It is, probably, the most barbed of the criticisms leveled against the whole array of classical, Christian, and homeschooling endeavors. Yet it shoots forth from the secular media, the mainstream Christians, and our own self-doubts—the declaration that our homes and schools are too heavenly minded to accomplish any earthly good; that we have absconded from the essential work of evangelizing or redeeming culture; that our communities are merely “Christian ghettos,” as morally irresponsible as the monasteries of the Middle Ages.
But once those of us in the “ghetto” reach that comparison, we likely recognize its fallacy. As we have learned, we owe the medieval monks our thanks for whatever literacy, medicine, art, theology, philosophy, and textual transcription have reached us from those supposedly dark ages. “Ghetto” may be a pejorative term, yet it differs markedly from “monastery.” Which one we are might be open to debate, but confusing the two betrays a lack in understanding of both history and Christianity’s cultural situation.
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