education

Yet Another Student Handbook That Would Make Draco Jealous

311 Comments

From the Handbook of Calvary Christian School, a “ministry” of Calvary Baptist Church of King, NC. One can only assume that none of these children have parents.

Any student who decides to operate a personal online website or contributes to a blog must register the website/blog with the school office. (Ex: facebook, blogger.com, YouTube, etc.) The website must be registered immediately upon its creation.

Any student who creates a website or blog prior to attending Calvary Christian School must register the website/blog before final acceptance is granted. All websites/blogs will be monitored for content on a regular basis. Any student found with an unregistered website or blog, or website or blog material that is deemed inappropriate to the purpose and mission of Calvary Baptist Church and Calvary Christian School will be in direct disobedience to this ruling. This will result in disciplinary action as detailed below, and repeat offenses can lead to dismissal from Calvary Christian School.

1st offense: 25 demerits + 1 detention
2nd offense: 1-day out-of-school suspension
3+ offense: Case-by-case administrative ruling

“Inappropriate material” posted on any publicly accessible location (website, blog, YouTube, etc.) includes, but is not limited to,

1) any words, phrases, communications, pictures or images deemed by the pastor or principal to be inappropriate,

2) any text naming or referring to Calvary Baptist Church or Christian School, its personnel or students,

3) any images of CCS students, faculty, or facilities without the
express consent of every person in the image, the parents of students shown, and the school administration.

NOTE regarding Myspace: Because of the uncontrollable nature of
Myspace, the regular ungodly advertising banners, the easy links to ungodly material, etc, Myspace is completely off limits. Anyone who has already opened a Myspace account must cease from using it, and must register it as described above (because it cannot be deleted).

See also: Controlling The Flow Of Information.

311 thoughts on “Yet Another Student Handbook That Would Make Draco Jealous”

  2. I don’t think I ever heard an authority figure at pcc say, “You can’t have a facebook account.” But I did hear about people getting kicked out for posting pictures on fb and for admitting on fb to going to certain places (like a ccm concert).

    Oh, the joys of having your college watch your summer and winter break activities via fb! 🙄

    1. Wow that is pretty despicable. Guess if you are a PCC student nowadays you have to be very careful with your privacy settings, and block a lot of people, be very very careful about who you accept as friends, and still be careful what you actually post, and remove tagged photos of yourself. Just wow.

      1. Actually in the privacy settings you can block all photo tagging I guess. Probably the safest way to go if you are a student there now.

      2. As someone with friends in fundamental, Baptist churches, I am constantly surprised by the things they post on accounts where everyone can read about it. Sins that I know their church preaches against – a couple of people have posted about their fornication. Their church preaches against rock concerts, but they post about attending them. I don’t know what they are thinking about.

    2. To me this is a big duh – when I was in Christian high school and then BJ I (and my friends) broke rules (spoken and unspoken ones) all the time but didn’t talk about it . . . it was bad enough that if someone found a movie ticket stub on the floor from Christmas break that the person who dropped it was tracked down and punished.

      By the time I was a teacher the kids were very “in you face” about their total disregard for the rules, which puzzled me that with all the vices they were cultivating, being sneaky wasn’t one of them. So to me it seems obvious not to post on FB about doing things the institution wouldn’t like (I get it. One should be able to decide what one does and what and when one posts about it). I remember thinking at BJ how like a totaliatrian state the whole operation was.

      1. Sarah,

        I agree with you. I didn’t have a fb account for a while in school and then later when I had one I was careful what I said or reported. I think when fb was newer students thought less about the school watching them and whether or not they would get in trouble for something they posted to fb. I heard one of the residence managers (who was also my floor leader previously) got fired for mentioning going to a ccm concert on fb…he should have known better.

  3. Unable to delete myspace account? Inability to have a basic grasp of technology & 100% buy in to any rumor you ever heard about some website based on a EULA by facebook that was changed/repealed.

    SFL: staying uninformed, and doing their best job to keep everyone they know uninformed by pain of separation & severe condemnation!

  4. Who needs parents when you have a Christian school telling you what you can and cannot do? 🙄

    BTW…who is Draco?

      2. I seriously thought it was referring to Draco Malfoy. I’m either terribly undereducated (public school) or too wordly (public school).

        1. Draco Malfoy was who I was thinking of too, but I didn’t think Draco particularly wanted extensive, overbearing rule books. It’s always easier to recall references to pop culture than history!

        2. Usually I think the word “Draconian” is used when referring to rules that are harsh. Usually they don’t just refer to “Drace.”

          I was confused at first, too.

        4. 😳 I’m so embarrassed. I’m familiar with the adjective “draconian,” but didn’t connect it with “Draco.”

        5. What? Have you been reading “Harry Potter”? 😯
          You’re expelled!

          “Prohibited items include lunch boxes, book bags, notebooks, folders, clothing, Valentine’s cards, toys, etc. which are related to or display scenes or insignias associated with rock music (including Hannah Montana, High School Musical, etc.), worldly movies, the countercultures of the day, characters dressed immodestly, the peace symbol, paraphernalia related to the “TWILIGHT” book & movie series, **Harry Potter**, Pokemon, Bakugan, etc.”

          By the way, all these “etc.”s mean “anything else we think of later. Just because we didn’t tell you it was banned doesn’t mean we won’t punish you for it.”

      3. Thanks! Add me in with all the others that was trying to figure out this related to Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter! 😳

    2. Draco wrote a code of laws that mandated the death penalty for an enormous range of offenses, including petty ones. Supposedly when asked why he called for so much capital punishment, Draco answered that it was because he didn’t have any more severe penalties. This gave rise to the adjective “Draconian” to describe any set of excessively harsh rules.

      In some ways, though, Draco was a legislative reformer. He established the ideas that laws should be written, not oral, and that they should be consistent instead of changing with the whims of the rulers.

  5. On another note, their church has a kid’s ministry called “Pastor’s Pals”. Seriously.

  6. There’s one thing on which I can agree with them, though not for the stated reasons: Myspace. No offense to anyone who has a Myspace page, but that place sucks!

      1. I’ve had people (ok, one person) ask me to follow their band on Myspace. That’s all. Everyone else I know will be on Facebook, or they’ll not do the social networking thing at all.

    1. I am not sure this is all of it but I think part of their obsession goes along with their absolute certainty that they are right about everything and that anyone under their authority in any sense must be “right” too.

    2. Also because they’re obsessed with appearance. They nitpick on the details because they want to present a perfect appearance to the world. They’re also very proud and are afraid that a student’s misbehavior will make them look bad.

      I understand the desire to have students in a Christian school not be promiscuous, profane, lying reprobates. But the punitive, authoritative, strong-arm technique hasn’t worked.

      2. I’ve never seen such naked power-thirst as you do in fundy circles. PCC was the closest I got, and it was absurd. ANYTHING for power.

    4. Fundies are so obsessed with control because they lack confidence that the Holy Spirit will move in the hearts of His people and mold them in His time and way.

      Since they are too impatient to wait for God to sanctify the congregation, they take over the job and attempt to conform people to their own image.

      Tis a cheap substitute for true sanctification, but it makes leadership feel powerful and look good to others.

  8. Student walks into school office…

    “May I help you?”
    “Yes, I came here to register the blog “Stuff Fundies Like” which I contribute to regularly.”

  9. Other good highlights:

    if you stop by the school to see your child, you have to be dressed in school dress code.

    The “peace symbol” is banned (after all, we still live in the 70’s in fundyland).

    If you so happen to have CCM or “rock” music playing in your car, please turn it down when you get out at the school, so as not to corrupt the young innocent minds of the students. 😉

    There’s a whole section, actually, on the dangers of rock music and CCM.

    Students must not use “slang”. .examples are given.

    They still use corporal punishment (apparently administered by the offending child’s father).

    In K-2nd grade, you get your hand whacked w/ a ruler (SERIOUSLY!)

    LOTS and LOTS of dress-code and hairstyle rules. LOTS.

    And more. . . 😀

    1. Quote: “if you stop by the school to see your child, you have to be dressed in school dress code.”
      I went to an IFBCC (Christian School). The rule stated above, applied to all the moms that would come to pick up their 6-8 kids in a busted mini van after school. EXCEPT for this one lady. She was always dressed in very revealing clothing. As a high school guy, I didn’t mind, but I wondered, why the special dispensation? Her husband was a tither and a multimillionaire.

      ‘nuff said.

      1. That is a direct violation of Scripture: treating people in the church differently because of their position or wealth.

        What bugs me almost as much as the administration’s favoritism is the sheeple who put up with this.

        1. James 2 – For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” 4have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

          Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. . .But IF YOU SHOW PARTIALITY, YOU ARE COMMITTING SIN and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

          (emphasis mine)

  10. By all means don’t teach the children to think and make good choices, just (try to) control what they do so the school doesn’t look bad.

  11. At FBC a few years ago, the Dr. Schaap suddenly had a Sunday-night fit about people with myspace accounts. Evidentely he’d found many of his high school students on there (some using different names) talking badly about the school. Everyone with a myspace account automatically got demerits (though they’d never before been told not to have one). The next day every high school and college name was searched to see whether or not they had a website.

  12. I’ve always had a problem with the demerit system. After all, is that how God deals with us? Does he keep a log book of the things we’ve done wrong? Does he assign each sin a value, with some being worse than others? And if I get to a certain number of “bads,” what then? How do my demerits get erased? It’s just a ridiculous, totally un-Godly system.

    1. I don’t care for demerits but how God deals with us and how we deal with children aren’t even close to the same thing. That’s a pretty big leap in logic.

  14. I made a generalized comment on my FB about people in our church, and received a phone call from a deacon reprimanding me. I deleted all church people and blocked a few from my friend list. Now I can talk about them ALL.

    So nice to know that as a 40-something woman I need to be monitored. 👿

      1. We are in the middle of finding a pastor, and at least one deacon thinks it’s his job to keep us all in line. 🙄 My husband and I are waiting to see what happens when we get a new pastor before we make a decision. I did tell the deacon that I’d take down any statements that were not true, but that the one he was referencing was TRUE. And that my husband agreed. He knows better than to go THERE.

  15. This sounds just like a Christian college handbook too.

    Stuff fundies don’t believe but pretend to: the power of the Holy Spirit to work in the lives of individual believers.

    1. SFL: the appearance of instant sanctification instead of the messiness and complications of growing progressively more and more like Christ

  16. Here’s an interesting comment on one of the faculty profiles…

    “In 1999 the Lord used the preaching of Evangelist Tom Farrell to lead her away from public education to teach 3rd grade at Calvary in King.”

    Anybody else pick up notice that subtle dig at public institutions? 🙂

    1. To complete the profile it should have added “….and in the process reducing her salary by 75%”.

      They have charts in the handbook detailing the evils of public school. That is if you can find it between the 30 pages on dress codes 😆

      1. It’s interesting that of all the “bad” things they list about public schools, the only true one is that prescribed public prayers are illegal in public schools (that didn’t stop my school from doing it, anyway, though). Children ARE permitted to pray in school (how could you stop them?), but it’s illegal for the school to tell them what to pray, or to make them pray if they don’t want to.

        As for all the rest of the “facts” listed about public school– do they not know anyone who has been through a public school, or are they deliberately lying about it?

        1. Which is as it should be. Can you imagine the uproar if a public school official decided to have a time of prayer? Every sect and demi-sect and split group would want a say in what and to whom and how the prayer would be. It’s clear from all the splitting and re-splitting that the one things Christians can’t do is agree on any freaking thing. So the parents who want a specific brand of Christian education for their kids are free to do so at their own expense, and I can send my kids to school for schooling. You know, for an education, not for a laundry list of dress codes to memorize.

        2. If everybody belonged to the same church, it would be one thing. But in my community we have Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, practitioners of Santeria and Vodoun, and, of course, people who want nothing to do with any religion. Most of the Baptists here would be fine with hearing Baptist prayers in public schools (despite the Baptist doctrine on separation of church and state), but if their kids were required to listen to Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim prayers, or a two-minute message on atheism, the spit would hit the fan. I never have understood why people who want prayers in public schools are so blind to this problem.

        3. There you have it Big Gary! They quite simply want their view of prayer enforced in a pluralistic society- despite their pietistic forefathers rejecting State sanctioned religion, specifically RCC and Church of England.

        4. As a kid who attended public school, I’d often hear pastors tell horror stories about public education. I was always disappointed that for some reason I never was around when any of these exciting events happened.

          I noticed a difference in the education between those who came to HAC from public schools and those who came from Christian schools. The kids who went to Christian school usually knew more about specific grammar rules and diagramming sentences. The public school kids were generally better at math.

      2. Interesting. God led me from teaching at the local “Christian” school to homeschool my kids. Seriously. These “Christian” school kids are worse than public school kids. And I didn’t even have to listen to Bro. Farrell first.

        1. Like!!! You’re far better off – Double Barrel Farrel would just try to talk you out of your salvation, anyway.

    2. It’s ironic that Fundies are always harping on how bad they think the public schools are, when posts like this one and the one Friday about “Crime and Punishment” make it clear that most public schools are far superior to many, many “Christian” schools in every way.

      At least, public schools have to be accountable to many different entities, including, of course, the public. Some of these church-basement “Christian Academies” are accountable to nothing except for some half-educated pastor’s fancy about what schools should be like.

    3. God forbid that Christians teach in public institutions. Those Christian teachers may be the only Christ-like people they see on a daily basis.

      1. Most teachers and administrators in U.S. public schools are Christians (though not necessarily fundamentalists). Anyone who tells you otherwise is misinformed, or lying.

        1. Huh? Are you saying that’s something for public schools, or against them? Or did this comment post on the wrong thread?

          Christians lie, cheat, and steal, and so do non-Christians. That doesn’t give you much guidance about where to send your kids to school.

        2. Sorry. AreYouSerious said this may be the only contact public school kids have with anyone Christ-like. As if Christians have the corner on morality (which we know is not true) and that the secular world = immorality, (which I’ll say isn’t true). It’s black/white thinking that tends to push my buttons.

    4. The worst part about it is was that the school she quit to go teach there is an absolutely amazing school! I know first hand. I was leery of public school, but I absolutely fell in love with that place.

    1. Well, you know, since the students are forbidden from even mentioning the school or posting any unpermitted pictures from school activities, being a “fan” of the school’s fb page is the only way they can admit to where they go to school.

  18. I think that this line is pathetic:

    Students who are or have been married, who are or have been pregnant, or who are or have been sexually active, will
    not be considered for enrollment at CCS.

    1. I feel confident they can make a much longer list than that of students who will not be considered for enrollment.

    4. Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in print before. That’s pretty low.
      Only perfect people please, we have a reputation to maintain.

        1. I wonder what they’d think about the one the Pharisees accused of being a “friend of sinners.”

        2. How different an outcome the story behind The Blindside would have had if it was this Christian School that had been appealed to for help. I don’t think Sandra Bullock would have been interested in the roll.

    5. I taught in a Christian school that at first had this “instant expulsion” rule about pre-marital sex. Later, the pastor changed the rule so that if a couple was found to be having sex, they could remain students IF they both repented, agreed not to do it again, and went through counseling. It sounded good, except it didn’t make a provision for what would happen if the girl got pregnant. I protested to the pastor. (This is the phone-tapping pastor, for those of you who remember.) He blew me off and refused to address the possibility. A few years later, when I was no longer teaching there, I found out what would happen: one of my former students got expelled. Her boyfriend, of course, stayed right where he was.

      1. Oh, but women are nothing but dirty whores (even when they aren’t) and the boys are just so pure and innocent angels who got seduced… GAG ME! (I could use a barfing smiley right here.)

        It’s the good old (*gag*) double standard. Men can’t be held responsible for the status of their fun parts. Women are held accountable for the status of their own parts and that of any man in viewing distance, even if she couldn’t care less about and doesn’t even want whatever he thinks he’s got. Yeah, what was that Jesus said about every man and HIS OWN lusts? That’d never fly in Fundyland.

  19. Well at least they allow you to have a blog or website. And they don’t ban FB. But really myspace is worse then FB how? And if you keep your profile private how are they going to monitor your FB? For that matter if you keep your blog private how are they going to monitor that? This is quite controlling.

    So, but I’m curious. Why is it in the IFB FB is ok, but myspace is evil. Why is FB ok, but all other websites be damned? What made FB ok? Control? Usefulness to adults? What?

    2. I think it all comes down to ads. FB did a fantastic job of limiting ads just like Google did, and also does phenomenal job of monitoring inappropriate content & spam.

      Ads on MySpace were overrunning the site, not to mention constant spam on walls, in boxes, IMs, and all with inappropriate content, and if I remember correctly the actual ads had some racy stuff to them.

      I know of lot of non-fundy churches that wanted to use MySpace had to justify & talk around how the ads are just going to be there and we can’t control them to parents & church boards.

      That they are still obsessed with banning myspace is indicative of fundy tenacity. 🙂

      1. Considering that they’re still preaching against hippies, I’m guessing they’re going to be preaching against MySpace long after no one even knows what it is.

        1. Somewhere around 150 years after myspace folds they probably will declare it was the Baptists standing for their principles that destroyed Satan’s tool!

        2. They also monitor the telegrams students send to each other. They want to make sure no one’s secretly wearing bobby socks, saddle shoes, or poodle skirts, or planning to get a ducktail haircut.

        3. I barely know what myspace is now j/k. I never used it though. Or at least never created an account. Myspace is still pretty good to listen to some music from time to time, but other then that worthless.

          @RobM Yea myspace certainly had more ads, and possibly more abundant supply of racy ads, but FB has some racy ads as well. But a big difference may be the comment spam. At any time you can block a person you don’t like, and in fact you have to enable people to begin with. I think it is control. Myspace was uncontrolled, where FB was/is controlled.

    3. At least in my parents eyes, myspace was where the predators went…so it was really bad. But then fb was initially more associated with young people/college students so it was bad but not dangerous. But that’s just one person’s connotation.

      1. If FB was for college students wouldn’t that be more dangerous to the IFB? Thinking people connecting together, yea I’m pretty sure the IFB should be running away from that.

  20. I am of the opinion, based on my experiences, that fundies will never allow anything they cannot get their arms around and control.

    1. Our old pastor preached against FB but started a twitter page for this reason, control. The internet and open access to the truth was instrumental in my departure from IFB fundy isolation. From a self preservation point of view he is right. More free flow of the truth means more will be freed from IFB fundy isolation.

    2. Fundies wouldn’t have so much time for controlling, monitoring, and enforcing if they were on mission, trying to show the love of Christ to their community.

  21. Don’t ya’ just love the Christian Taliban? It’s a darn good thing they don’t have total political power. 😈

    1. I think fundies have a longer list of things they’d apply the death penalty for. And would rather be harsher on women than the Taliban as well, if they can get away with it.

      2. C’,mon, guys, that’s a *little* exaggerated, don’t you think? I’m not a fan of how hard-core fundies treat women, but I sure don’t compare them to the Taliban. Fundies don’t threaten to kill girls for attending elementary school.

        2. No, they just work on killing the soul and spirit of those girls so they never even want an education or a life outside of being a housekeeper and walking womb. 😡

  22. I think I read somewhere that they lost 10 million users last month alone. Going downhill fast.

  23. “One of our four weekly HS chapels is devoted to prayer. In this special chapel our HS students benefit each week from a special Prayer Chapel at which prayer is stressed, taught, and practiced.”

    Hmm. They pray at ONE of four chapel services? What do they do at the other three?

    1. I’m sure every chapel is opened and closed with prayer. I think the difference is that the other three focus on preaching about dress standards, appearance, separation, the evils of public school, etc., but that one chapel focuses on the topic of prayer. I wonder if they pray or just talk about praying?

      I taught at a Christian school that had two chapels per week. Chapel was an hour. They’d sing a half-hearted hymn, give a couple announcements, and then launch into 50 minutes of preaching!!! Not even adults want to sit through a 50 minute sermon.

      Why couldn’t they sing upbeat and fun praise songs for 15 minutes, have a 15-minute challenge from the Bible, and then divide into small groups with a faculty/staff member for discussion? You’d think after seeing so many kids fall into sin that they’d realize the sit-and-preach-at-them approach isn’t working.

      1. Keep talking like that PW and you’ll find yourself in a liturgical church where worship is interactive and actual worship instead of sitting there listening to someone yammer on for 45-100 and calling it “worship.” 🙂

      2. AHHHH!!! you have been found guilty of thinking! your reply shows logic and thought. AHHHHH!!!!

        seriously, i was K-12 in CC, and chapel was a boring waste of time. I would have loved your version of chapel. 🙁

      3. Yeah, those were my chapels growing up too. So, we were “preached at” twice on Sunday, once on Wednesday night, and then we got chapel on Mondays and Fridays where we were “preached at” again. Then Bible class during the rest of the week. You know, I got pretty good at sleeping sitting up and not getting noticed…

        I agree with your ideas of more interactions and singing…I mean especially with kids. Our chapel services included all kids from 1st grade through 12th, so, yeah, lots of fidgeting in seats for the younger kids…oh heck, even us older kids did that (when we weren’t sleeping).

        1. “If the early American colonists could sit through 2 hour sermons in cold buildings with no electricity, surely we can sit in an hour long chapel. If it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for 2011!!!” (I’m channeling my inner fundy for readers who think I’m serious.)

    2. At my IFB school, pretty much all of the chapels were devoted to one thing–trying to convince us that we were not saved and that we needed to walk the aisle and get saved again. I eventually was able to convince myself that I was saved and didn’t need to say the sinner’s prayer every week, but I had some friends who were really damaged because of the guilt. I mean, we were in elementary school, for heaven’s sake, how could we young kids know better? The adults we trusted were heaping so much guilt on us on a weekly basis, implying to us that we were no-good sinners, worthless in the sight of God. It was religious and emotional abuse.

      1. There was an altar call at the end of every chapel at the Christian school I taught at (which was interdenominational and did allow –only utterly dreadful– contemporary music at chapel). Another rebel teacher and I referred to that portion of chapel as “rounding up the usual suspects”

  24. Ah, my HS alma mater. What wonderful memories…for fueling nightmares.

    1. I was at Sears last week and saw RB. I marveled at the big shiny new pickup truck he had, and thought to myself “perhaps I should shave, put on a suit, get to a fundie altar and repent of thinking for myself, declare I had been called to preach, maybe go back and finish the Bible institute course I was attending and start preaching, then just live off the tax-free love offerings.” Then I came to my senses and shuddered at the thought of going back into that cult and drove away.

      1. There definitely should be an SFH paying Social Security taxes. I feel unbelievably bad for the suckers that buy into the idea that they would rather get the few extra $ now, rather than have payroll tax withheld. Nothing is ever gonna alleviate senior poverty the way Social Security has & I’m sure there are IFBs in the world that consider it a moral imperative to opt out & make sure all their staff opts out.

        1. Gamble now unless you’re gonna retire soon. It’s not like SS will be there when the rest of us retire.

        2. Social Security will be around for the foreseeable future. It’s the most popular government program ever, bar none. And retired people are the biggest and most powerful lobby/voting bloc in the country.
          The urban legend that Social Security is going broke is founded on gross exaggerations.

      2. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think the sheen of that new pickup extends to his soul.

        1. I do have to say, it got worse after you left, and then I’ve been told that it got even worse to the point that it was unbearable after my parents finally let me leave.

      3. I can tell that some of the influence of them has been removed. She was harder on the girls because my last year there we have a rule that we had to wear socks or hose at all times and no open toed shoes, because “Toes are seductive”…yep, toes. very seductive…

  25. Just checked the handbook!

    Big shock. Three fold cord is defined as Family, School, & Church. Pastor controls 2/3! Win!

    I dare someone to find an instance of the 3 fold cord being used that it wasn’t defined as you being at most 1 of the 3, sometimes 0.

    2. Rob, i checked all my cards, charts and spellbooks. i got nothing. apparentlly you were right. the three fold cord is church {pastor}, School {pastor}, and family {you [listening to pastor]}. the three fold cord stood up to VERY rigorous testing and by Gawd, the MannaGawd was right, he’s in contol of 2 1/2 of the string on the marionnette.

      1. I knew in my limited exposure to the 3 fold cord principle, I’ve never seen where it ever worked that being right would suffice without some kind of pastoral approval. Pastor is always the majority, doesn’t necessarily need scripture (although if you have to twist it to get what Pastor wants, that’ll work), just that you have only 1 of the 3 folds in the cord! 🙂

        I would actually consider advice from a fundy that used the 3 fold cord and gave himself only 1 of the 3 (even though in normal social behavior granting yourself that much influence is presumptuous, it’s humble for a fundy)! 🙂

  26. Go to their website and under extra-curriculars check out the page on their elementary “patriotic” musicals with titles like “America, Turn Back to God”. 🙄

  27. My Mom is still an admin at my old fundy Christian School (Mt. Carmel Christian School in Mt. Pleasant, PA) which are the Cougars by the way which led me to convulsing on the floor before I was able to post – same exact mascot picture. 😯

    If I were attending the school now, I would have to giggle during a “lets go Cougars” cheer because I would envision 40 something promiscuous women stalking younger men, but I digress…..

    She told my wife the other day that a volunteer comes in on Friday to “do librarian”. This “librarian” checks out books, reads to kids and does crafts for the younger children – and she takes it very seriously.

    My wife was pissed. She has a Master of Library Science (MLIS) degree with an academic librarian track. In order for her to be a public (or Catholic) school librarian, she has to get certified which requires 36 credits which are a mix of undergraduate education courses and a master level, public school librarian classes. She couldn’t believe that my school didn’t even have a real “librarian”, just a volunteer on Fridays who took it very seriously.

    Come to think of it, most of my teachers had zero certification – especially Bible teachers. They were mainly just pastors. My dad always complained at how much I underachieved in college which was basically because I drank beer and didn’t really know how to study. In my Christian School, if you could memorize terms, you could get an A.

      1. Spirit Day must be embarrassing for middle-aged female teachers, when they have to wear shirts that say “Go Cougar,” or whatever they say.

    2. If I were attending the school now, I would have to giggle during a “lets go Cougars” cheer because I would envision 40 something promiscuous women stalking younger men, but I digress…

      I’m glad I’m not the only one whose mind fell into that particular gutter… 😆

    3. Fundies would prefer to live in the past. Back in the 1910s, a serious spinster lady might be asked to be the town librarian. Why shouldn’t that same approach be valid now? (That’s their thinking.)

  28. Funny, this handbook looks a lot like the one I had to follow as a teacher at an IFB school. The rules for me, especially for what I could/could not do on my own free time, were strict, more so than they were for the students.

    They forgot a rule, though: “If you delete any of the admin’s family from your FB friends, you will be called in and chastised by the principal for being unsupportive of the ministry.” A friend of mine did that, not b/c she was angry, but just b/c she was cleaning out her account. I was glad I learned from her and waited until after I left to clean out my account and delete all my Fundy non-friends.

    1. A school in Virginia Beach, VA, needed an English teacher. I took one look at their handbook and said, “No way.” The rule that broke the camel’s back was “no mixed swimming.” OK, I live on the coast but can’t go to beach???? And of course on a Christian school teacher’s salary, I’d never be able to afford my own pool.

      One of the problems with going to an IFB school is that it sets you up to spend the rest of your life in the IFB bubble. “Can’t you deny yourself and follow the rules at the college for four years?” Yes, I can and I did. But no way did I want to spend my life following those same rules.

      1. The term used in our church was “mixed bathing” rather than “mixed swimming.” Mixed bathing always sounded so much more . . . depraved.

  29. My high school played against this school (we called them “Calvary King” to distinguish them from the myriad other Calvaries we played) as well as Gospel Light. There were some kooky people at my school but it wasn’t nearly as batty as this, thank God. Draconian is right.

    1. Which HS was this (if you don’t mind me asking). I played on the BBall and soccer teams.

      1. I went to Victory Christian School (the Cardinals), way over in western North Carolina. I don’t recall Calvary King but I know we’ve played them in the playoffs. I was mistaken about Gospel Light–we played at their gym in state tournaments but never actually played against them. Too big. VCS was tiny.

        But my mom, who has helped with VCS’s athletics for about ten years now, remembers Calvary King. I just asked her what her impression was and she said, “Oh, they finally started wearing shorts. They used to wear those culottes.” 😀

        1. Yep, I knew of Victory. They actually started letting us wear shorts during my basketball career (my jr. year I think).

    2. I often wondered how we looked to opposing teams, because we always seemed to be in a more strict environment. I’d love your insight 🙂

      1. I can’t speak for any other schools but our impressions were mainly formed on the basis of sportsmanship, clean play, and how douchey (or not) the coaches of various teams were.

        Most often we hated certain schools because of their coaches, even if we got on well with the members of the team itself. The now-defunct Merrimon in Asheville earned our special ire because of the boy’s varsity coach, who was known to swear during games and even swore at me once. One of their players had fouled out and neither the coach nor their statistician informed the refs. As VCS’s stat-man I had to stop the game and tell them to pull the kid out. The coach flipped. (Don’t know his name–all I know is that he looked like the villain with the bad mustache in A Thief in the Night.)

        And speaking of culottes above, that was one thing that always stuck out to us–the teams that had their girls wearing windpants or worse during games.

        I don’t know what kind of impression VCS made on people but I think, in the schools that didn’t like us, we were dismissed as a bunch of hillbillies. Let them think that.

  30. I’m surprised this school’s mascot isn’t a Crusader (or something of the like), or an Eagle. 😀

  31. “Note: It has been repeatedly demonstrated that a young lady’s behavior and attitude are directly affected by how
    she dresses. Modesty must be a primary consideration in all wardrobe selections”

    Yes, its not her depravity or the fact that she is not genuinely converted (in spite of praying the prayer 3 times since 1st grade) that is causing her to be a sl*t, its the fact that her dress is one inch above the knee and the fabric of her dress is evidencing “horizontal pulling” – I would really like to see the citation for this study, but there’s no footnotes.

    1. Clothes do not make the man. But they sure as heck carry a boatload of judgment for a woman! God forfend you have horizontal pulling … breasts are just the airbags of satan ya know.

  32. “Any student who decides to operate a personal online website or contributes to a blog must register the website/blog
    with the school office. (Ex: facebook, blogger.com, YouTube, etc.) The website must be registered immediately upon
    its creation. Any student who creates a website or blog prior to attending Calvary Christian School must register the
    website/blog before final acceptance is granted. All websites/blogs will be monitored for content on a regular basis.
    Any student found with an unregistered website or blog, or website or blog material that is deemed inappropriate to the
    purpose and mission of Calvary Baptist Church and Calvary Christian School will be in direct disobedience to this
    ruling. This will result in disciplinary action as detailed below, and repeat offenses can lead to dismissal from Calvary
    Christian School.”

    This sounds like it was cut and pasted from the book of armaments, Chapter 2

    **Note: Myspace is right out!

  33. King, NC? As in the same King, NC that boasted the ever-so-popular “We the people say…FIGHT” yard signs? This city must be the IFB Mecca or something (Greenville/Pensacola/Hammond notwithstanding).

    1. NC IFB churches are doing their part to get that distinction though I am not sure it will be enough. 😉

  34. Ok, here is a true story from CCS in King.
    For this school year they refused to allow a student to return for his senior year.

    Their reason? His theology.

    Because he believes in the doctrines of Grace the school would not allow him admission.
    The staff and faculity could not get (brainwash) him to think the way they thought so they kicked him out his senior year.

    That is not education that is indoctrination.

    True education teaches you how to think…not what to think.

    1. That’s interesting. However, as a parent who believes and teaches his children the Doctrines of Grace, I don’t think I could in good conscience send my child to a school like this to begin with.

      1. I know the young man well and he grew up uber-uber-fundie. He went to church with me during the time of transition from Fundie to Christian (yeah, I said it and I’ll stick by it) so he was finding he could better defend his faith with biblical truth rather than with pat answers and rote routines.

        However, this was the closest “Christian” school for him to attend. And when I say he came from uber-fundie I mean U-B-E-R! It was hard for his family to realize that satan did not roam the hallways of public school, that there weren’t mass orgies going on in the hallways between classes and not every teacher was there to indoctrinate unsuspecting youth into the doctrine of Evolution. He has done well his senior year in public school.

        2. All 4 of my kids go to the public school. I’m well aware of the fact that their worldview is inconsistent with what I’m teaching my children, and that’s OK. What I find is that the public school is more tolerant of my children’s worldview than some of the fundy schools are about minor doctrinal issues. My kids will learn how to think, reason, articulate and defend their faith better in in the public school than they will in one of these mediocre institutions that insist on groupthink.

          Oh, and while we’re at it, I think their grade scale is a little harsh. 86 is a B-? It’s bad enough that their academic rigor may be less than my kids would get at a public school, but to give them a lower GPA at the same time is inexcusable.

        3. 86 is a B-? It’s bad enough that their academic rigor may be less than my kids would get at a public school, but to give them a lower GPA at the same time is inexcusable.

          But you miss the fundy logic here. By fundie logic this proof of higher educational standards. 🙄

        4. @pb
          Actually the help meet just informed me that the public schools around here are A= 93-100, B= 85-92, C= 77-84, D= 70-77, F= 69 and below. But that one point gives them bragging rights about having a higher educationl standard just the same. 🙄

        5. 86 was a B- at my ebil public school. When I started public college and saw the new grading scale my heart lept for joy. 80-90 B and 90-100 A’s. I could keep my 4.0 just by showing up for class.

        6. I guess grading scales aren’t universal. I definitely prefer the 90-100 scale for being an A.

    2. They were more interested in teaching him not to think. The handbook is very open about how the school emphasizes blindly accepting received “truth.” In fact, its criticism of public schools is largely centered around the suspicion that students there can question fundamentalism.

      1. The last year I taught at a Christian school, there was a long discussion in a staff meeting about a senior girl who was brought up as a student to be concerned about because she was “reading and thinking too much”.

        This girl recently got in touch with me via Facebook. She is in a ph.d program for linguistics, teaching college and goes to a Presbyterian Church! 😆

    3. My MIL was a fundamentalist growing up. She ran away from it and married an agnostic. Well, long story short, they ended up attending the local megachurch.

      A lot of her fundyism is still there, even though she goes to a very worldly church. She has dropped her views on CCM, pants at church, etc., but still holds a lot of the very wacky ones – including being completely against the doctrines of grace.

      Well, my wife and I are of the Reformed faith, and for years she has blasted our views, even going as far as telling us we were brainwashing our children.

      A couple weeks ago, megachurch pastor, from the pulpit, announces that predestination is biblical. Now all of a sudden, since the MOG has said it is so, it is so.

      Even though she is no longer in the fundy circle, she still has the tendencies.

      1. As others have noted here, it is tough when family members will not consider reasoned arguments, and instead just accept what they have always been told or what their pastor says as “gospel”.

  35. The policy on “Communicable Diseases and Infestations” is interesting. It lists a whole bunch of diseases, including some which are not communicable by ordinary, everyday casual contact: HIV (the school doesn’t allow sex, and I doubt that it gives blood transfusions), Hansen’s disease, animal bites (?), malaria, shellfish poisoning (?), pesticide poisoning, assorted sexually-transmitted diseases, and trichinosis, for example. Then there are those that are almost nonexistent in the USA (dengue, yellow fever), and smallpox, which was declared eradicated from the whole earth back in the 1970s.

    Obviously, the manual writers have just cut-and-pasted a list of “reportable diseases” from some old public health manual. Common sense doesn’t enter into it.

    2. Fortunately I have been vaccinated for several of those obscure diseases. They are not completely extinct in some parts of the world my work has taken me to. I am good to go, but I am married so they won’t let me in.

      Plus I already did my time in a fundy HS

  36. * from the handbook – You get to choose the school your child will attend. BUT … You do NOT get to choose the outcome of your choice! Therefore … Choose wisely. Don’t gamble! The stakes are too HIGH!

    I would think it would be the adults at home determining how the children turn out.

    1. Unfortunately, many things about parenting, including choosing schools, will always be a gamble. The implication here that the school can guarantee some kind of outcome is absurd.

  37. “If an electronic device is approved for a specific trip or activity, but the device requires the use of headphones, the device will not be allowed. Students are not permitted to bring headphones to school or to a school related activity for any reason.”

    So it might be approved, but it’s not allowed. “Approved but not allowed” is a category you seldom see outside of school handbooks.

  38. I once bought a book called “the counter-insurgency manual”. It was about how to quell popular uprisings through the use of psy-ops, ambushes, and information control. And I thought to myself as I read it, “I’ve seen all this before!”

  39. Reading their list of rules I have to wonder, do actually have any students? And if so, how? Those rules pretty much cancel out every person I’ve ever known, conservative and liberal alike.

    1. That may be so if they were uniformly enforced.
      But Fundism is a very subjective cult where politics plays a leading roll. How did Orwell put it in “Animal Farm?”
      “All Fundies are equal but some are more equal than others.”

      1. Come on Don, you know the truth.

        War is Peace
        Freedom is Slavery (have actually heard that sermon)
        Ignorance is Strength

        This handbook is so 1984 – in the anachronistic and Orwellian sense

    2. Oh yeah. The parents who think their kids are safe from the world are protecting them in a controling environment.

  40. I interviewed for a IFB Christian school near Indianapolis where single, women teachers had a strict curfew and were not allowed to wear pants EVER. And the principal/pastor pointed out that my white nylons were not acceptable. The lady teachers were only allowed to wear Leggs Suntan hose so as not to draw attention to their legs. Needless to say, I laughed as I walked out of the office, and told him he did not need to call me with an outcome of our interview. 🙂

    2. A curfew? How did they enforce that? Did teachers have to live in the school’s barracks, or something like that?

      2. Herndon, VA has a fundy church that basically does that to single teachers. Recently out of college I was attending there for about 6 months while scratching my head at “wtf is going on here”, but they have a church owned house that houses about 6 single female teachers at the time (all PCC grads). At least partially is to help the teachers survive in an EXPENSIVE area on Fundy School Teacher allowance/salary. I’m sure they get lots of control leverage out of the situation whether they consciously intend to or not.

        Do not live in your employers property, fundy or not that’s totally manipulative and just ripe for abuse. Ask the coal miners in WV in the early part of the 20th century how well the company house, company monetary units, company stores, etc worked.

    3. Good for you! A Fundy man pointed out what he felt were my inappropriate clothes once. I seldom get that mad but that made me mad.

      To point out your hose and tell you what color and shade becomes a modest woman. Please! 👿

  41. My immediate reaction to this, is who’s job is it to monitor all of the student’s FB pages, blogs, etc? Talk about conflicts. Unless that person was totally into snitching, which I know a lot of IFB people would be. Still, this would cause me to hate my job if I had to do it.

    1. Ah, but if you were a true fundy you would love your job. Part of being a true fundy is a desire to root out sin and force sinners back onto the narrow way. God loves a tattletale. 🙂

  42. Ahh, my old school. I spent K-10th grade in that hell…the last 2 years of which were under the current principal. It was a nightmare, I ended up going to GL and felt like I could finally breathe if you can even believe that! 😕

  43. by the way, the pastor of this church is trying to enforce a complete dress code for all staff members whether they attend the church or not. When I say complete, I mean they have to follow the church’s dress code at all times, not just when they are on the school property, at home, when they go to the grocery store, whatever. We have a acquaintance who still works there and I said what’s next? Is he going to tell everyone what they can wear in the privacy of their own bedrooms with their spouses? It’s absurd, but the people are allowing him to do it.

    1. That’s because he is the proxy god. Being the M-O-g that means he is, in-fact, speaking for God. To question the M-O-g is to question God himself. Touch not the Lord’s anointed means you must give unquestioning obedience to whatever the Puulpiteer says. After all, he is Called&#153 to lead his flock of sheeple.

        1. I found on Mac is opt+2, which is easier to remember, but I doubt I’ll remember it still.

    2. I assume all Fundy U’s have the same thing were dress codes etc apply all the time to staff (and apparently staff spouses who may not be college emps). PCC does, and you can see why fundies would want to have that much power, having had it lorded over them in their formative years found a hankering to be the tribal warlord on whatever congregation they could bend to their will. Pretty amazing. Sad that they call themselves Christians, when they are just a cult.

    3. @alm517,

      At least when I worked there, PCC required its staff to make their children and non-PCC-employed spouses abide by PCC dress rules at all times, even inside their own homes or while traveling. I assume they still do.

      That was one of the straws that broke the camel’s back for me, and made me leave in spite of the risk (and in spite of the psychological control they exert). My wife didn’t work at PCC and my daughter had no connection whatsoever with the institution, and there was no way I was every going to make my daughter obey policies I consider reprehensible.

  44. When Bush ran in 2000, bj was in the news because he visited there. I read an article in a men’s magazine, maxxim i think, called “Matriculating at Bob Jones University”, where they got hold of an old bj handbook, from the 70’s, and quoted some of the crazier rules. Anyone else here willing to admit they read it? 🙂

    1. I read everything I could find on the BJ thing in the 2000 election. Found it incredibly enlightening on my own life not just what other people thought of BJ/PCC/FundyU. I almost guarantee I read that, but it doesn’t stick out more than any of the other stuff I read.

  46. I have gone to a fundy Christian school in NC for most of my life, but I’m grateful it wasn’t extremely controlling over the students’ personal lives like this school seems to be.

  47. “1) any words, phrases, communications, pictures or images deemed by the pastor or principal to be inappropriate,”

    Talk about carte blanche. Pretty much whatever the MOG decides on any given day what and who is inappropriate.

    Our Christian day school’s secretary was the wife of a pastor from another IFB church. (HAC grads all!) Anyway, she was mean and vindictive. She was like the Gestapo when it came to one particular young lady. I’m convinced it was because she was prettier and more popular than her own daughter. This “godly pastor’s wife” was nothing short of cruel.

    1. “She was mean and vindictive . . . nothing short of cruel.” That’s what happens when the focus is on outward appearance – like your clothes or your music – instead of issues of the heart. The primary identifying mark of a believer is his LOVE which this pastor’s wife did NOT show! The rest of fruits of the Spirit give us plenty of things to focus on developing instead of constantly listing more externals to make us “look good.”

  48. [quote] It’s absurd, but the people are allowing him to do it.[/quote]

    And right there, you have the very essence of what is wrong in 99% of IFB churches across America. Including the one I escaped after 26 years of captivity.

  49. When my son was in 1st grade he returned from the little boys room with his shirt untucked. (“Shirt must be tucked in” was a dress code rule.) The teacher reprimanded him and told him to tuck it in. Now my son honestly did not understand the reasoning behind tucking in the shirt. And, the whole “must wear a belt” was another rule that perplexed him, “Mom, it’s not even doing anything. My pants stay up without it.”

    Well, his response to the teacher, “The thing I don’t get is why?” Needless to say dermerits followed. Poor little 6 year old dude and all because he had the gumption to question.

    We found that the leadership at the church/school was always attempting to break and remold our kids. I am thankful for God’s grace that they are still very spirited and LOVE THE LORD. Yes, we can be both!

  50. I noticed under “Club Offerings” that all the staff leaders listed who were male were designated as “Bro. So-and-So” and all the female leaders were referred to as “Mrs. Such-and-Such.” I wonder could that mean something? 🙄

    1. Our church back home did that. I got into trouble once for loudly rewording “The Family of God” to “You may have noticed that we say brother but not sister ’round here”.

      1. I’ve never encountered that and I was really wondering if there is some (sane) reason behind it. In churches I have been familiar with they called almost everyone Brother or Sister (even the kids).

        2. I have no problem with the “Brother” and “Sister” form of address (I kind of like it), but here it seems that men are “Brothers” but women are not “Sisters.” That’s pretty weird. What’s up with that?

        3. I’m wondering if “sister” is unacceptable because it’s almost only ever heard in the contest of Catholic nuns.

          I know that my husband served in a small Midwestern country church and we were called “Brother” and “Sister”. I didn’t mind if they called him that, but unreasonably it bugged me to be called “Sister ___”. I don’t know why, maybe just because I’d never heard it done in my home church. I’d rather just be called by my first name or Mrs. ___.

Comments are closed.