NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A group of Baptist leaders called on its members Friday to "speak positively about public education" in response to a conservative movement to pull Baptist children out of public schools.

Fifty-six pastors and organizational leaders - some from the conservative Southern Baptist Convention and others from the more moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - signed a letter supporting public schools.

The document was posted Friday on the Web site of the Baptist Center for Ethics, a Nashville group that often criticizes the conservative direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The letter said it's wrong for church leaders to urge their congregations to abandon public schools in favor of homeschooling or private Christian academies.

"We believe Baptists should recommit themselves to public education, not as a means toward converting school children, but because it's the right thing to do," the letter states.

"We call on Baptists to recommit themselves to the separation of church and state, which will keep public schools free from coercive pressure to promote sectarian faith, such as state-written school prayers and the teaching of neo-creationism (intelligent design)."

The Southern Baptist Convention has passed resolutions supporting homeschooling and Christian education, but it rejected a 2004 resolution made by Houston lawyer Bruce Shortt calling for parents to remove their children from public schools.

The following year, however, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a version of another resolution from Shortt that asked churches to investigate whether schools were promoting acceptance of homosexuality.

The approved resolution said "homosexual activists and their allies are devoting substantial resources and using political power to promote the acceptance among schoolchildren of homosexuality as a morally legitimate lifestyle" and it urged parents and churches to investigate textbooks and programs in schools.

Robert Parham, executive director of Baptist Center for Ethics, said the letter was signed by Baptist leaders from at least nine states and sent to churches throughout the Southeast.

Representatives with the Southern Baptist Convention did not immediately return calls seeking comment about the letter Friday.

Ed Hogan, pastor of Jersey Village Baptist Church, an SBC-affiliated church in suburban Houston, said he signed the letter because dozens of public school teachers, principals and other staff attend his church, which is located in one of the largest school districts in Texas.

"I think the SBC has become increasingly involved in conservative secular politics," Hogan said. "And I think this (public schools resolutions) is a part of that agenda. A national convention ought to be about how we can minister to and help people and not how we can further political agendas."

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