Contact: Chaplain E. Ray Moore, (Lt.Col.) USAR Ret., President, Frontline Ministries, Inc., and Exodus Mandate Project, 803-714-1744, exodusmandate@yahoo.com; Karl Priest, Exodus Mandate West Virginia State Coordinator, 304-769-0217, kcpriest@aol.com; www.exodusmandate.org

COLUMBIA, S.C., Sept. 27, 2011 /Standard Newswire/ -- Frontline Ministries, Inc., and the Exodus Mandate Project (www.exodusmandate.org) announced today that Alice Moore is the recipient of the 2011 Dr. Robert Dreyfus Courageous Christian Leadership Award.  She will be honored on Friday, October 7, 2011, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. at the LaBelle Theatre in South Charleston, West Virginia.  Established by Frontline Ministries, Inc., in 2007, this award honors Christian leaders who have exhibited moral courage through their unique contribution to the Church by advancing Christianity in the culture and life of the nation. This contribution may be in the face of opposition, or it may run counter to the prevailing culture of Church and society.

In 1974, Alice Moore, a minister's wife and an elected member of the Kanawha County School board, Charleston, WV, was the first person to alert Kanawha citizens and churches to the problem of controversial textbooks and supplementary materials containing: historic revisionism; material with violence, death; profanity; sexually explicit materials; atheistic attacks on the Bible (calling it mythology); New Age and secular humanism, just to name a few.  The protesters correctly understood that their values were under siege and that their children would be forced to read books with content that was contrary to their traditional family values.  It has been called the first salvo in the culture war.

Karl Priest, author of a first-hand protester account of this historic event in "Protester Voices--The 1974 Textbook Tea Party" (www.insectman.us/testimony/protester-voices.htm)  says, "Bible believing Christians and their conservative allies, objecting to anti-Christian and anti-American textbooks, shut down the state's largest school system (about 45,000 students) and garnered national and worldwide attention.  The Tea Party that occurred in 1773 was due to the British government overtaxing the American colonies.  Those Colonial protesters literally threw out the tea.  In 1974, another group of protesters, rose up against government oppression and figuratively threw out the textbooks."

Chaplain Moore added, "As a resolute board member, Alice Moore won the hearts of the people of Kanawha County and also won the admiration of many Christians around the nation who watched this struggle for truth and the education of our children from afar.  Area ministers, businessmen and parents who worked alongside Alice Moore, endured harsh persecution and trials as they spoke the truth for the protection of the precious children who could not speak for themselves.  Breaking into the public consciousness nationwide, people in Kanawha county, West Virginia, including thousands of coal miners, rose up en masse marching, protesting, engaging in sit-ins and walk-outs, boycotting the public schools, blocking school buses, and attending countless meetings."

For almost forty years, these protesters have been maligned and ridiculed.   In an effort to set the record straight about their courageous work in West Virginia, Exodus Mandate has planned a ceremony to offer the unvarnished story of the heroism and fortitude of the people who managed to shut down the coal industry in order to be heard.

Independent public radio producer, Trey Kay, created a documentary entitled, "The Great Textbook War" that was solely based on the Textbook Protests of 1974. It has won three awards: the 2009 Peabody Award (the most prestigious honor in electronic media) which designated "The Great Textbook War" as a "thoughtful, balanced and gripping radio documentary that shows how a 1974 battle over textbook content in rural West Virginia foreshadows the 'culture wars' still raging." It also won the 2010 national Edward R. Murrow award, and the 2011 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton award, which stated that the 1974 debate "set the stage for today's Tea Party movement" and "foreshadowed today's populist revolt and polarizing political debate." A summary of this documentary was his first contribution to Goldenseal Magazine in the Fall 2011 issue. www.current.org/hi/hi1103textbookwar.html  American Radio Works: americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/textbooks

A monumental PBS video documentary also features the Textbook War. "With God on Our Side Episode II: The Zeal of Thy House, 1969-1974" credits the event with being a major part in birthing the "Religious Right."

Lee Strobel (best-selling Christian author), featured the Textbook War in chapter one of "The Case for a Creator."

The 2011 Dr. Robert Dreyfus Courageous Christian Leadership Award is given to Alice Moore on behalf of the 1974 West Virginia Textbook Protesters who helped birth the Christian Right Movement that foreshadowed the "culture wars" still raging today.

Dr. Dreyfus, a prominent retired Florida dentist and inventor of a device to relieve neuromuscular pain for use in dentistry, served as a president of the Florida Dental Society of Anesthesiology. He has a 45-year history of volunteer work on behalf of family values and K-12 Christian education in Florida and is now the Florida State Coordinator for the Exodus Mandate Project.

Chaplain Moore noted that 2011 is the fifth year that the Dr. Robert Dreyfus Courageous Christian Leadership Award has been presented.