CULTURAL MARXISM IN THE CHURCH
From the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Sympathy for the Devil
“CLASSICAL PAGAN EDUCATION”
The last chapter of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert promotes the Reformed Classical Curriculum that Rosaria Butterfield uses to homeschool her children.
“I am still a professional at heart. My whole life, currently defined as a home-school Mom in the classical Christian tradition relies daily on my educational training, and the discipline and intellectual rigor developed over the course of my life. I have had a complete life in school. I still read up to a hundred pages of something each day, translate something (these days, Latin), write papers, diagram sentences, and help students (my own children and others in my Classical Conversations community). (Secret Thoughts, Kindle 2524)
The Classical Conversations Curriculum is not a Christian curriculum. It is promoted by its creators as “highbrow” and “high-IQ”, “non-religious” and “devoid of an explicit fundamentalist Christian worldview.” Classical Conversations students learn Classical Greek in order to study pagan philosophers. The study of Koine Greek (to read the Greek New Testament) is disparaged (as “lowbrow”). Classical Conversations’ shameless promotion of academic elitism seems geared to turn “high-IQ” children into a “non-religious” cognitive elite (snobs) “devoid of a fundamentalist Christian worldview.”
“The following is a high-brow, high-IQ classical curriculum, which has been adopted by homeschoolers and classical schools. The creators of this free online curriculum have sought to address the lack of any sound online classical curriculum. Based upon the 19th-century German-Latin method and following the great-books model, this curriculum often attempts to be highbrow, emphasizing the best of occidental traditions while avoiding the anti-Western political correctness one finds in public schools…
“The following curriculum can serve as a classical curriculum or a classical Christian curriculum. While the following curriculum is non-religious per se and devoid of an explicit fundamentalist Christian worldview, it includes an implicit Christian perspective in that much of post-classical literature includes a Christian worldview (e.g. Dante, Shakespeare, etc.) The curriculum also leaves open the possibility for Christian units to be inserted at every stage, thus converting it into a Classical Christian curriculum, albeit with a sound classical component. For parents interested in a traditional Classical Christian outlook, we highly recommend that parents read about this tradition (here and here) to develop such a perspective.
“There are numerous online ‘Classical Christian’ curricula, but many of them are ‘classical’ in name only. Unfortunately, some people use a ‘Christian Classical’ curriculum as a front for religious fundamentalism. A quick litmus test to determine whether someone has perverted a classical curriculum is to investigate the memorization material on the curriculum. Under a traditional Christian classical curriculum, at least 50% of the weekly memorization material should come from European sources (e.g. Iliad, Aeneid, Beowulf, Prose Edda, etc.). If, however, all or most of the material is coming from the Bible or other religious sources, then it's not truly a classical curriculum. A second litmus test is to make certain the curriculum teaches Classical Latin and Classical Greek (and not Ecclesiastical Latin or Koine Greek). Learning the simplistic Ecclesiastical Latin or Koine Greek will allow one only to read Ecclesiastical Latin or Koine Greek; but by learning the more difficult Classical Latin or Classical Greek one will be able to read everything written in these languages. While many Classical Christian curricula may adhere to Biblical doctrines, many of these curricula do not offer anything remotely close to a traditional classical education – which in its very essence is rooted in Europe, its people (Europeans and Diaspora Europeans), and its occidental folkways and languages.”
Open Education Source, an online resource for free homeschool curricula, states that the “non-religious” Classical Curriculum “does have racist / elitist undertones.”
Listed below are selected books from the “Classical Conversations Reading List” which is basically a collection of pagan literature:
The Iliad by Homer
The Odyssey by Homer
Plato: Collected Dialogues, ed. Edith Hamilton (read Apology & Euthyphro)
Greek Tragedies, Volume 1, ed. David Greene
Greek Tragedies, Volume 2, ed. David Greene
Greek Tragedies, Volume 3, ed. David Greene
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, Edith Hamilton
Plutarch’s Lives (Vol. I & Vol. II), trans. by Dryden or Plutarch: The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives
Theogony by Hesiod
The Complete Plays of Aristophanes, ed. Mosas Hadas
The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists, ed. Robin Waterfield
The Greek Conservative Mind, Thomas Fleming
The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien & Maps of Middle Earth
Helen of Troy
Iliad and the Trojan War
Jason and the Argonauts
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Plutarch: Roman Lives
The following excerpt from The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans by the Greek biographer, Plutarch, is an example of the indecent reading material recommended for ninth graders:
“Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta… ordered that the young women should go naked in the processions, as well as the young men, and dance, too, in that condition, at certain solemn feasts, singing certain songs, whilst the young men stood around, seeing and hearing them… On these occasions, they now and then made, by jests, a befitting reflection upon those who had misbehaved themselves in the wars; and again sang encomiums upon those who had done any gallant action, and by these means inspired the younger sort with an emulation of their glory… Nor was there any thing shameful in this nakedness of the young women; modesty attended them, and all wantonness was excluded. It taught them simplicity and a care for good health, and gave them some taste of higher feelings, admitted as they thus were to the field of noble action and glory.
“These public processions of the maidens, and their appearing naked in their exercises and dancings, were incitements to marriage, operating upon the young with the rigor and certainty, as Plato says, of love, if not of mathematics. But besides all this, to promote it yet more effectually, those who continued bachelors were in a degree disfranchised by law; for they were excluded from the sight of those public processions in which the young men and maidens danced naked, and, in wintertime, the officers compelled them to march naked themselves round the market-place, singing as they went a certain song to their own disgrace, that they justly suffered this punishment for disobeying the laws.” (Vol. 1, p. 64)
Tenth graders read “I, Claudius (rated R).”
Eleventh grade: On Origin of Species or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life by Charles Darwin, Immanuel Kant’s Anthropology or Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, Thomas Malory: Le Morte D'Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table, The Prince by Machiavelli, Utopia by Sir Thomas More
Twelfth grade: “The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious by Carl Jung, The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Beowulf & Grendel (note: R rating)”, Wagner: Parsifal
Classical Conversations writer, Kate Deddens, promotes respect and admiration for Greek culture, philosophy, and the Socratic method of dialogue.
“The ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, master of learning through questioning conversations (hence the books written by his student, Plato, are referred to as ‘dialogues,’ and the well-established use of the expression ‘Socratic Discussion’ is used to describe his model) said something to the effect that ‘the only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.’… (Peace Talks / Dialogues)
In his Dissertation on the Phaedon of Plato (1773), a Princeton scholar, Charles Crawford, cautioned that “dialogue” was a literary device used to deceive the reader.
“If one has a bad cause to defend, let him put his thoughts into a dialogue. It is an unfair way of treating a subject…. I am apt to think that treating a subject in the method of dialogue at all, is a very bad plan for investigating the truth. You put weaker arguments in the mouth of the interlocutor, than might be used for his side of the question, or perhaps you make him puzzled and confounded, whereby you amazingly deceive, and lead the unwary reader into numberless mistakes.” (pp. 2, 46)
The Classical Conversations writer ‘dialogues’ with CC students about the importance of Christians learning the ideas of pagan philosophers:
“Christian, Know Thyself: Why It Is Important to Study Philosophy”
“Socrates, one of the most famous of the ancient Greek philosophers, said that ‘the life which is unexamined is not worth living’ (see Plato’s Apology1). In my Challenge III program this fall, the students and I have been pondering this Socratic adage closely as we read through The Consequences of Ideas, by Christian apologist R. C. Sproul. On the first day of seminars, we began discussing what Socrates’ claim might mean, whether or not we believe it to be accurate, and what importance it has for Christians—if any, considering it was put forward by a pagan philosopher.”
Socrates was put to death for corrupting the youth of Athens with his teaching of the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation, after death. The following is a dialogue between Socrates and Axiochus, who is dying, in which the former presents his arguments for believing that after death those who are inspired by “good daemons” and live piously go to the Greek gods who reside in the underworld, Hades, where the Greek goddess, Demeter, gives them courage for their migration to other worlds.
“And so, Axiochus, you pass away, not into death, but into immortality, nor will you have good things taken from you, but a purer enjoyment of d them, nor pleasures mixed with the mortal body, but entirely undiluted by pains. For once you are released from this prison cell, you will set forth yonder, to a place free from all struggle, grief, and old age, a tranquil life untroubled by anything bad, resting in undisturbed peace, surveying Nature and practicing philosophy, not for a crowd of spectators, but in the bountiful midst of Truth.”
“Then perhaps you’d like another argument… learned from some bronze tablets, which Opis and Hecaerge had brought from the Hyperboreans 1., that the soul, after its release from the body, goes to the Place Unseen, to a dwelling beneath the earth. Here the palace of Pluto is not inferior to the court of Zeus, since the earth occupies the center of the universe and the vault of heaven is spherical, and half of this sphere fell to the celestial gods, and the other half to the gods under the earth, some of them brothers, others children of brothers. The gates on the way to Pluto’s palace are protected by iron bolts and bars. When the gates swing open, the river Acheron, and then the river Cocytus, receives those who are to be ferried across to Minos and Rhadamanthus, in what is called the Plain of Truth. There sit judges who interrogate everyone who arrives about what kind of life he has lived and what sorts of activities he engaged in while he dwelled in his body. It is impossible to lie.
“Now those who were inspired by a good daemon during their lifetimes go to reside in a place for the pious, where the ungrudging seasons teem with fruits of every kind, where fountains of pure water flow, where all sorts of meadows bloom with many kinds of flowers, with philosophers discoursing, poets performing, dances in rings, musical concerts, delightful drinking-parties and self-furnished feasts, undiluted freedom from pain and a rich diet of pleasure; nor does fierce cold or heat ever occur, but through it wafts a temperate breeze, infused with the gentle rays of the sun.
“There is a certain place of honor for those who are initiated, and there they perform their sacred rites. Why should you not be the first in line for this privilege, you who are ‘kin to the gods’? Legend tells us that Heracles and Dionysus, before their descents into the realm of Hades, were initiated in this world, and supplied by the Eleusinian goddess 18 with courage for their journeys yonder." (1740)
"18. Demeter, whose cult at Eleusis was the most important of the Greek mystery cults; those initiated there were promised a happy survival in the underworld after death."
Socrates and Plato were both initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries, a mystery cult which was the direct offspring of pre-Flood Atlantis and also the source of Freemasonry.
“But above all, it must be remembered that the Greeks, an Aryan race, in their mythological traditions, showed the closest relationship to Atlantis...and we are told that Poseidon, god and founder of Atlantis, founded Athens. We find in the ‘Eleusinian mysteries’ an Atlantean institution; their influence during the whole period of Greek history down to the coming of Christianity was extraordinary; and even then this masonry of Pre-Christian days, which kings and emperors begged to be initiated, was, it is claimed, continued to our own times in our own Freemasons, who trace their descent back to ‘Dionysiac fraternity which originated in Attika.’ And just as we have seen the Saturnalian festivities of Italy descending from Atlantean harvest-feast, so these Eleusinian mysteries can be traced back to Plato’s island... And as the ‘Carnival’ is a survival of the ‘Saturnalia’, so Masonry is a survival of the Eleusinian mysteries.” (Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, 1976, 1882, p. 463)
“Into Freemasonry has been poured the irradiations of the mystical schools of antiquity. Particularly is this so in the higher degrees of the Order, such as the Scottish Rite, for undeniable traces of Cabalism, Neo-Platonism, Rosicrucianism, and other mystical cults are plainly discernible.” (Trevor Ravenscroft, The Spear of Destiny, p. 8)
The only way the Classical Conversations author can validate Socrates’ pagan philosophy is by contrasting it to the infamous philosophy of Karl Marx’s atheistic ‘dialectical materialism,’ as if learning about idolatrous, pagan philosophies that promote sexual perversion, is more acceptable to God than atheistic Communism (which, by the way, criminalized sexual perversion):
“The blatant fact is that—no matter how often our culture sends us the message that such ‘highfalutin’ learning is useless, suitable only for intellectuals who are cut off from reality as they ponder and worry over irrelevant ideas —philosophies are by no means purely cerebral, pragmatically meaningless musings that have no bearing on our world or on our lives. Indeed not. Philosophies have had potent influences on every aspect of our civilization, and these influences seep down into the most practical matters that involve truth, goodness, and beauty—and their antitheses: falsehood, evil, and ugliness—in every action we take as flesh and blood. We need only remember the devastating effects that Marx’s philosophy of ‘dialectical materialism’ has had worldwide, through its incarnations in communism and socialism, to realize that philosophy is not at all simply an ‘academic’ exercise (Marx himself was highly indebted to the influential philosopher, Hegel, for the latter’s articulation of the dialectic evolution of history).
“Some might ask: ‘Is there not some risk to Christians in grappling with false philosophies?’ The answer is that yes, there is risk, just as there is always risk in being in the world as soldiers of Christ. But here is the rub: there is greater risk in being ignorant of those philosophies, which is like sending a soldier out to battle with no knowledge of the terrain in which he must fight or of the tactics of his enemy.”
Though the author disparages the influence of Hegel’s dialectical theory on Marx, she also employs the dialectical process by claiming that a child will arrive at a biblical worldview by studying the false belief (Marxism) and the “truth, goodness, and beauty” of Greek philosophy, when in fact both are false and detrimental to a child’s thinking:
“To ‘know thyself,’ another famous dictum sometimes attributed to Socrates and connected with the idea of living the examined life, is thus to understand what one believes and to have evaluated those beliefs carefully in order to have established them as Scripturally sound. And, one cannot compare a false belief with a true one unless one can identify the one as ‘false’ and the other as ‘true.’ One cannot make such identifications without having perceived and studied both. Such discernment then produces a sound biblical worldview, which in turn produces biblical behavior; that in turn becomes a powerful biblical witness to a fallen world, a world awash in false philosophies and helplessly held captive in sin.”
Nowhere on the Classical Conversations website is found information exposing the mystery religion of ancient Greece and its concomitant institution of pederasty (man-boy love), much less the fact that Socrates, Plato and Aristophanes, also on the CC reading list, were homosexual pederasts. Western philosophy has sanitized the reputations of these philosophers to present them as virtuous men whose passion for young boys was sublimated to the more respectable “Platonic love.” The following expose of Plato’s perversion was written in 1773 by a Princeton scholar, Charles Crawford:
A Dissertation on the Phædon of Plato: With Some General Observations Upon the Writings of That Philosopher, Charles Crawford, pp. xv-15
“I am of opinion that the credit which Plato has acquired in the world is the greatest satire upon the understanding of mankind. We scarce ever hear him spoken of but by the appellation of the divine, the immortal, or the god-like Plato. Nay some have carried their admiration to such a pitch of extravagance, as to say that he was particularly and supernaturally inspired. – Amongst the Fanatics of this stamp we may reckon some of the Fathers, and the learned Monsieur Dacier, who wrote his Life, and translated some part of his works. – Notwithstanding this, he was, to speak after a very celebrated writer, the most wild and inconsistent [p.xvi] author that ever wrote, who instead of a rational system of philosophy, raised by the observation of the phenomena of Nature, constructed a fantastic hypothetical one of imagination, and corrupted the true springs of knowledge. His disciples, many of whom were men of learning and ability, contracted the errors of their master; they implanted them into those of their own time, and succeeding ages have adopted the infatuation. He laid a flimsy foundation for science, upon which the latter Platonicians have raised a superstructure that is altogether grotesque and uncouth. – There cannot be a greater instance of the blind partiality of mankind for this philosopher, than the distinguishing that friendship or affection, which has nothing sensual in it, by the appellation of Platonic Love, when he was as much addicted to a certain unnatural inclination, as any man of that sort who ever disgraced a human form. – We have the strongest evidence of his being guilty of this crime that history can furnish [p.xvii] us with. It is asserted by several, and denied by none….
“Though it was the cant of the philosophy of Socrates and Plato to pretend to despise the body, and to free the soul from its encumbrances, yet they were guilty of indulging their bodies in the most filthy of all inclinations: I mean, they were addicted to pederasty. No less a number than Dion, Phaedrus, Alexis, Agathon, and Aster, are said to have been Plato’s master-misses. To these he addresses himself sometimes in the most licentious and extravagant manner. He says thus to Dion, ‘Thou enflamest my soul to love thee even to folly itself.’ To Aster he says, ‘That he could wish himself the sky, that he might be nothing but eyes to behold him.’ What excuse will the defenders of Plato offer for his being guilty of this most damnable practice, the worst that could ever be introduced into a state, that ought to be extinguished by fire and sword, because it attacks the very vitals of a state, the heart and existence of its constitution? It will avail them but little to say that I am too severe in accusing him of a crime which had such an universal sway over the people amongst whom he lived, and was so common in the country of which he was an inhabitant. I acknowledge that all criminal passions were so common among the Greeks, that an Anacreon gave a description to his painter of a Catamite Bathyllus… as we in our days would of a fine woman…
“I say that it is no excuse for a man who calls himself a philosopher to be guilty of a vice, because that vice is common… Socrates and Plato acted in direct opposition to what nature would have pointed out. In this instance therefore I will maintain that they were bad men. Socrates and Plato seem to have known that such love was improper, though from a damned infatuation they could not refrain themselves from the indulgence in it...
“Zenophon in the Memorabilia makes Socrates exclaim against it. Plato also speaks against it, in his first book of laws, wherein he arraigns the governments [p.14] of Crete and Lacedaemon, because of their public exercises, which produced and caused those abominable desires in women towards women, and in men towards men by a perversion of their natural use. He calls it a detestable and infamous crime, the vilest and most execrable sin which intemperance could cause to be committed against God. – This cannot however be urged in palliation of him, for the more he knew the heinousness of the offence, the more culpable he was for not restraining himself from it… [p.15]”
About pederasty in ancient Greece:
“Pederasty in ancient Greece was a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens. It was characteristic of the Archaic and Classical periods. The influence of pederasty on Greek culture of these periods was so pervasive that it has been called ‘the principal cultural model for free relationships between citizens 4. …
“4. Dawson, Cities of the Gods, p. 193…: ‘there is a certain kind of sexual relationship which was considered by many Greeks to be very important for the cohesion of the city: sexual relations between men and youths. Such relationships were taken to play such an important role in fostering cohesion where it mattered — among the male population — that Lycurgus even gave them official recognition in his constitution for Sparta’ (p. 169).” (Wikipedia)
Plato used the literary device of “dialogue” to present the pros and cons of homosexual pederasty without appearing to openly endorse either side of the issue. The pagan mythology invented to justify homosexuality was later introduced to European literature during the Renaissance period, especially in school texts which removed the objectionable, censored portions. However, students of Greek and Latin were required to read and study the ancient classical texts in their original languages.
“Plato in the Symposium has Aristophanes relate a myth that is meant to explain the origin of the differences in sexual orientation among human beings. The first such creatures were double beings, male-female, male-male, and female-female, to weaken their potency Zeus cut them in half, then refashioned them so that each half could find and unit with the other. The members of the androgynous pair would accomplish the act of reproduction. Deriving from a Babylonian myth…this fanciful account of the cause of homosexuality shows that the ancients, aware of the phenomenon, invented an etiological legend that covered all the facts of sexual attraction, unlike the Judaic version in the book of Genesis that leaves only the proto-heterosexual pair.
“Afterlife. The suppression of the homosexual element in the anthropology of Biblical Judaism later contributed to the defamation of homosexuality as “contrary to the will of the creator,” but since the classical text preserved into the Middle Ages and the Renaissance kept alive the homosexual mythology of Greco-Roman paganism, this offered an inexhaustible source of inspiration for writers and artists, and also a code by means of which tabooed and unnamable subjects could be raised with subtlety and double entendre. Although the conventional treatments of Greek and Roman mythology, especially in school texts, bowdlerized homoerotic themes, they persisted in the literature which those versed in the ancient languages were always free to consult. Allusions to heroes of homosexual love affairs were enough to suggest to the initiated the author’s intent, as in the case of Whitman’s Calamus poems; the language of Aesop conveyed the message despite Christian and then Victorian censorship. So the afterlife of the Greek myths undercut the heterosexual bias of Judeo-Christian theology, and for the sophisticated modern reader these legends revive the profoundly homoerotic ambiance of the ‘glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.’” (Encyclopedia of Homosexuality, Vol 2, Dynes, p. 868-869)
The Classical Conversations Curriculum includes Aesop’s Fables for first, second and ninth graders. The ninth grade edition links to “Aesop: The Complete Fables” translated by Robert Temple. Robert Temple is the author of many New Age books such as The Sirius Mystery: New Scientific Evidence of Alien Contact 5,000 Years Ago, The Sphinx Mystery: The Forgotten Origins of the Sanctuary of Anubis, Egyptian Dawn: Exposing the Real Truth Behind Ancient Egypt, Oracles of the Dead: Ancient Techniques for Predicting the Future. Here are two excerpts from Robert Temple’s translation of Aesop’s Complete Fables, which ninth graders in the Classical Curriculum are reading:
Fable 52. The Middle Aged Man and His Mistresses
“A middle-aged man who was going grey had two mistresses, one young and the other old. Now she who was advanced in years had a sense of shame a having sexual intercourse with a lover younger than herself. And so she did not fail, each time that he came to her house, to pull out all of his black hairs.
“The young mistress, on her part, recoiled from the idea of having an old lover, and so she pulled out his white hairs.
“Thus it happened that, plucked in turn by one and then the other, he became bald.
“That which is ill-matched always gets into difficulties.”
In other words, the middle-aged man gets into difficulties not due to his immoral behavior, but because of the age difference in both cases. How is this good reading material for ninth graders, or anyone else for that matter? Yet Aesop’s Fables get worse…
“Fable 73. The North Wind and the Sun…
“This fable was cleverly utilized by the playwright Sophocles, according to Hieronymus of Rhodes in his lost work, Historical Notes, where he related a picaresque story of Sophocles seducing a young boy outside the city wall of Athens. They wrapped themselves in Sophocles’s cape while they pursued their physical delights, and when they had consummated their act, the boy ran off with the playwright’s cape, leaving him to his own boyish cloak. This story led to the ridicule of Sophocles by the townsmen, and his rival Euripides boasted that he had consorted with the same boy without having to pay any such price. Sophocles then used the fable to form an epigram, claiming that it was the Sun God, and not the boy, who had stripped him of his cape, whereas the North Wind blew when Euripides seduced another man’s wife. See Athenaeus, Deiphnosophistae (xiii, 604).”
Classical Christian Education may sound like a wholesome alternative to secular public education and more “intellectual” than “fundamentalist” Christian education (you know, 50% or more Bible and a Bible-based curriculum), however, neither is the case. 3. Gary North, a vocal critic of Classical Christian Education as a Marxist “Trojan Horse” in the Christian community, describes not only the totalitarian nature, but the institutionalized perversion and pagan religion, of ancient Greek culture:
Classical Christian Education Is Like Marxist Christian Education, But a Lot More Subtle.
“What if I came before a group of Christian mothers at a home school convention and asked this question?
“Would you spend money to buy a curriculum program based on a philosophy of education that assumes the following? (1) The legitimacy of homosexuality, especially the seduction of teenage boys by men over age 30; (2) warfare as a man’s supremely meaningful activity; (3) polytheism; (4) a personal demon as a philosopher’s source of correct logic; (5) slavery as the foundation of civilization; (6) politics as mankind’ only means of attaining the good life, meaning salvation; (7) the exclusion of women from all aspects of public religion; (8) the legitimacy of female infanticide…
“Greek society and Greek wisdom were based on all eight of the characteristics I listed above. Classical culture, which flourished for about two centuries, 600 B.C. to 400 B.C. Its primary religious and cultural document was the Iliad, and during the Peloponnesian war, the city-states fought themselves to exhaustion. Greece was easily conquered by Alexander the Great in the 330’s. And why not? His tutor had been Aristotle, who taught him all about Greek culture. Alexander learned its weaknesses, and he took advantage of this. But Christian parents don't know its weaknesses, so they encourage their children to have respect for the culture that Paul called to repentance in Acts 17.
“Parents who know nothing of Greek history and culture think they are doing their children a favor by assigning them the classics. What they are doing is to repeat the errors of the Middle Ages: mixing two ways of thinking into one unstable mass. Renaissance humanism triumphed culturally in Italy by scrapping the Christian aspects of that unstable mixture.
“Of course, the assigned texts have been edited. They do not reveal openly to students or their parents what classical Greek culture was really all about, and what underlay it. Students are not told, for example, that Socrates admitted that a demon (‘daimon’) 2. told him when his logic was wrong. But he did…
“Classical education undermines Christian orthodoxy. Christian orthodoxy has tried to make classical education Christian for over eighteen centuries, and it has always failed; the reverse always happens. Classical education is a Trojan horse: Greeks bearing gifts. Classical education begins with a premise: the student must learn the classics. The classics are pagan: Greek and Roman literature and philosophy. They were based on the premise that man is the measure of all things, that man’s reason is ultimate. The rational side of the Renaissance was based on the same premise. (Its irrational side was also a revival of Greek and Roman religion: occult, magical, and either chance-based or fatalistic.)
“Medieval Scholasticism was as committed to the classics as the Renaissance was, though without classical occultism and pornography. The Scholastics were committed academically far more to Aristotle than to the Bible, especially in their political philosophy. They worshipped at Aristotle’s shrine. Prior to the eleventh century, medieval theologians had worshipped at Plato’s shrine: neoplatonic mysticism. The Scholastics substituted Aristotle for Plato. There was some gain—Aristotle at least was not a communist, as Plato was—but not in the realm of men’s presuppositions. It was the equivalent of substituting Milton Friedman for Karl Marx: better economics, but the same old humanism. For humanism, man is the measure, and man’s mind is the sole valid instrument of measurement. The Bible denies this view.
“From the beginning, the medieval university was committed to classical education, and from the beginning, rationalism and irrationalism (mysticism) undermined the Christian roots of education…
“To indulge in classical education is to indulge in Renaissance education. To force a child to learn Latin is to encourage him to accept the premises either of medieval Catholicism or the Renaissance. Yet today’s would-be Puritans have accepted the error of those Puritans who built Harvard. Harvard went Unitarian in 1804. Christians know something is wrong with rationalism, yet they seem incapable of breaking with the past.”
Feminists believe that the liberation of women from patriarchy is “progress” but the reality is that feminism is leading women back in time to servitude under the patriarchal domination of classical Greece. At least one feminist has researched and written “A Feminist Critique of the Poor Status of Women in Classical Athens”:
“The marginalization of women in Classical Athens was, at least by modern Western standards, grave. They were forbidden from all of the crucial aspects of public life and this dramatic marginalization stripped them of not only the illustrious rights and status enjoyed by men, but it also thwarted any potential to achieve even a modicum of the rights afforded to their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons. Women were denied formal education, the right to vote, the right to directly inherit and own property – they were forbidden from retaining their children if their husbands divorced them or they divorced their husbands, and on top of this grievous injustice, if divorced, they were forced to leave their (husband’s) home. Should a woman have wished to divorce her husband there were numerous legal requirements that made the participation of men necessary for the success of such a desire, regardless of the circumstances. However, if a husband wanted to divorce his wife, all he need have done is evict her. Pomeroy enunciates the oppressive bondage of women in Athens, remarking:
‘Citizen women were perpetually under the guardianship of a man, usually the father or, if he were dead, the male next-of-kin. Upon marriage a woman passed into the guardianship of her husband in most matters, with the important limitation that her father, or whoever else had given her in marriage, retained the right to dissolve the marriage’.”
The following expose gives further reasons why “classical education” is not even remotely “Christian” nor is it an improvement over public education, for it is based on Plato’s Republic, which is essentially a totalitarian state not unlike the “anti-Western” Marxism the author of Classical Conversations deplores. “Intro to Political Theory” exposes the dystopian nature of Plato’s Republic, Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto and Thomas More’s Utopia, also on the required reading list of Classical Conversations:
“Ironically, all three theories of a potentially utopian society possess many aspects that can be seen as dystopian. The power held by the governments in the three societies is immense; and all have the potential to lead to tyranny and oppression. In Marx and More’s theories, they fail to account for scientific advancements and the potential for new means of subsistence and economic diversification (beyond agriculture). The three utopias think of human creativity and freedom of thought as potentially dangerous, and each act to limit the freedoms and creative abilities of their citizens.” (“Marxism and Utopianism”)
Where did the idea of introducing Christian children to the literature of pagan Greek and Roman philosophers originate? We are not surprised that the point of origin for the Classical Conversations Curriculum and the LGBT infiltration of Christian churches is Oxford University, which was founded by the ancient Order of Druids.
“In the twentieth century, Dorothy Sayers called for a return to classical, Christian education in her 1947 speech at Oxford University “The Lost Tools of Learning.” (Classical Education Isn’t Christian)
Theosophist Alice Bailey wrote in 1949, “...at the end of this century, or soon after, the new Mystery Schools of the future will come into existence.” (Education in the New Age, p. 6)
Is the “Classical ‘Christian’ Homeschool Curriculum” an embryonic Mystery School that is educating future initiates to worship Lucifer in the New Age?
In addition to studying the pagan philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome, Rosaria Butterfield’s children learn the Hindu tradition of Yoga:
“I tutor in an inspiring homeschool cooperative which uses the curriculum Classical Conversations. Knox and Mary study Latin, geography, English, math, history, science, and fine arts as part of our CC curriculum. They also study piano, ornithology, yoga, and swimming.” (Secret Thoughts, Kindle 2428)
Mike Oppenheimer of Let Us Reason was at one time dedicated to the practice of Yoga. Because many Christians do not know the dangers of Yoga, he wrote a very informative expose of Yoga’s true purpose — which is not physical exercise but to “awaken the serpent power (Kundalini)” in the spine which produces altered states of consciousness, trances and demon possession.
“Yoga is an intrinsic part of Hinduism. Swami Vishnudevananda, well known authority of Yoga, in his book ‘The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga’ explains the purpose of Yoga, ‘It is the duty of each developed man to train his body to the highest degree of perfection so that it may be used to pursue spiritual purposes... the aim of all yoga practice is to achieve truth wherein the individual soul identifies itself with the supreme soul of God.’ In the Hindu philosophy is taught that the ultimate reality is consciousness or energy (God-Brahman). Each individual soul (Atman) has seven energy centers known as chakras in his body that run along the spinal column. By opening up these energy centers aligning these chakras, for the energy to merge with the ultimate cosmic energy and to experience ‘Atman who is Brahman.’
“B. K. S. Iyengar, the founder of the more popular form of Hatha Yoga used in the U.S. states yoga is, ‘the means by which the human soul may be completely united with the Supreme Spirit pervading the universe and thus attain liberation’ (Yoga Journal, May/June 1993... ). The yoga teachers do admit that its function is spiritual not just physical.
“Focusing on a series of stretching exercises, breathing practices, and meditation to reach a state of peace and harmony, this physical discipline is merely a means to an end. It is a spiritual exercise and the spiritual awakening is really the serpent power (Kundalini) an energy that when released streams up the spine, where tremors, spasms and sometimes violent shaking and twisting are experienced.
“The yoga positions are designed to reach the state of Samadhi, or a state of union with self as God. Hatha yoga in its postures bring the subtle body into a specific alignment with the physical which will alter the consciousness of the participant. In other words one is practicing one of the essential elements of Hinduism when doing their Hatha Yoga exercises; whether they are aware of it or not.” (“Yoga”)
The practice of Yoga alters consciousness while claiming to impart gnosis – the “knowledge” which the serpent (Satan) offered Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
A “New Gnosticism” website claims to be rooted in Marx’s theory of alienation for which Yoga is the answer:
“The Relational Revolution is founded on the understanding that the health of both the individual and society is determined by the health of human relations, and that sicknesses of all sorts are the result of a fundamental pathology of human relations. This understanding has its historic roots in Marx’s analysis of ‘alienation’ – the alienation of human beings from one another, from nature and from their own essential human nature.”
The New Gnosticism is basically cultural Marxism with a humanistic theology—a revolutionary theo-political world outlook—rejecting the genocidal ‘God’ of the Old Testament, the blood-stained fundamentalisms of Christianity…a ‘world revolution of the soul.’ The spiritual practices of The New Gnosis are a ‘New Yoga’...for the experiential deepening of gnosis or inner knowing – through direct inner connectedness to our own soul, the souls of others, the world soul and the soul world itself – the Kingdom of Heaven.”
“The Philosophy of The New Gnosis”
“The New Gnosis is not only a new theology of gnosis but a revolutionary theo-political world outlook—rejecting the genocidal ‘God’ of the Old Testament, the blood-stained fundamentalisms of Christianity and Islam, the world dominance of global finance capital and its media, the spiritual ignorance of materialist science and the manipulation of the human being through genetic medicine. Its purpose is nothing less than a ‘world revolution of the soul’ (Sloterdijk), one which kicks apart the structures of pre-modern religions, modern ‘science’, post-modern philosophy and market economics – subverting both the ‘New World Order’ of global materialism and its commercial sidekick, the superficial nostrums of ‘New Age’ spirituality.
“The Goal of The New Gnosis is neither the fostering of a new communal faith nor the spiritual enlightenment of the individual alone. Instead its purpose is relational revolution - a healing transformation of relationships between individuals. The spiritual practices of The New Gnosis are a ‘yoga’ geared to this goal - allowing us to experience new depths of intimate spiritual soul-connectedness with other human beings.
“The New Gnosis and its New Yoga go hand in hand – for inner knowing is also awareness of inner soul-connectedness to our own being and other beings. The New Gnosis is a new framework for the exoteric expression of inner or ‘esoteric’ knowing. Its ‘New Yoga’ is a new framework for the experiential deepening of gnosis or inner knowing – through direct inner connectedness to our own soul, the souls of others, the world soul and the soul world itself – the Kingdom of Heaven…
“The Gospel of The New Gnosis restates the message of gnostic spirituality in a new way, proclaiming it as a path leading not just to spiritual ‘self-knowledge’ but to intimate knowledge of others. The Yoga of The New Gnosis is a whole new medium of gnostic spirituality, one that makes it possible for us to directly feel and sense the souls of other beings.
“The New Gnosis and its New Yoga are also a New Science of the Soul - renting the veil that separates the sensory world or ‘Kingdom of Earth’ from the soul world or ‘Kingdom of Heaven’. Through this science we can come to know all the sensory qualities of things and people as the outer manifestation of inner soul qualities and of their inner soul body…”
The New Age will be promoted as the Kingdom of Heaven when the deceived masses of mankind believe they have ascended through enlightenment or gnosis, which will occur during a global Luciferic initiation.
“The world soul (Greek: ψυχὴ κόσμου psuchè kósmou, Latin: anima mundi) is, according to several systems of thought, an intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet, which relates to our world in much the same way as the soul is connected to the human body. Plato adhered to this idea and it was an important component of most Neoplatonic systems:
“Therefore, we may consequently state that: this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.
“The Stoics believed it to be the only vital force in the universe. Similar concepts also hold in systems of eastern philosophy in the Brahman-Atman of Hinduism, the Buddha-Nature in Mahayana Buddhism, and in the School of Yin-Yang, Taoism, and Neo-Confucianism as qi.
“Other resemblances can be found in the thoughts of hermetic philosophers like Paracelsus, and by Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, Friedrich Schelling and in Hegel’s Geist (‘Spirit’/‘Mind’). Ralph Waldo Emerson published ‘The Over-Soul’ in 1841, which was influenced by the Hindu conception of a universal soul. There are also similarities with ideas developed since the 1960s by Gaia theorists such as James Lovelock.”
John Calvin’s antecedent, Augustine of Hippo, was strongly influenced by the pagan philosophy of Plato who adhered to the pagan notion of a “world soul” which, as stated above, was an important component of most Neoplatonic systems, including that developed by Augustine.
“Later in his life, Augustine transformed Plato into a near-Christian, combining the Logos doctrine with Platonic idealism, the Gospel of John with the writings of Plotinus—in short reconciling Greek wisdom with Hebrew-Christian faith. A Platonic metaphysics was the result: the absolute Good as center of all reality, transcending thought and concrete being” (Eliade, Mircea. The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. I, NY: McMillan, 1995, p. 521)
Importantly, Plato believed there is an intimate relationship “between music and the human soul; the ability of music to influence the soul.”
“Regarding theories of music and song, Calvin was influenced especially by the Greek philosopher Plato. The ancient Greeks were interested in the relation between music and poetry, which often was sung to the accompaniment of an instrument. Plato had argued that there is a close parallel between music and the human soul; the ability of music to influence the soul, therefore, was considerable… Plato’s thinking affected Calvin also through the intermediate influence of Augustine, who in the Confessions (bk. 10, ch. 33) discusses the fine line between proper and improper worship of God in song.” (John Calvin on Psalms and Hymns in public worship)
Based on the works of Plato and Plotinus, a rabid anti-Christian, Augustine reconciled “Greek wisdom with Hebrew-Christian faith” to create a Platonic metaphysical system. Moreover, “Plato had argued that there is a close parallel between music and the human soul; the ability of music to influence the soul.” This is significant because, during the Tribulation period, pagan music will mesmerize and unify the masses to worship a false Christ and Calvinists everywhere will join with the world’s pagan religions to worship a Jewish false messiah who will establish his false Kingdom of God on earth. This Satanic kingdom will be celebrated as the return of Atlantis, the lost civilization which God judged in Genesis 7, which was the basis of Plato's famous work, Atlantis.”
NOTES
1. Before the Flood, the Hyperboreans of Atlantis worshiped the Sun.
“The Thule Society took its name from the mythical hyperborean island which once existed in the north Atlantic between Scandinavia and Greenland. It was believed by occultists that this island had once been part of Atlantis and was the source of the occult wisdom of the Northern Mystery Tradition.” (Howard, The Occult Conspiracy, p. 125)
“...Abaris [was] the Hyperborean Priest of the Sun...” (John Matthews, The Druid Sourcebook, p. 98)
2. Mystery Schools rely on angels (aka, demonic spirit guides) as teachers.
“The communion with some saving deity...was the [goal] of all practice of the mysteries.” (James Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, p. 81)
3, John Calvin and his neo-Platonist predecessor, St. Augustine, were influenced by the pagan philosophy of Plato, a homosexual pederast in the decadent society of ancient Greece.
“Regarding theories of music and song, Calvin was influenced especially by the Greek philosopher Plato. The ancient Greeks were interested in the relation between music and poetry, which often was sung to the accompaniment of an instrument. Plato had argued that there is a close parallel between music and the human soul; the ability of music to influence the soul, therefore, was considerable… Plato’s thinking affected Calvin also through the intermediate influence of Augustine, who in the Confessions (bk. 10, ch. 33) discusses the fine line between proper and improper worship of God in song.” (John Calvin on Psalms and Hymns in public worship)
“Later in his life, Augustine transformed Plato into a near-Christian, combining the Logos doctrine with Platonic idealism, the Gospel of John with the writings of Plotinus—in short reconciling Greek wisdom with Hebrew-Christian faith. A Platonic metaphysics was the result: the absolute Good as center of all reality, transcending thought and concrete being” (Eliade, Mircea. The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. I, NY: McMillan, 1995, p. 521)
