“So Your Parents are Thinking of Sending You to a Classical Christian School” Is Available Now

The new pamphlet for prospective students is available now on Gibbs Classical. Head over to Gibbs Classical and read lengthy excerpts and reviews.

An excerpt from the pamphlet:

“There are many different kinds of Christians. There are Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, and hundreds of other denominations. Most classical Christian schools are open to people of just about any denomination. For the moment, though, I would like to speak about just two kinds of Christians: Christians who go to church every Sunday and Christians who don’t. 

When I refer to Christians who go to church every Sunday, I mean every Sunday. They might very occasionally miss church because of illness, but that’s pretty much the only reason they think legitimate for not being in church on Sunday morning. Week after week, month after month, year after year, they can be found in a church on Sunday morning. Let’s call these sorts of people Every-Sunday Christians. 

When I say there are also Christians who don’t go to church every Sunday, I mean they go to church every so often. They might go once or twice a month, but they might also let six or seven weeks go by without making it to church. Let’s call these sorts of people Every-So-Often Christians. 

Regardless of what sort of church you go to, this school takes an approach to Christianity which is really only going to make sense to Every-Sunday Christians. Every-So-Often Christians will find themselves frustrated and confused by the sort of claims the teachers at this school make about Christianity. My intention in this pamphlet is not to argue that you should be an Every-Sunday Christian. I’m simply saying that at this school, Christianity is practiced and preached as an Every-Sunday sort of thing.  

Let me explain. 

Every-Sunday Christians don’t go to church every Sunday because they feel like it. They wake up on Sunday morning tired, wanting to go back to bed. And when they get up on Sunday morning, they have plenty of little projects around the house they would like to start on, and they have hobbies they’d like to fuss with, and unfinished work that needs to be ready by Monday. They do not feel like going to church, but they go anyway because they believe it is their duty

Because they believe going to church is a duty, they do not have to decide on Saturday night or Sunday morning whether they are going to church or not. They already know they’re going. They have made a decision (years ago) to always go to church on Sunday. 

Every-So-Often Christians do not regard church attendance as a duty or an obligation, which is to say church attendance is not a priority. Instead, going to church is a thing they do when they feel like it, and they do not often feel like going to church. For this reason, Every-So-Often Christian families are less likely than Every-Sunday Christian families to pray together in the evening or read the Bible together on a daily basis. All of this makes Every-So-Often Christians much less inclined to talk about God on a regular basis, or to discuss the commands and precepts of God when thinking through important matters. If a certain person only attends church when he feels like it, he does not want his religion to inconvenience him, which means that when the teachings of Scripture become difficult to follow (because they are unpopular or thought “outdated”), the Every-So-Often Christian is more likely than the Every-Sunday Christian to simply do what is easy and popular.”     

You Need To Be Qualified To Read St. Paul

“The desire to treat every book of the Bible equally often inclines classical educators (and youth group leaders) to teach New Testament epistles to young students simply because St. Paul says a lot about grace and faith and salvation, which are subjects modern Christians obsess over. However, St. Paul’s teachings on faith are meaningless and even—to be frank—entirely counterproductive when they are given to people who are unfamiliar with the lives of faith (and works of faith) presented elsewhere in Scripture. If a student does not know about the construction of Solomon’s temple, the reforms of Jehu and Josiah, the Babylonian captivity, the commands of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, and the ministry of the apostles, St. Paul’s teachings on grace and faith and salvation will only confuse and distort a right understanding of the Christian life.”

-from a forthcoming lecture at the Gibbs Classical Online Summer Conference

Oooh, Ouch: Are You An Asset Or A Liability To The Classical Christian Movement?

In a Target parking lot…

Gibbs: Excuse me, sir. I know you have shopping to do, but I was wondering if we could speak for a moment.

Driver: About what?

Gibbs: About your bumper sticker.

Driver: Which one?

Gibbs: The one that says in very large letters, “My children receive a classical Christian education.”

Driver: What about it?

Gibbs: I should tell you now that I followed you a little ways because I wanted to ask you about it.

Driver: Yes?

Gibbs: Well, why are you sending your child to a classical Christian school?

Driver: Because a classical Christian education is concerned with reality. Public schools revolve around feelings and fantasy.

Gibbs: “Feelings and fantasy.” Yes, what do you mean?

Driver: A classical Christian education aims to align the student’s feelings with reality. Public schools teach students that reality should align with our feelings. It’s delusional.

Gibbs: Couldn’t agree more. A classical Christian education is interested in the truth, regardless of how we feel about it.

Driver: I see you know something about classical Christian education.

Gibbs: I do, and I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.

Driver: We don’t even know one another.

Gibbs: Sir, you either need to learn to drive like a reasonable adult or you need to remove that bumper sticker from your car.

-from my latest for CiRCE

Wear A Mask While You TikTok

“When it comes to the matter of sheltering and protecting, the modern parent cares far more about a child’s body than its soul. We are fastidious about sheltering our children from germs, sickness, and broken bones, but largely indifferent about protecting our children from lies, vulgarity, mediocrity, kitsch, banality, and perversity. A great many parents who insisted their children wear masks during the pandemic didn’t care that their children were spending hours every day on social media, despite the universally acknowledged detrimental effects of social media on young brains.”  

-from “Just A Shot Away: How To Shelter Your Children,” my latest for CiRCE