Geneva Academy has always celebrated Reformation Day, even in the early days when we had just a few families.  It was not to find a Christian alternative to Halloween.  There are Christian groups who do that; they host harvest parties and provide an opportunity for children to dress in costume, eat candy, and play games without the dark, monstrous, bloody, and evil themes that now mark Halloween observances.  Reformation Day was, and is, an international remembrance of the movement that brought back into common understanding the doctrines of grace, a faith based salvation, the proper worship of God, and the translation of the word of God into the common tongues of Europe.  These major triumphs of the Reformation reshaped European churches, as well as politics, culture, science, education, and the arts.  Without understanding the Reformation, one really cannot understand the history of Europe or of the United States.  Also, it is important for children to know what they believe, and our focusing on different Reformation countries and individuals over the years allows us to recapitulate the ardent discussions that happened in the 16th and 17th centuries.

One of the most frightening aspects of 2020 that continues today was its overt and hasty embrace of the same totalitarian ideologies that brought such suffering to China and Eastern Europe. At the core of those ideologies is what George Orwell prophetically dubbed “groupthink.” The fact that progressives not only consider conservative Christian values a greater threat to our democracy than radical Islam, Chinese communism, and European statism, but that they are willing (and eager) to sacrifice individual liberty for the sake of “making the world safe”—whether from “misinformation” or “inequality” or a virus—shows how far we have fallen into the “groupthink” of the Calormens who, when they hear the name Tisroc, immediately and unthinkingly respond, “May he live forever!”

The Genderbread Person on the table at our local college is thus not simply a bit of silliness set out by a group of fellow county residents few might take seriously.  It’s a manifestation of an all-out assault on the truth which is happening all around us.  It is imperative that we Christians hold fast to the teachings of the Scriptures.  We affirm “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27).  There are only two genders.  God assigns those genders, and He makes no mistakes.

This week I’ll simply share some quotes from the Common Book my daughter Cynthia and I send back and forth to one another.  We mostly share Bible verses, but we like to add quips from famous authors or politicians.  Some are profound, some are just amusing.

Cicero laid out a six-part arrangement for an argumentative essay. Arrangement (dispositio or taxis) is the term we use for how one orders a speech or an essay. In ancient rhetoric, arrangement referred solely to the order to be observed in an oration, but the term has broadened to include all considerations of the ordering of discourse, especially on a large scale. In addition, Cicero aligned certain rhetorical appeals articulated centuries earlier by Aristotle with specific parts of the oration. In the introduction, it is necessary for one to establish his or her own authority. Therefore, here one employs ethical appeals (ethos). In the next four parts of the oration—statement of facts, division, proof, and refutation—one chiefly employs logical arguments (logos). In the conclusion, one finishes up by employing emotional appeals (pathos).