The Good and the Beautiful curriculum seems to have everything going for it if you’re looking for a Christian homeschool curriculum. It’s a curriculum that provides children with a thorough education for an affordable (if not free) price. It has Charlotte Mason influences, teaching good morals and character. It’s easy to use and probably the most visually pleasing homeschool curriculum you’ll find today. But there’s something about it that is not quite right. Is it that The Good and the Beautiful (TGATB) is Mormon as some people say…or is it deeper than that? Let’s dive into The Good and the Beautiful controversy.
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To start unraveling this mystery, we need to look at the people TGATB target audience.
“Nondenominational Christianity” at The Good and The Beautiful?
People who look into using The Good and the Beautiful curriculum are generally looking for a solid Christian homeschool curriculum that’s easy to use and affordable.
They hop onto the internet, see this wonderful curriculum that markets itself as a non-denominational Christian curriculum (a program where you can get entire grades for free!), and the deal is closed.
But is it really non-denominational in the sense that most Protestant Christians mean?
For me, as a Baptist church member, I think of a non-denominational church as holding the Bible alone as the sacred word of God – and nothing else.
They may distance themselves from creeds and confessionalism, but they hold the Bible as God’s uncorrupted, unadulterated Word.
But TGATB means something different.
They count Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, for example, as Christians.
These religions might look at the Bible and give it a nod, but they don’t take it as their primary text…let alone their only religious text.
Non-Denominational Christian Writers at TGATB
There are many writers and reviewers of different Christian denominations and religions at The Good and the Beautiful. They include:
- Lutheran,
- Assemblies of God (Penticostal),
- Catholic,
- Baptist,
- Jehovah’s Witnesses,
- Mennonite,
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon),
- Nazarene,
- Methodist,
- Non-Denominational, and
- Seventh Day Adventists.
So, are we really talking about Sola Scriptura Christianity here?
If you look into the beliefs of some of these ‘Christian denominations’ (e.g. Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses), you can clearly see we differ on many points.
At this point, I’m going to attach a video which shows you the glaring differences between LDS and Reformed theology:
As you can see, a LDS member can say,
- ‘I do believe in Christ, therefore I am Christians,’ and even,
- ‘I’m saved by grace through Jesus Christ,’
But they mean VERY different things to what reformed Christian doctrine means!
For example, Baptists believe Jesus is God, and he is our Saviour because we can never save ourselves.
Mormons believe Jesus is one of many gods (a great moral teacher and example -and also the brother of Satan), and we can become gods too one day and save ourselves through our good works.
Is The Good and The Beautiful Mormon?
Many people ask, ‘Is The Good and The Beautiful Mormon?’ because they’re afraid if they use this curriculum, it will teach their children to become Mormon.
This question usually arises because the questioner has heard the founder, Jenny Phillips, is a Mormon.
It wouldn’t be right to say this curriculum teaches children to become Mormon.
In fact, many Christian parents have come out and said there’s nothing in the curriculum that concerns them.
While there is an odd quote here and there from Mormon leaders in the curriculum, it’s actually a pretty rare occurrence.
That said, I have heard there are links you can follow to find out more about Mormonism within the curriculum.
Is The Good and The Beautiful Secular?
Okay, so if it doesn’t teach you about Mormonism, is it secular?
Let’s take a look at what secularism is:
Secularism means not connected with religious or spiritual matters.
The program states it is a Christian homeschool curriculum.
And The Good and The Beautiful curriculum talks about God and Jesus.
It quotes Bible verses.
It teaches about good morals and character.
But the real issue is that it doesn’t talk about the gospel.
That is, Jesus Christ, the son of God and of one essence with God the Father, died for our sins because we can’t save ourselves.
We are created beings along with the angels.
Jesus has always been with God the Father and is our Creator.
But, Unity is More Important?
At the heart of The Good and The Beautiful controversy is the idea of ‘Christian unity’.
TGATB say they ‘encourage unity and kindness among different Christian denominations.’
So, why rock the boat?
It’s because the gospel is worth rocking the boat for.
With so many denominations and (I’ll say it) religions in this homeschool curriculum, you end up with a lukewarm curriculum.
And if it’s a lukewarm curriculum, shouldn’t it be spit out?
What We Should Look for in a Christian Curriculum
The big reason to reject The Good and The Beautiful as a Christian is that it doesn’t teach the gospel as its focal point.
The curriculum might give the gospel lip service, but good habits and character training, and vague notions of God take center stage.
As fallen beings, we cannot be reminded of the gospel too much!
We should be after a curriculum that reminds our children of this reality OFTEN!
And that’s not something you get with TGATB.
The Gospel – The ABC of Christianity?
Every sermon in my church ends with the pastors relating the Bible passage back to Jesus and back to the gospel.
I used to think, ‘My goodness. Really? Do we need to end with, “Jesus came to die for our sins because we can’t save ourselves.” Surely we’ve done the gospel enough…we must be beyond the ABCs of Christianity.’
Only after many years did I realize the reason all the sermons ended this way is that the gospel is not only the ABC of Christianity. It is the A to Z of Christianity.
And we can’t be reminded of this enough.
Our children can’t be reminded of this enough.
And, so, the gospel is something we should have stamped all over our children’s educational material.
I don’t see this in The Good and The Beautiful.
And for me, I’m not so much concerned my children will learn about Mormonism as I am concerned they won’t learn about the gospel.
Do I Hate Mormons?
I want to say that Mormons are some of the most gorgeous people I have met.
I see them doing good work after good work.
They’re hard-working, kind, generous, and have so many good characteristics in general.
And it does give me pain to write an article like this.
But, the gospel is more important.
And the gospel should be in everything.
Jesus died to save sinners because we can’t save ourselves.
And we need to be protecting that reality. 
What Curriculum to Use Instead of The Good and The Beautiful
There are lots of great Christian homeschool curriculum programs available today. I’ll give you a few visuals so you can see what you get with it.
Firstly, there is BJU Press, which is a program I use with my children.
They have a strong biblical worldview focus in all their materials. Open-and-go video lessons with physical workbooks.
Secondly, there is Lifepac by Alpha Omega Publications.
It’s a mailable paper-based curriculum that children can do themselves. Good for self-paced, mastery-based learning.
Thirdly, there is Veritas Press, a classical online homeschool curriculum with a very strong Christian worldview focus.
AND the ESA will cover the cost in certain states! Find out how with this free consult here.
Fourthly, there’s Easy Peasy, a FREE Christian curriculum.
I encourage you to check some of these out, or you can use the Curriculum Finding page here to discover something else.
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God bless y’all.
I’m so glad I found this.
I downloaded all the available free curriculum from TGATB yesterday.
This morning I had a prompt from the Holy Spirit to look into the LDS aspect I had seen, as you posted here.
When I saw the LDS and JW’s were using this curriculum it didn’t really trigger a search in the moment.
However, this morning, as I was remembering what I had read, I began to dig deeper.
As I was reading your article, I realized that a lot of the books I saw that the children would be reading are new and not anything I’ve ever heard of before.
The fact that an LDS mom made it doesn’t surprise me in the least. Seems like a lot of “good” products are coming out of the LDS cult lately.
My husband commented that “even the ravens can bless us,” but I think I’ll be skipping this “blessing.”
It is the Lord who gives the blessing, and no trouble with it.
I’m so glad you found it helpful. My youtube vido on this topic has had so many replies like your one. God bless 🙂
As a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I’d like to correct you. We do believe in Christ, therefore we are Christians. Now I don’t have experience with this specific curriculum so I won’t try to defend it and people are entitled to their opinions. I will however stand up for something that someone is saying that is false. Thank you for listening to my ted talk.
Thank you for this article! I have been researching for a solid, true Christian curriculum for my son, and I was thinking about using TGATB, but I felt something was missing. I will not be using this now. The Gospel HAS to be present! We have to raise our children to know this and to be able to defend this! Thank you so much again! – Ashley
Oh, I’m so glad you found it helpful. It’s a HUGE deal for me too. I just struggle to understand where people are coming from when they talk about supplementing.
Hi Rebecca,
Any suggestions on home schooling products that emphasize the Gospel? If not I think ultimately as the head it’s my responsibility to make sure my children are taught it and know it. Just since my four years at home with mom during the day I thought it’d be good to see if there was something out there like that now.
Thank you ma’am!
Using a Christian curriculum doesn’t mean you’re abdicating responsibility for teaching your kids the gospel. Rather it’s the opposite. Your curriculum becomes a tool to teach them the gospel.
I love these programs for gospel centered teaching: https://youtu.be/YkAPr67Gbdw
Thank you for this. I have researched that TGATB was created by a Mormon but I was actually unaware of the rest. Thank you for doing your research and providing the links/screenshots and placing emphases on why we must not merely just choose a curriculum that’s “not secular” but more importantly, one that is completely saturated with the gospel. Because if our littles are not learning that Jesus is in everything, than why bother doing it at all. God Bless.
What a stupid article. You clearly don’t know what a Christian is. Someone who believes in Christ. It’s literally in the name of their church. And for someone who is “Christian” putting down other people and their beliefs and religions you aren’t doing a great job living what Christ taught.
Thanks for your gentle and Christian-like comment. I love how you demonstrate your Christianity in it.
I’m sorry, I never realized I should just believe people when they say they’re Christian. After all, it makes complete sense. They have ‘Christian’ in the name of the church. Must make them Christian. Christian Science does too. Must make them Christian.
How do you define ‘putting people down’. If you define it like you have, Jesus and Paul and many other apostles ‘put people down’. And I’m glad to follow their lead.
Dan, it’s more important to teach the gospel than accept everyone’s erroneous doctrine. I’m not afraid to do that.
Hello!
Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and homeschool mom, here! So sorry you had to deal with a rude and unkind comment.
Just a couple quick points I noticed in your article that you may want to revisit regarding doctrine.
First, the belief that members of my faith think we can/must “save ourselves” is a super common misconception. We love Jesus, we need Jesus, and it is only by His sacrifice and grace that we are saved. I’m happy to share abundant resources from the official church website that clarify that further. We also believe that, along with our faith and reliance on the Savior, He expects us to take action in this life to learn His doctrine and act upon it by making efforts to repent, progress, and do good where we can and in the ways that we can. In other words, I think the misunderstanding that we think we are “saved by works” probably comes from the fact that we believe that if we truly have faith in Christ, we will work to act on that faith.
Second, We do believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are separate beings in the Godhead, united completely and “one” in purpose, action, and mission. This does differ from the belief in the Trinity that is standard in other Christian religions. The concept of the Trinity was established by Emperor Constantine in the first council of Nicaea in 325 AD. We believe that Bilical references to God, Christ, and the Spirit being “one” are what I described above.
Third, the goodness and service you have seen from many of your friends/acquaintances who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are a result of their belief in Christ and their efforts to do what He would do.
I am not perfect. I don’t have any friends who are -members of my church or not. But I love Jesus, I love the Bible, I love His Gospel, and I just wanted to take a moment to try to clarify those points of doctrine which I am sure were unintentionally misrepresented in your article. I am glad you have found things that work for you and your family, and I hope we can all work together to honor the Savior, treat each other how He would, and do what He would do if He were here. Best wishes!
What a gorgeous lady you are! I’m a big fan of all the LDS people I’ve met. However, I don’t agree with the LDS doctrine. I’ve made this video. Take a look: https://youtu.be/DcYQSzsEwsA I think a lot of it comes down to definitions about the words…and the definitions between the Reformed and LDS churches are wildly different. Thanks for commenting friend!
As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we do NOT believe we can save ourselves. That’s not true. We believe we can only be saved through faith in Jesus Christ and in His atonement.
We do good works because “faith without works is dead.” James 2. We must become better people too, through Christ, in part, by repenting daily in the name of Jesus Christ.
This curriculum may not be saturated enough with the Bible for some, and that’s understandable and fine, and there may be people you don’t want quoted, I can understand that too, but we are true believers in Christ and in His atonement for all mankind.
I am a homeschooling mom of 21 years to 9 children. I think your overthinking this😆 Also, your curriculum suggestions…BJU?? Any mama who is looking at the good and the beautiful will be hard pressed to be able to stand BJU or Abeka. Both are overloaded with busy work and will drive any mother of more than 2 children into overwhelm and depression.
I use BJU Press myself and we love it. We do skip a bit of busywork, but for me it’s fantastically easy and all I have to say to my son in the morning is, ‘Off you go,’ and he homeschools himself. Have you ever used BJU Press?
I think Abeka is def more intense, but BJU is pretty manageable.
As someone who has used Abeka which is the golden child of Christian curriculum, even they could be considered lukewarm if you don’t include their Bible curriculum in your day. It doesn’t harp on religion much besides a mention of God and Jesus here and there. I don’t think the lack of gospel makes a curriculum lukewarm. It’s up to the parents to teach what the Bible says and what they hold as truth. It’s not a curriculum’s responsibility and I’m glad they don’t try to assume that responsibility for themselves. It’s all about perspective.
As a Christian, I want my kids to hear the gospel no matter where they go (in their heads, in a curriculum, or in a school, online or brick and mortar). That’s why we don’t send the kids to public school. And I expect my kids to hear the gospel from their curriculum to reinforce what we say in our home. Having a curriculum that teaches the gospel doesn’t mean parents are abdicating their responsibility. It’s the opposite…they’re reinforcing and being consistent with what they teach.