Miscellaneous

Washington Legal Seminar (part 2)

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels, and Sermons

Lesson: 2-2

Genre: Talk

Track: 2

Dictation Name: RR330A2

Location/Venue:

Year: 1985

…glad that there are two lawyers here, Mr. (Harper and Katuush?) who are engaged in a trial now in Alabama just on that issue, that the state schools represent an establishment of religion. I think we need more trials like that in states across country, until finally some judge somewhere who is angry at what has been done to his children or grandchildren rules in our favor. I think it will happen eventually.

But they are in fact humanistic schools. One of the books I have in my library is entitled Humanistic Education Source Book. It is a manual for teachers in teachers training. It has a chapter entitled: Humanism, Capstone of an Educated Person. The very obvious implication of that chapter is that by definition Christian schools cannot educate because they are not humanistic, and this is implicit in all the attacks on the Christian schools, and on homeschools. But the state schools are in crisis. As I said earlier, in the past we have had illiteracy in this country, but the illiterates were outside the school system, outside the normal areas of society, they had been pushed to the fringes, they were slaves, they were immigrants, they were Indians. But now they are products of the state schools, and what do the state schools say about this? Their main defense is to abuse the critics.

Now in facing this crisis, there are some things we must recognize. First, no civil government can be neutral with regard to religion. It can, and I believe should be neutral to churches; but every system of laws is a system of morality, you cannot escape that fact, and morality is an aspect of theology, of religion. Every time you pass a law, you are saying that certain things are bad, and therefore you ban them. That is a moral judgement, a religious judgement; or you are going to say: “We are going to protect certain types of activities because we regard them as good.” You are legislating morality. Every legislation is an act of moral judgement, inescapably so, and every system of laws represents an establishment of religion.

This was faced some years ago, early in this country’s history, in the Reynolds case as well as in some subsequent case involving the Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, and their right to practice Polygamy. And they pleaded for it on the grounds of the first amendment. Well the courts had a difficult time with that; I wouldn’t say their decision was altogether a good one, but it was a step in the right direction in that they recognized that there was not a single thing that we in this country in terms of a common law Christianity recognized to be evil or criminal, that has not been somewhere practiced on religious grounds. Human sacrifice, cannibalism, ritual homosexuality, ritual bestiality, ritual murder of all other groups, the Thuggees of India, the Kali worshippers, and so on down the line. And so they said: “If we have an absolute freedom of religion, there can be no civil government.” Because laws represent a moral perspective. In effect what they were saying and what was subsequently said I believe in the Trinity case, was that there was a kind of common law religion, a non theological, a non ecclesiastical, Biblical perspective, that governed the laws of this country, and what went against that common law perspective could not be practiced. So you could not have human sacrifice, or ritual murder and robbery, or bestiality, or anything else that some groups in different parts of the world practiced.

Thus there is no escaping the establishment of religion in some sense, in a non-theological sense. It means that while you can tolerate the practice as the court said of the religion of the Latter Day Saints, you cannot tolerate their Polygamy. That you can tolerate some group that may believe in some practices that are highly offensive to us, but you cannot tolerate the practice. Now that was the conclusion, out of sheer necessity, that the court had to come to. There is no escaping the establishment of religion in some sense.

Then, next, we need to restudy the Bible. The trouble is that the Bible is familiar to Christians as a devotional manual- but it is a command word from God, for man in every area of life and thought, in church, state, school, and everywhere else. It is an anti statist book. It sees man’s hope not in revolution but in regeneration, not in seizing control of the state apparatus to impose our idea of order on others, but in freedom to create order from the grassroots level up.

I believe it was the Libertarian A.J. (Knock?) who said that the Bible gives us not a state, but a government. And we need to develop the free sector of government on all levels. I usually refer to what government means when I talk, even though I know I am repeating myself for some, because I feel it is so important. Because we have lost the meaning of that word, when we say government we mean either the state house or Washington D.C., and that is a perversion of the word. Government in its historic meaning in this country and in the English speaking world, meant first of all the self government of the Christian man. You and I are the basic government under God. Then, second, it means the family; under God the most important institution and the basic government of all, man’s first state, school and church. Then third, it means the church which unfortunately has ceased to govern, but should govern. Fourth, it means you vocation, your job governs you, it tells you when you are going to go to work, what you are going to do on the job, and a great deal more. It governs you, so that your job is an essential government.

Then the society around you governs you. Where you live, and your neighborhood and your friends has an input in your life, it governs the way you act and behave, because we are governed by our associations. We don’t put ourselves beyond the pale for them.

Then, finally, there is Civil government. One form of government among many, but today claiming to be the total government, claiming to govern every area of life and thought, and moving now into what John Whitehead referred to as the last area of freedom, the church and the Christian school, determined to govern it.

We must develop these areas of government. Remember that at one time health, education, and welfare were all carried on by Christians. Not too many years ago all hospitals were Christian hospitals- state hospitals are a relatively new thing in our history. We are beginning to create new schools, free schools, in fact according to the Federal statistics, 11% of all grade and high schools are outside the public school system, but those statistics only include those that are approved by state and local authorities, and I would say there are two unapproved for every one approved, and the great area of growth has been in this area, the unapproved schools that are resisting controls, which could mean that instead of 11% of the school population, perhaps 30 or more are outside the public school system.

On top of that, we found in California, nothing was done about it, there was no law against it, that public schools list a lot of non-existent pupils on the role books in order to get more money from the state; and I wouldn’t be surprised if that is done in your city.

So we don’t have an accurate count, but we know that we are growing, and they are worried, greatly worried. We need to take back health, education, and welfare, areas of Christian action, once again from the state. If, as we heard earlier, if every church in this country and every synagogue took care of one family, there would be no welfarism in this country. And I saw some interesting statistics not too long ago, with all the money the Federal government is pouring into New York City in terms of welfare, the Salvation Army is actually reaching more people. We could step that up, and put State and Federal governments out of business in this area.

We are, in other words, in a battle to regain our Christian freedoms, and this battle must be waged in and out of the courts patiently, consistently, and unremittingly. The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein, and therefore we cannot surrender what belongs to the Lord to His enemies, nor can we blame only the church because Christians have too often shrugged off and abandoned their responsibilities. We have thus a task of reclamation and restoration, of dominion, ahead of us; and we had better get to it.

Last week, Thursday, I had a telephone call from a Congressman who is facing reelection next year, a very strong Christian, a leader in Congress. He has been opposed in every election by his own party. So that he has had to face the expense- which incumbents rarely do- of a primary, as well as the run off. And this is because of his strong Christian leadership, and unless he is able soon to pay off his campaign debts from the last election, he is not going to be in the running for the next. And what do Christians tell him? “I am all for you brother, I’ll remember you in prayer.” But nothing about helping him. Well, we are going to start a group of Christians who are ready to pledge from $10 on up, a $100, whatever they can afford, a month; to go into a fund not handled by us, to help support men like this. Because we have to put our money where our mouth is, and God isn’t going to regard our prayers as anything but offensive if we pray for a man and say: “Go and God be with you.” As James said, and he is poor and naked and in need, or facing the enemies in election, and we won’t vote for him.

The same is true of groups like Chalcedon, our group, and Rutherford. I am sure you are all for Rutherford, are you supporting it? Your appreciation doesn’t amount to much if you don’t. I do believe everyone here professes to be a born again Christian, but is your pocket book or checkbook born again? It needs to be converted also. I say this seriously, because in the next decade the world crisis that is building up can put us all into slavery for a long time to come, and the Christian community has it in its power to turn this around, with prayers and action, with study and with financial support. And so, I leave you with that thought; if you are converted, is your checkbook also converted? Thank you. (applause)