The Shadow of Atlas

I kind of feel like Sam in the Tower of Cirith Ungol, a small insignificant hobbit watching the enemy shouting, cursing, stumbling and running away. And no, I’m not trying to insinuate anything about anyone opposing me. It’s just funny.

As many of you know Moscow is currently being looked after by a small group of self elected Nannies. These women apparently believe no one knows how a city is best run, not even the city officials, mind you, and so they are busy tsk-tsking with all manner of ‘concerned citizen’ letters regarding boys in sweater vests downtown.

There are 15 boys enrolled in Atlas this year, but if you read the letters you’d get the impression we were 60 going on 150 boys plus teachers and staff. This is what tips me off to the fact that they obviously have never been in the classrooms we use nextdoor to the Nuart although they’re absolutely sure that the boys are in constant mortal danger. But I would happily agree with anyone concerned if we really were stuffing 100 boys into a telephone booth for Latin class.

The troubling thing is that most of the time these Nannies continue to maintain, straight faced, that they don’t mean us any harm. They just don’t think we should meet there they say. The problem is that this is a patent lie. They are on a crusade to rid Moscow of Christian Education, particularly those institutions that stand with Douglas Wilson and Christ Church, giving modernity an enthusiastic rasberry. Thankfully the veneer is beginning to come off. In at least one of the complaint letters, one of the City Nannies makes it clear that she doesn’t think Moscow needs a Christian boys school like Atlas. We need more of that kind of honesty.

The other problem is that there is no zone in the city of Moscow that welcomes schools. All schools exist on a provisional use permit. And the City of Moscow has already indicated that this permit can be waived if a handful of wackos quote lengthy sections from the Holy Zoning Code. The point being, there is no safe place to do education in Moscow. Open-minded? Diverse? Multicultural? What the Nannies really want is comformity, submission and silence.

But we’ll be open on Monday, and 10 or 15 young men will come downtown to learn Latin and read the Bible together. That may sound very scary, but between you and me, it’s just the shadow.