Biblical Doctrine of the Family

Juvenile Justice and the Family

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Lesson: Government

Genre: Speech

Track: 06

Dictation Name: 06 Juvenile Justice and the Family

Year: 1960’s – 1970’s

Our subject in this second session this evening is Juvenile Justice and the Family, and it may appear for some time that I am saying nothing about the subject, but most of the session I shall be leading up to it.

One of the distinctions that modern liberalism is very much partial to is the distinction between private and public life, and private and public spheres. Now, to a degree, this distinction can be traced in much of history, but as we see it in the modern world, it is a new thing. In terms of this distinction, the public sphere is the domain of the state and its laws. The private sphere is individual, private, outside of the law. The word “private” of course, comes from the Latin “privo,” separate, “privatus,” separate, free from the state. Public comes from the Latin “publicus,” people, which has its roots in “pubis,” which meant adult, and we have the word in “puberty,” today, and related terms. In terms of the modern world, what is public is associated with the state, so that the state is now seen as a voice of the public. I could take time to digress here to say that, at one time, the most public thing of all was the church, and the church’s law, that another very, very important public sphere was the world of commerce, and a group of tradesmen or an association of merchants had their laws whereby they governed things totally. You still see this to a limited degree in that you can pick up a phone and do business with a broker. You may gain $10,000 in an hour and he’s bound to pay you, although it’s only a telephone transaction, or you’re bound to pay him if you lose, even though there is no written contract. That’s business law. Business law was once very extensive, very power as was church law, but now the state feels that it has the right to step in at every point in any sphere’s laws, to review matters in every sphere. In other words, it claims total jurisdiction in all things public. The family has been one of these major public spheres.

{?}, a French scholar has said of medieval France, “The king and the father were accountable for their governance to God alone.” They were both public spheres, both free of any interference by any other human agency. There have been many forms of public law, including canon law, the claim that only the state governs the public sphere, and that only the state can issue public law is an aspect of modern totalitarianism. It is a new thing. It is a revival of ancient paganism stepped up to the “nth” degree, and implicit in it is a claim to govern totally every sphere, because if you say that the public sphere must be within the jurisdiction of the state, then you can next say, “This or that area that is private we now declare to be public, and therefore, you have no right to any freedom in this sphere,” or the process can be reversed with devastating consequences as we shall see a little later.

The state, as a result of Christianity, was totally excluded from every sphere of life, except its own, except the sphere of defense and of justice. Christianity thus worked a major revolution in law that very few people appreciate. It very strictly limited the power of the state. Now, it did lead to problems at first, because Europe was largely barbarian.

Not everyone was prepared for the freedom now that came with the break-up of the Roman Empire, but the church felt very strongly that the public sphere was essentially a religious sphere, and a divided sphere, a sphere not divided in the sense of conflict, but allocated by God to various agencies. This was very early formulated by Pope Gelasius II. It was termed by the Dutch Reformed thinkers of the last century, as they developed it very extensively, “sphere laws,” so that life was divided into many spheres, and each sphere was a law sphere under God. The family, the world of commerce and trade, the world of the sciences, and the world of the professions, and so on, each as a law sphere being governed under God by the people therein.

The Revolution wrought by the Empress Theodora, in making biblical law basic to the Empire, and stating that only the biblical family can control property and inheritance and so on, was a major revolution in the Western world, which is at present under attack. What it did do, this Christian revolution, in terms of biblical law, was to put all the basic powers in a society, except the death penalty, in the hands of the family. First, the control of children. The control of chidlren is the privotal power in any community or society. It means the control of the future, and I referred earlier to the Soviet experimentation with the destruction of the family. They then tried to develop the concept of the collective family, by 1937, each parent to teach the children life in terms of a collective society, but it is interesting that in the handbook for parents, the child rearing guide, the collective family, 1937, the statement was made by Makarenko, “If you wish to give birth to a citizen and do without parental love, then be so kind as to warn society that you wish to play such an underhanded trick. People brought up without parental love are often deformed people.” Quite an interesting statement, coming from the Soviet Union. Pragmatic, of course, but recognizing that the present circumstances necessitate a return to the traditional family, that without the traditional family and its control of children, the children have no future, and for a Soviet society to have a future, the children, in some sense, had to be under their parents. The Soviet Union has thus had a divided mind on this. The children are taught to spy on their parents, and report to the school if they are taught anything religious, or if there is anything subversive, but at the same time, the parents are told, “You must love your children. You must be a good family because only so can we have good citizens instead of hoodlums, instead of criminals,” but the fact is they recognize that the stability of the child and of society is greatest when the family is most intact, most godly, and strong.

Over a century ago, or almost a century ago, in 1886, an assistant attorney general of the United States, Zach Montgomery, documented very carefully the concomitant growth of state-control over education and the rise of delinquency, criminality, and suicide. Commenting on the situation state by state, he said with regard to New York, “It would appear that the cost of public school work in the State of New York increases in an inverse ratio to the number of pupils taught while, as we have seen crime increases in a direct proportion such cost.” Of course, everything that Montgomery wrote about then has been carried on to the “nth” degree since and it’s far, far more deadly in its effect, but the basic control in any society is a control over children, and God gives it to the family, to the parents, and today, the state is increasingly moving into this area, and the present plans call only for greater controls.

Then, the second great power in any society is the control of property. A civilization where the family controls property is strong. As family control of property is weakened by taxation, by controls over property and the like, the family is weakened and the civilization begins to decay. Today, it’s very difficult to do what you want with your property. Now, in terms of biblical law, you cannot do anything that will harm your neighbor, but I’m talking about a valid use of your property. It’s forbidden now without all kinds of controls and permits. The state is controlling property. In fact, it claims title to all property and we hold it in fee simple and free soffage{?}, that is, we have a feudal use of it as serfs.

Then third, the control of inheritance is one of the basic powers in any society, and God gives it to the family. The state, today, is increasingly entering this domain with taxes and with a claim on every estate before the family can touch it.

Then, another basic power, which God gives to the family, is welfare, and the family has, throughout the centuries, been the basic welfare agency. It still is, although very few people recognize it. The church and the family do more in the way of welfare than the federal and state governments.

Then fifth, education. Once the province of the family and the church is now claimed by the state. What has happened? Remember, I began with a distinction between public and private. What has happened is that the state began by dividing its realm and other spheres, and saying, “That’s private, not our concern. This is public and our concern,” but what it has been doing is to move over into these areas, the control of children, the control of property, the control of inheritance, the control of welfare, and the control of education, and say to the family and to the church, “We now say these are a public concern,” but they were a public concern previously on the part of the church and the family, but the state says, “No, anything you dealt with was private. Only what we deal with is public,” but at the same time, there has been another movement. The state saying these areas are public, but then areas that historically have been public are now declared private. Homosexuality, that’s now a private matter between consenting adults. It was once a public concern. Abortion, once a very public concern is now called a private matter. A woman can do what she wants with her body. Child molestation, we have a growing movement to say this should be a private matter. It is not yet, but the sentiment is building. Bestiality is quietly slipping into the private concern, provided the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals doesn’t object to specific instances. Narcotics and prostitution are beginning to slip from the area of public to private. At the same time, juvenile care and juvenile justice, once the province of the family, the extended the family as in the case of the Chinese tongs, which I cited, is now becoming a public concern.

The Roloff problems have been evidence of this. The Roloff home for juvenile children has an amazing, almost unbelievable record of taking juvenile delinquents and rehabilitating them, making them useful citizens and Christians, but the State of Texas which has not a 95% record of success, but it would be flattering to say they have a 95% record of failure, the record of failure is so high, is now saying, “This is a public concern and we’re going to put you out of business unless we control you, lock, stock, and barrel.” Juvenile justice, a family concern is now a public concern according to state after state, and many federal courts.

The implications of this are enormous. If the juvenile, when he transgresses, is within the province of the state, why not when he behaves, should not his behavior control be created by the state, governed by the state, molded by the state. Of course, that’s the premise of public education. So that today, the child is, as some judges have stated, the property of the state. Children belong to the state. All this comes from confusing the public and private domains, and by insisting that the state alone has any power within the public domain, and the state’s domain is the public domain.

Now, this is an important concept and a distinction. It leads to totalitarianism, and unless we awaken to the necessity of asserting that God is not an option, God is the creator of all things. He is no more than an option than driving over a cliff gives you an option between life and death. When you go over the cliff, a high cliff, it means death. You have no choice. When you deny God and his word as central to every public sphere, and as the governing word for public and private spheres, then you, as an individual and as a society are creating suicide, and this is what is happening. This is why the Christian reawakening, and why the work that Chalcedon represents is important, because it’s necessary first to have a good family, but it’s necessary also to understand the role of the family in a society, and why the family is all-important. This is why it was necessary to go over these areas tonight in order, next month, to see what it means to say that the family is God’s power center. Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience] I find it curious that the {?} that public spheres for the state is defense and justice. That is, justice to help resolve, let’s say, the definition of what is harming your neighbor. Yet can you elaborate what differentiates justice with regard to juveniles versus non-juveniles?

[Rushdoony] Well, first of all, justice or righteousness, the two words are the same, means the expression of God’s nature through his law. There is no justice apart from God, and it’s expressed in the word of God. Justice is not the exclusive sphere of the state. The state has a ministry of justice, but you and I have a ministry of justice, too, so that we don’t limit justice to the sphere of the state alone.

[Audience] {?} when the state says that it alone has a concern {?} is that is exclusive {?} danger as opposed to it exercising concern at all?

[Rushdoony[ Well, an image that I’ve often used, and it’s not original with me is this, the umbrella over life, the world, and all activities is God. All things were made by him and all things are under him and his jurisdiction, but in modern thinking, the umbrella is not God, but the state. All things are under the state and the state is to govern them, but in a biblical perspective, God is the umbrella and under him you will find the family, the church, the school, the vocations, the arts and the sciences, and civil government, but today, civil government says “We are God,” after Hegel, who said the state is God walking on earth. That’s the premise of modern statism, it is the new God, and God alone has total jurisdiction. So, as the state has become totalitarian and claims total jurisdiction over every area, while it no longer uses the language of Hegel to say, “I am God,” or, the state is God walking on earth, it is the same thought. They avoid language that will inflame the natives, make them restless. Yes?

[Audience] If I understand you right then, with regards to juvenile justice, if a juvenile did something wrong which involved the police, then would the state authorities deal with the family and the family deal with the juvenile? Is that the biblical way of doing it?

[Rushdoony] One of the things we need to recognize to answer that is, first of all, if the juvenile murders somebody, or steals, then of course, he is under the jurisdiction of the courts. But today, the juvenile is under the jurisdiction of the courts. But today, the juvenile is under the jurisdiction of the courts for non-criminal activities, for a variety of things. If you spank you child, you and the child are under the jurisdiction of the state and its courts. If you force your child to go to Sunday School and church when the child doesn’t want to go, you can be in the courts. A minister was because he told his daughter, “You’re going to Sunday School. As long as I’m feeding you, you’re going to do what I tell you to do.” He wound up in court.

Now, justice within the juvenile sphere is not served by the state entering into these spheres. What it does is to undermine the relationship between parents and children, and make both love and justice within the family next to impossible. Yes?

[Audience] Would you say that there’s any one single overriding factor that has perhaps been abrogation of responsibility within the church or within Christendom as a whole, that would explain the reversal of public and private spheres and the encroachment of the state over areas that have been held to be the responsibility of the family, the church vocation, etc. Is there any one single glaring factor?

[Rushdoony] Yes, I did a study of the subject years ago when I was a student, and some day I’ll go back and revise portions of it to publish it. The distinction which led to pietism and to our present problem was one which began in both church and state, and it was this: Henry VIII in England was a key figure in this. The roots of it, however, go back into the Middle Ages. Religion deals with the inner world, the state with the outer world. So, it means that Christianity was limited to your spiritual condition inside, and had nothing to do with the outer world. Well, that’s nonsense. You cannot believe in Jesus Christ without it affecting your life within and without, and your community and the world at large. It calls for a reordering of all things. David, to add a little footnote to what I said, one delightful story by a very, very fine black pastor whose mother had several boys to rear when her husband died, and one of the boys got very rebellious and made it clear he wasn’t going to mind her, and if she got too rough with him, he could go to the school counselor and to the civil authorities, they’d do something about it, and she turned on him and whacked him one and said, “Son, I brought you into the world and you’d better believe I can take you out of it.” He behaved.

[Audience] Well, it was the committee of public safety during the French Revolution which argued that children belonged to the state completely, from the age of five.

[Rushdoony] Yes, and that idea now is stated in courts, and it’s the premise of most of the trials where I’ve been a witness. Any other questions or comments? Well, if not, let us conclude with prayer.

O Lord, our God, as we face the problems of this world, we know how great they are, and how if we walk by sight, we can be easily overwhelmed with despair and fearfulness. Grant, O Lord, that our eyes ever be fixed on Jesus Christ, upon thee and thy word, that we might ever be mindful that we are more than conquerors in Christ, that this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, and that it is the gates of hell that cannot hold out against thy kingdom. Strengthen us in thy service, and in our holy warfare to the end that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. In Jesus name. Amen.

End of tape