equal Access Act, for example, states that "nonschool persons may not direct, conduct, control or regularly attend activities of student groups." Proffitt told the crowd not to worry when church-state objections are raised.

"There is no such thing as separation of church and state," he said. "It doesn't exist. There's only one document in history where that exists - the Communist Manifesto. We can't separate them because we are the church and the state." (In fact, the Communist Manifesto makes no reference to church-state separation.)

Continued Proffitt, "If we don't reach our young people, somebody will - the pornography world, the drug culture will. You ever heard of the Muslim Church [sic]? They've got a plan to reach America. Ever heard of Louis Farrakhan? He has raised $1 billion to build Muslim outreach centers on every college campus."

During the question-and-answer session, Proffitt was asked about problems that might arise from attempts to convert Jewish and other non-Christian students. While he urged Christian young people to be "gentle and not use a hard sell," he added, "If we're going to fulfill the Great Commission, we've got to go and tell everyone. I really don't see a way around the Gospel message. The message is for the world."

A "Messianic Jew" in the audience agreed with Proffitt and said she is grateful for such evangelism, since it led her to Jesus and made her "zealous for the Lord." Proffitt nodded approvingly, but lest anyone get the wrong idea, quickly added, "I have a lot of Jewish friends and Messianic Jewish friends. I tell them, `He's your Messiah. You introduced him to me."'

Despite Proffitt's enthusiasm for First Priority clubs, not everyone was persuaded that his scheme is the way to go. One man in the audience called public schools "the counsel of the ungodly." He said Christian children have no business being enrolled there because they are more likely to be "dragged down into the world" than to win souls. He also accused Proffitt of using children to do a job that belongs to adults.