Gary North

I have shown that classical Greece was perverse. I have shown why there is no neutral education. I have shown a better way to teach history. Do you believe me so far?

If you believe me, you should re-think the premises of the so-called classical Christian curriculum. You should ask yourself this: "If the original classical culture was foul at its root, why should I waste my child's time studying Greece and Rome?"

There is a plausible answer: "Because the curriculum teaches children to recognize rot, refute rot, and promote a Christian worldview." If the curriculum does these things, it is not a classical Christian curriculum. It is an anti-classical Christian curriculum.

My curriculum is an anti-classical Christian curriculum. It requires high school students to read selections from classical sources -- not the worst, most foul sources, but the humanist, polytheist, widely respected materials. I tell them about the foul stuff, as a warning, but I do not assign it.

Here is my philosophy: You don't have to eat a whole rotten apple to know it's rotten. A high school student does not have to read much of classical philosophy and literature to know it is hostile to Christianity. My narrative will show what was wrong with classical antiquity. The student will then be able to spot what is wrong with modern remnants of classical antiquity.

My curriculum teaches teenagers where and when the origin of Western humanism arose: classical Greece. Humanism then spread to Rome. From Rome, it was enforced across the Mediterranean world under the Empire.

My curriculum immunizes high school students against humanism by teaching them about the moral rot that was at the foundation of classical culture.

If you do not want your teenagers exposed to the truth about classical culture, then adopt another curriculum. But don't adopt a classical Christian curriculum, which does not teach the truth, either, but does so in a deceptive way. It teaches respect for classical culture and literature. A Christian curriculum should teach disrespect for classical culture or else nothing at all about it.

If your children are not taught the truth about classical culture, they will not learn to recognize the compromises that Christian educators have made with classical culture, beginning no later than the second century. They will also not recognize why the Renaissance was so hostile to Christianity. The Renaissance was a self-conscious attempt to revive classical pagan culture as a substitute for Christianity.

Renaissance Christian scholars sometimes called themselves "Christan humanists." They tried to fuse together two rival religions. That had also been the error of medieval scholasticism in the Western church. This attempt has always undermined the church's commitment to the Bible.

This compromise continues to undermine the church. One aspect of this undermining process is the classical Christian curriculum.

I teach teenagers about Greece and Rome. I teach that both societies were mostly evil. They were hostile to the idea of a God who created the world out of nothing. They were hostile to the idea of a final judgment. They were hostile to a religion that did not place civil religion -- polytheism -- at the center of society. They were hostile to Christians who refused to participate in the civil religion.

Their covenantal heirs -- the humanists -- retain this hostility, and for the same reasons. Instead of polytheism, they proclaim multiculturalism. The result is the same.

Your children should recognize this threat to Christianity. To recognize this threat and overcome it, they need to know where humanism came from. It came from classical Greece.

I provide an anti-classical curriculum for the same reasons that I provide an anti-Darwinian education: to immunize teenagers against humanism. If you do not want this for your children, adopt another curriculum.