Easy Chair Series

Christian Reconstruction in Action

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 35-91

Genre:

Track:

Dictation Name: EC337

Year: 1986

This is R. J. Rushdoony, Easy Chair number 337, April the 23rd, 1995.

Our subject today is Christian Reconstruction in action. Some very interesting developments are taking place all over the world. We don’t have time to go into but more than a small segment of these developments, but one of the things that I think we need to consider is what can happen when people take seriously the requirement as Christains to apply the faith. We have with us today from England Michael Butcher and Steven Perks of the English Foundation for Reconstruction and from Seattle, Washington two of the other trustees of the foundation Elizabeth and Clinton Miller.

Now some few years ago the Millers began conferences in Washington, in Seattle. These were very remarkable in their influence. They very quickly grew so that a few hundred were coming. The encompassed a variety of subjects and the stress of all these conferences was both intellectual and also practical, faith and works, mind and action so that, as a result of these works, a variety of efforts began throughout the country. They ranged from home schoolers starting home schooling, Christian schools, people starting various activities designed to meet one or another need.

It also led to a stress in some areas to apply what we believe is basic to the work of Christian Reconstruction, namely the recognition that the basic government is self government. A great many people fail because they want to start big. They want to start at the top. They want to create a mass movement. They begin with setting up as I... and I am not going to be specific here, because I don’t want to embarrass various peoples. But various groups, Christian and non Christian, conservative and radical, begin by setting up a movement with tremendous plans all of which are a bit ridiculous.

During the time preceding the tremendous upheavals in 17th century England two tailors in London came together and they framed a proclamation which began, “We the people of England...” two people.

Now that kind of absurdity has been very common throughout history and we don’t believe in that. We believe that if there are two people who want to do something, what they say, not “We the people of England,” or “We the people of the United States,” but we, too, have an obligation under God if we see something that needs to be done to try and do it.

Well, Elizabeth and Clint Miller did precisely that. They have not tried to create committees and a {?} movement, but they have created a great deal and what they are going to tell us about today will be just a few of the things to give you an idea of what can be done, that we do not need to wait of great movements because if we do we will spend our lives waiting. But if we say something needs to be done and I can do something about it, we can do a great deal beginning with the home schooling of our children. This is the essence of Christian Reconstruction.

Elizabeth, would you like to begin and tell us something of what you two have been doing?

[E. Miller] Well, thank you, Rush, for explaining the conference that we put on in Seattle for 15 years, 14 or 15. I had been most recently married to Clint when I said, “I want to have people hear Dr. Rushdoony speak in Seattle, but I don’t know how to do it.”

And Clint said, “Oh, we will just rent a hotel room and we will have him come up and speak.”

Well, we did that and that was the beginning of a sort of a miracle because people came. We didn’t know where they came from or anything, but they came and kept coming year after year.

And over that period of time it sometimes appeared that it... nothing was happening because we couldn’t really see it. But I want to move us forward now to 1994 because in Washington state we have put in a lot of new people in political office. We... I don’t know exactly. We sent four or five old people back to Washington, DC. We completely changed our state house in Olympia. And I would say that the tenor of change is not only conservative, it is Christian. And the bills from one year to the next completely changed the character and flavor. Before we were getting more spending bills and we were getting homosexual rights bills and we were trying to fight back some of these things. And the next year, after we put in all new people, we now were trying to turn back some of the laws, repeal some of the laws on divorce, try to get rid of no fault divorce, try to get rid of abortion by taking little steps at a time. And one of the bills that was before the legislature—well, was in committee, it never got to the legislature—was to make sure that the child, the girl had parental permission before an abortion was performed.

But the tenor of the bills were strengthening families and all those years that we didn’t think anything was happening, bore fruit in this last election and it also bore fruit in our national government and we have changed our whole complexion of politics in Washington state so that it is getting more conservative, but definitely more Christian.

And so I just want to say that though you think your work isn’t bearing fruit, it is percolating through the community all over and people are doing what they can first with their self government, then with their families, then with the churches on schools and in the community so that it will burst forth sometimes in... in wonderful things that happen, but it takes a while sometimes.

[Rushdoony] Well, the interesting thing is you never set up a group to try to tell people what to do. All you did was to hold the conferences and stress the fact that faith requires this. The basic government is you.

Now in home schooling the conferences worked by the revolution in Washington state, did they not?

[E. Miller] Absolutely. Our largest conference, our most well attended conference with people attending it was up to 350, close to 400 and that was the conference that we had on education and the home schooling... people that were interested in home schooling and education just poured forth. It was just there to meet their needs at that time. And since that time, of course, it has gone on to reach into every hamlet and community in our state.

[Rushdoony] Clint, would you like to add something to that? Because the two of you worked hard to make these conferences successful and you have never told people what to do. You have simply said, “Here are the ideas.”

[C. Miller] Right. Well, it was by and large extremely enjoyable and very gratifying. We certainly met a great many very wonderful people. I remember one thing that the conference always accomplished. We always had books for sale, a good number of your books, Rush, and by other Christian thinkers, books by Van Til and I think those have a tremendous impact in addition to just the... the speeches and the talks and seminars that were given at the conference itself.

Those are... I think had a great impact. I think a number of home churches grew out of the conference and certainly our home church really grew out of the conferences. We had ... before the conferences began Elizabeth and I and our immediate family had had a home church. Later party due to the conference we were joined by Elizabeth’s brother and his wife and their son and then just a few years ago when we had you up, Rush, we had people in, close friends and a good many people then started in addition started to come to our home church and so we feel we are very blessed in being involved with a church that has so many fine people and we feel that in large part that has also grown out of the conferences.

[Rushdoony] Your home church has been active not only in weekly meetings and instructing the people, but you have done some practical things as well. For example, you have been able to raise money in some unusual ways. For example, didn’t you buy a sword and resell it and make...

[C. Miller] Oh.

[Rushdoony] ...things like that.

[C. Miller] Oh, right, right. A number... a number of us that are involved with the home church have... have gone together and began investing some money mainly in antiques and buying those if we found some at a reasonable price and then... and then reselling them. And we have some plans in the future and if we can get that nest egg to grow and it is growing so far we are very hopeful that...

[Rushdoony] I was interested in the sword. What kind of sword was it and what did you pay for it and resell it?

[C. Miller] Right. It was a... I t was an eagle... eagle pommelled sword, American probably for an officer made about 1830. And one of the members of our church and I were down in Astoria, Oregon and just happened on to a little shop that was selling military collectible items and there it was for 90 dollars. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was wroth, but I knew that was... had to be a very good price. And we had it for, oh, about a year and we finally sold it for just abut triple that money or that amount. So that has been one example.

We can’t always do that well percentage wise, but ... but we make the effort anyway.

[Rushdoony] So there is no limit to the ways your group is increasing its capacity to do things financially.

[C. Miller] Right. That is true. And even in our home church several of us are involved in ... we have some money to invest and we are trying to, you know, follow the market in various places where we might make good use of invested money. And there has been tremendous growth there, too, and a couple of people are very knowledgeable in computers, much more so than myself and they are doing very well. And I am developing a system in that area as well.

[Rushdoony] So the people have not limited themselves just to reaching into their pocketbook.

[C. Miller] No.

[Rushdoony] They are doing practical things to implement the work.

[C. Miller] Right. That is true. Exactly.

[E. Miller] One of the people in our church was remodeling their home and Clint in his interest in history has always also been interested in architecture. So he was able to help them design their porch, their entry way, their stairway, the upstairs bedrooms and things like that using the principles, really, we have learned from the Bible and in proportion and relationships. And they are so grateful for Clint’s help in this, because it has turned out to be much more lovely than they had even anticipated at the beginning, because they were able ... he was able to show them the... the relationships between spaces and things like that. And so Clint is able to use his skills helping somebody else in the Church in their design and building work.

[Rushdoony] I think that is a particularly important area, because something in our day, we have forgotten, is that the most important of the arts historically is architecture. And here Christianity has had a tremendous impact on civilization. The impact of architecture beginning with the Old Testament, the building of the temple... And what is the name of this British architect?

[C. Miller] Yeah, Quinlan Terry.

[Rushdoony] Yes, Quinlan Terry.

[C. Miller] {?}

[Rushdoony] ... who has researched the impact of the temple architecture on the western world.

[C. Miller] Right.

[Rushdoony] Amazing.

[C. Miller] Yeah. He actually feels that the ... you know the origins of classical architecture really... we think of it as being from ancient Greece and it certainly had a great fruition there, but he feels the origins go back before that to the great temple where, you know, God gave instruction and...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[C. Miller] ... and... and the way columns were made and the beams that set on top of them that we call entablatures, all of that kind of thing he feels does have origins biblically. And then it was moved... moved from there to Greece when Hebrew slaves were involved and employed by the Greeks to build some of their earliest architecture. So it is now fascinating and now Quinlan Terry is very much a Christian.

[Rushdoony] Well, that book is quite an important one. I am afraid not available right now.

[C. Miller] I think it is out of print now.

[Rushdoony] Yes. And some years ago {?} wrote some remarkable works on the very early Christian architecture as it began in Armenia and moved into Europe. So Christians have had a major impact here. And I think it is interesting that your group has had an impact in one specific case and that it should come from you and you are so knowledgeable about the history of this particular art.

[C. Miller] Oh, it has been enjoyable and I have worked with several friends and the... the family that Elizabeth mentioned, they have been... they are in our home church. And they have been wonderful to work with and we really worked together as a team and they have been most appreciative.

[Rushdoony] Your conferences have also extended abroad. You held a few in London and elsewhere in England. And these attracted people from the continent. Do you want to tell us what... either one of you or both of you about these English conferences?

[C. Miller] Oh, yeah, we... we have had... I will mention we have had two conferences in London and then one in ... at Chipping Norton. I think the last one was...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[C. Miller] ... a few years ago, but we were hated very much. In fact, actually, it was a ... those conferences were put on by the Foundation for Christian Reconstruction in England that Steven Perks and Mike Butcher head up and we met them and I think in... or I first met them in 1987. And...

[Rushdoony] Yes. We met them together, if you remember.

[C. Miller] Yes. I was there with you and Otto, right?

[Rushdoony] One of the aspects of the conference that to me is very important is that thought hat first conference we all became acquainted with Dr. Thomas Sheiermacher and his wife Dr. Christine Sheiermacher, two German professors. And at the last occasion on which Thomas Sheiermacher spoke he gave a lecture that I think is one of the most remarkable that we have ever had at a conference. And he developed the thesis that the biblical God is different from any other god that people have ever believed in or talked about in that he works. And therefore his people are to work.

So he laid down a tremendous program for Christian Reconstruction. Our God is a working God. He creates. He is active and his people have to be active. And, well, our whole cause and movement is a product of such a faith which Dr. Sheiermacher expressed so clearly.

Now on that first trip when we landed in Heathrow on a very wet day, we were met by Steven Perks and Michael Butcher. If you want to tell us about the formation of the Foundation for Christian Reconstruction in England and then we will hear from the men from England. You two were instrumental in helping them get started there.

[C. Miller] Well, Steven and Mike can probably almost speak to that better, but I do remember that rainy day when we arrived in London and you and I and Otto and ... were met by Steven and Michael and we all piled in to Michael’s car and one of you was even going to take the tube in to town because there was not enough room, but we finally managed to get us all into the car.

[Rushdoony] And all the luggage.

[C. Miller] And all the luggage. I think we were all except Mike who was driving, we were all holding luggage on our lap and...

[Voice] Yes

[C. Miller] And we went to the hotel and ... and then, of course, from there made you and Otto had speaking engagements all over England and you ended up in Scotland. But, I think, Steven you... was it shortly after that that you...

[Perks] Well, we ... we set up the Foundation for Christian Reconstruction earlier that year...

[C. Miller] In ’87.

[Perks] In 1987 as a registered charity in England. And it was shortly after setting that up that we began to distribute literature. And we met up with the ... you and Rush and Otto. And talked about the possibility of running a conference and it was, I think, 1989 the first conference. Was that right?

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[C. Miller] I think that is correct.

[Perks] Yeah, it was 1989, 1990 and 91.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Perks] There were three conferences, the International Conferences on Christian Reconstruction. And there... the first two were in London and the third one in Oxfordshire.

[Rushdoony] Some of the speakers we had at those three included Dr. David Estrada-Herrero, professor of philosophy in Spain, Jean Marc Bertaud from Switzerland, Dr. Thomas Sheiermacher from Germany and the Reverend Owen Forey from South Africa.

So they were truly international.

Oh, we had Iain Hodge at one, also from Australia.

[E. Miller] I would like to tell also that Sam Blumenfeld...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[E. Miller] Bluementhal came rather unexpectedly at the last minute and we said, “Well, we must have him speak.” So we got a room for him and he was going to speak on home education and Christian schools. And I was in that room and he is... there were some questions, well, how do you get... how do you get started and somebody else said, “Well, I am doing it.” Well at... in my... in my home. And somebody else popped up and said, “Well, I am doing it at my home.” And somebody else said, “Well, we are doing it, too.” And none even knew each other. None of them knew it... how... and the formed a group right then and there and they began the home teaching movement in England.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[E. Miller] That is now spreading very rapidly. But it was very exciting to be at that first conference to see it happen sort of right in front of my eyes.

[Rushdoony] At that time in 1987 through Steven Perks’ work, Sir Thomas Griffith....

[Perks] Oh, Brian Griffiths.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Voice] Sir Brian Griffiths.

[Rushdoony] The policy chief for Prime Minister Thatcher asked that I go to 10 Downing Street and he talked to me a great deal. He knew my book Messianic Character of American Education better than I did. I hadn't looked at it since I wrote it. But he knew sections of it almost by heart. And I wondered at his intense curiosity on the subject and didn’t realize until the day we left that the new education bill was being framed for all British education. So you had made the contact there, so...

[Perks] Yes, that is right. And we had met Brian Griffiths before he worked at the... at the policy unit in 10 Downing Street and it was when we met him on a previous occasion that I said you would be coming over to speak in England. And he expressed a desire to meet with you and so we therefore arranged the meeting and went along to see him at his office in 10 Downing Street.

[Rushdoony] Yes. We were there for hours with him questioning and some remarkable things were the consequence of it in the bill.

Now that was not the result of anything on our part, just simply he had the material and he applied it.

[Voice] Yeah, we don’t know the terms sometimes what the... what the implications of our actions are going to be. It is like you say at the conference for much of the people met together who had not known each other before and by making contacts, you know, they were able to carry on the work of Christian Reconstruction in their own lives and by meeting together they were obviously able to pool resources.

[Voice] When I first started thinking about the idea of home schooling my children, giving them a Christian education, I knew of nobody else doing that. I knew of one couple who wanted to do it and we ... when we decided to do this, before we ever had children. And it wasn’t really until we had the conferences that I met with other people who were interested and now I know quite a number of people. There is quite a network of people who know of each other and, therefore, we can get moral support and encouragement from each other with the home schooling. And it is through the conferences that we have got to meet such people. And so that is a very practical thing. Very often people are homeschooling are isolated not only isolated in the sense that there are no other people around doing that kind of thing but the churches they are in will not support them. In fact, we have found amongst Christians, it is actually Christians have been the most vehemently critical of the home schooling work.

Often we will tell non Christians what we are doing and they will say, “Well, that is an interesting idea. I wish I would have been able to do that.” But Christians, very often, in the churches will take a very contrary attitude. And so those who are doing it are often isolated in the sense that there aren’t others doing it. But... but they actually get opposition from their local church. So if they will have moral support from knowing others and being able to get together, say, once or twice a year, it is very important and it strengthens the whole movement.

[Rushdoony] One of the sad facts is that some churches are very, very cowardly. I know of an instance here in this country of a church with several thousand members and some of the leaders in their state in the home church movement are in the church. There are a few hundred children who are being home schooled and are in Christian schools among the members of that church. And yet the church refuses to take a stand, let alone start a Christian school because they feel the subject is controversial.

What makes it controversial is that they have some big wheels in the state school system in the congregation and they are afraid it might offend them.

Well, I am very glad to say that the kind of people that the Christian reconstruction movement reaches are not those timid souls. They are the ones who begin work on the ground level. And in that church a number have done so and their impact across not only their community, but the entire state is surprisingly great.

So a handful of individuals in this huge church are having a bigger impact not only in the home school movement, but in other Christian causes in the entire congregation.

What is happening now, just as a result of the work of Clint and Elizabeth Miller is far greater than we want to go into and we don’t want to go into some things that involve other people. We don’t want to embarrass them by calling attention to their works, but great things are happening. And the home church alone is reshaping the people who are there as a part of it.

Elizabeth, do you want to tell us what is happening in the home church that you and Clint started?

[E. Miller] Well, these are just little things that I have noticed as we have continued with this, but, at first, Clint and I were hosted it at our house every Sunday and we would have food afterwards and we would be very hospitable and people liked it, but they would say things like, “Oh, well, you are so good at it.”

Well, little by little as they continued to come one woman would say, “Well, maybe I will have the church at my house.”

And so now the women take turns and we go to one house and then we go to another house. But because we have done this, these people that were afraid to entertain before or have people in their home because it wasn’t quite right and it was too... they hadn't dusted quite properly, they now are able because they have the church coming in to host us very nicely. They have become gracious, wonderful hostesses. And they have learned this by having a church at their house.

The other thing that has been interesting is when we first started Clint always handled the Bible study. He would do the research and he would do the... we would do one chapter of the Bible each week. And later on in the day we would have a sermon by Dr. Rusdoony that the Bible study was our first thing and little by little and the men began to come and listen to the Word. Clint would say, “Would you like to do it next week?” And each one of the men now are handling the Bible study for a month at a time and they research it. They read Calvin. They read Dr. Rushdoony if he has written anything on the passage that we are studying and Matthew Henry is another book. We sometimes loan our books out so they can do this research.

So it isn’t all falling on two people’s shoulders. We are... we are bringing up the men who are attending in the church. And it has made it so wonderful for them to see their growth in not only listening, but in actually doing the research and giving the lesson. That is some of the things I have noticed.

[Rushdoony] Well that is how Christ’s work is going to succeed, when it is down on the personal level, when men become men and heads of households, men under God and when the women see themselves as having an important part in the kingdom, not spectators and listeners only, not an audience. And I think it is interesting that as they have grown in the faith they cease to be spectators, for example, where television is concerned. They are not watching television as much because they are now more active in their character.

Do you want to add to that, Clint?

[C. Miller] Well, just to say that all the men that are now doing this in our home church I am... are all doing an excellent job of it. Some of them have occupied and other aspetds of their life important positions in public institutions or in private corporations and certainly have spoken before, but they have taken to giving the Bible lessons very, very well and...

[Rushdoony] So now...

[C. Miller] ... have discovered talents in themselves that maybe they didn’t even know they had.

[Rushdoony] They can carry the faith into their every day life.

[C. Miller] Right. Exactly. Yes.

[Rushdoony] Steven, would you like to describe to us now the work in England and, of course, I know it is difficult to start something. We started Chalcedon, our first mailing we ran off a copy... 60 copies, six oh. We were ambitious and hopeful because we didn’t have 60 people on our mailing list. We kept some back in the hopes that there would be others to express interest to whom we could mail that first one and it has grown to thousands now, quite a few thousand and growing rapidly, in fact, daily.

You are at the early stages.

[Perks] That is right. Well, I had... we started in 1987. Prior to that I had been distributing literature from the Chalcedon Foundation in one or two of the places in the USA to friends. I think, in fact, it all started actually when I ... I said to a friend, if he promised to stop reading this particular Christian magazine that it was a Christian today guide, I would guarantee to provide him with something else that would ... that would be more substantial. And from that which almost started as sort of a joke, I decided that it would be... it would be a good idea to distribute the literature in England. And I am mailing this group from one or two people to 30 or 40 people that I sent out regularly every month the literature from Chalcedon and various other places.

But it came to a point that we decided that we needed to try and speak into our own cultural context and deal with some of the issues that were coming up in Britain and try to apply these principles to the British situation for British people.

And so we started the Foundation of Christian Reconstruction, established it as a charitable trust and we started having some sort of four page broad sheets printed and distributed. From that our mailing list grew. We sent them out free of charge to anybody who wanted them and asked for donations. Our mailing list eventually grew to such an extent that we couldn’t afford to distribute them on a free basis. So we... we went over to a magazine, a journal which is Christianity ... it is now called Christianity in Society which we distribute on a subscription basis and we have articles in there by people from all over. People have spoken at our conferences. We have people who have spoken at conferences over here and they send articles. We reprint the conference lectures and that is a quarterly journal that we send out.

Also as we have already spoken of, we have the conferences themselves. We also distribute tapes from the conferences. We distribute tape series, your Sunday lessons and the Easy Chair tapes. And we have also got an association of Christian Reconstructionists which is small group of people who are committed to the work of Christian Reconstruction and are helping to make it happen.

We meet twice a year. We meet for a think tank in which we discuss issues and how the faith might be applied to certain areas of life and we also have a yearly, a retreat where we have a family occasion and get together.

Probably the most practical fruit of what we have been trying to do has been the homeschooling and the Christian education side. That is something that we have stressed and promoted and we make it clear that we think that is very important and in a very real sense it is the high ground. We have to educate for the future. We have to bring our children up to be able to build on the work that we have done and take the cause further on. And we have to be future oriented because we have to realize that we in our own lifetime are probably not going to see the ultimate fruit of what we are doing. Therefore we have to train our children to carry on the work and build little by little, but build soundly.

There have also been other areas that we have promoted, very much so in England we have tried to promote the importance of business. In England, in Britain we have a very socialistic government and this is even while we have a conservative government. The conservative government is basically a socialistic government. And our economy suffers very greatly because of that.

We have tried to promote the whole idea that people should go into business, take responsibility for their own livings, their own livelihood and try to build business. And we have seen, as a result of the influence of Christian Reconstructionist principles in this area, certain businesses start, people become self employed and started businesses. And I think that is a very important area, particularly for us in Britain, because of the heavily socialized.... socialistic economy that we have.

It is somewhat better now because the 80s produced somewhat more of an enterprise economy with Margaret Thatcher, but it is nowhere near as enterprise an economy as America.

But we have tried to promote the ... the business side and the whole idea of taking responsibility upon yourself whether it is in your children’s education or whether it is in your business life. Because the one message that is shoved down the throats of the British people is that government will take on these responsibilities and people buy into this. And I would say probably as a fundamental principle, perhaps one of the most practical areas that we need to get the message of is that God gives us responsibilities and it is our duty to shoulder those responsibities. We may not abdicate them to others.

[Voice] Yeah, I mean, we have got a particular problem in... in Britain, because the people that would normally be giving out this message like the... the business people, cannot get through the media. One of the problems we have got is that the media has to give the both sides... both sides of the story. They have to have a balanced approached to everything. What they mean by balanced is there has to be humanism that they put over which obviously is not an unbiased approach. But what people get is half the story. They are getting half the story from, say, the ... the business community or the... loosely what would be called the right wingers. But then that has to be balanced by the left wing view, the more socialist view. And at the end of it, people are confused. And I talk to people and they say, “Well, you are... this argument sounds reasonable, but then when I hear the other side, then that seems reasonable.

It is very difficult getting through to people a consistent message. And the thing that is valued by people is ... is to hear a consistent message and Christian Reconstruction is, I would say, above all others at the moment, are giving a... a consistent line.

I mean, when I was in the workplace I remember people... people asking me my opinion of something. And they would... these same people would ridicule what they would call born against Christians. When they were talking about politics and economics and discussing those types of subjects they would actually end by asking me what my opinion was because they had actually seen a consistent view being given over the years and they... people do thirst for... for... for answers and they are not getting it certainly in Britain through... through the media which is the most powerful medium of communication.

[Perks] And, in fact, a lot of Christians really because they refuse to... in Britain because they refuse to think through all these different areas of life from a self consciously biblical perspective, they think that areas such as business and education and the like are not spiritual issues. Therefore, they concentrate on what they consider to be spiritual issues which is private devotional life, the church and perhaps a little bit of the family. They don’t think about them biblically. So they suck up unwittingly the views that are around them which are really the views that the media constantly push out. And what they do then when they are challenged by their view, these two kind of baptize them by a superficial appeal to Scripture and very often, therefore, what the church preaches the message it gives on an issue is very inconsistent, very confused. They take a bit from the Bible, but then they totally contradict it over here. And it is through the media you cannot get a very consistent line going that the airwaves and the television channels in Britain are strictly controlled. We are not allowed to have what is called a religious channel. I might say, in fact, that we do. We have Humanism shoved down our throats constantly.

But what they mean by religious is Christian or Muslim or Jewish. We are not allowed to have a religious channel on radio or on the television. So we have to get through that barrier, the media barrier. And I think that is one of the most important areas now. We pray about that regularly. And we need to see people raised upon the area of the media to try and bring a Christian perspective into that vital area.

[Rushdoony] Well, what you have done is to create your own media.

[Voice] Well, that is true. We have.... that is what we are trying to do through literature, through conferences and through the tapes. We are trying to do that. And we hope also eventually to go into producing videos. The problem with that is it tends to be rather capital intensive and it requires a certain amount of funding. That is something that we certainly want to pursue in the future, to try and provide both educational material and ... and videos to people listening. They watch the television. They listen to the radio and it is an interesting point that in the 17th century, for instance, the pulpit was the media.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Voice] That is where people got their information from. They kings would try and use the pulpit to get certain messages across.

The Puritans, for instance, would refuse to do that. And therefore the Christians were in control of the media.

Today there are all these other things.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Voice] And the Christians have lagged behind. They have abandoned these areas, because as technological improvements have come along they thought, well, that is not a spiritual thing so we don’t need to go into it. And, of course, we have to be in all these areas.

So now the Christian message is just a small aspect of the... the constant or the broad sweep of information that people take in or what we have to do is get back into those vital areas and present the gospel across the whole spectrum of... of the media.

[Rushdoony] I am sorry that Andrew Sandlin was not able to come this afternoon since he was not feeling well, but while still in Ohio Andrew began something quite remarkable. He started the Ohio Society for Christian Reconstruction. And they meet a couple of times a year for conferences, but they do more than that. We had on the cover of the April Chalcedon Report a picture of the Reverend Philip Bowman, an ex marine who was challenged when he was picketing abortion clinics with the inadequacy of what he was doing. It was a purely negative thing. What he persuaded these girls, he was challenged, not to have an abortion. And they could not have the ... keep the baby for one reason or another. What was he going to do then?

Well, he thought it through and he began to find homes for babies, unwanted babies, retarded babies, handicapped babies. He has two in his own home. And he has told John Upton , “Bring as many babies as you can from Romania. We have homes waiting for them.”

Now that is just one practical application.

Well, since Andrew has come here we have taken a first step towards together with the Schwartz’ in San Jose towards starting at least one California Society for Christian Reconstruction. We may have two in different parts of the state since this is a big state.

And they are going to think practically about what is their purpose. They are going to come together for meetings, but they are also going to look ahead to action.

Now I feel this is the wonderful thing about our cause that it has very practical impact. And I think we need to explore this area even further with people. Certainly you have applied it in Washington. And you applied it in England through these two men. And that is our future, faith and works.

Show me your faith, the apostle James says, by your works. And our Lord says, “By their fruits ye shall know them.”

Now I think we all need to think practically and one practical way is never to forget that any group that is involved in this kind of work needs help and we need to help the British Foundation for Christian Reconstruction.

Steven, Clinton, do you want to tell us something about that?

[Perks] Well, we do need help for the work that we are doing in England. We need financial support. The work that we are doing is controversial.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Perks] We find that, as you mentioned before, we are only a small group, but because we are putting forward a message and trying to build something positive, it seems to people that we have a... that we are bigger than we are, that we have an influence larger than...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Perks] ... would be suggested by our numbers. But what we do need is for support and financial support to keep the work going. It... it is expensive to publish journals and it is expensive to pay people of their time to do the work that is needed. We do have a... a journal, Christianity and Society which we distribute quarterly and it is 30 dollars per year for ... it is published quarterly, that is four issues a year. And you can get that from Christianity and Society. It is post office box 20514, Seattle, Washington, 98102. And if you want to know more about what the foundation is doing, you can also write to that address and we will send you information. If you can support the foundation at all with donations, it would help us greatly. You can send checks made payable to the Foundation for Christian Reconstruction to that same address and that will be passed on to us in Britain and it will very greatly help us in the work that we are doing over there.

We are a small group, but we are growing. The group is growing and the work is.... we are able to have far influence. I might just add one thing we have done recently is that we have established a new trust which is called the Institute of Christian Political Thought. The purpose of which is to try and launch a major Christian political initiative in Britain within the next two years or so. So we are also doing a lot of work on that score.

[Rushdoony] Michael, do you want to add to that?

[Michael] Oh, I was going to say, what is possibly holding us upon the political initiative is, again, a lack of funds, which Steve has outlined.

[Rushdoony] Also some of the Christian leaders are timid about being Christian publicly.

[Voice] Oh yes.

[Voice] Yes.

[Voice] Yes, they are... they are very much start to run a bit scared once we start putting forward positive alternatives.

Like you said, it is... it is easy to attack, you know, what... what... what is going on saying this is wrong, but once you start putting forward alternatives then people start getting a little bit nervous.

[Voice] The... the reason for the nerves is that what we are putting forward is a Christian alternative.

[Voice] Yes.

[Voice] So many lobbying groups and Christian organizations in Britain simply want to clean Humanism up.

[Rushdoony]

Yes.

[Voice] They don’t want to replace it with a thorough going biblical perspective and thoroughgoing biblical policies and actions. They want to smarten up Humanism, maybe remove the explicit sex from television and the explicit violence.

But, you see, the fundamental philosophical principles are still there if you simply clean up Humanism. And they continue to corrupt everything. They corrupt school curriculums. They corrupt people’s world views.

What we have to do is replace it with a Christian alternative and that is what we are seeking to do and I think that is what people find radical.

[Rushdoony] One Christian, with quotes, leader in the United States on national television said he would like a return to the 1950s which meant he wanted Humanism before it got explicit about sex and abortion and homosexuality, euthanasia and so on. And that is a very commonplace attitude. It leads to a negative program. You are against a series of things, but when it comes to what are you standing for, they are silent.

Clint, do you want to add to that?

[C. Miller] Yeah, I would just say that what Steven Perks and Mike Butcher are doing in England is very important and the FAR are a very small group, a very small enterprise and in regard to that I wanted to mention a couple of weeks ago in Seattle we heard a sermon by you, Rush, about Jesus and the woman at the well. And the point or one of the points there was that our Lord often works in furthering the faith and outside the normal established channels. After all, in Jesus’ time the high priest, the great temple in Jerusalem was not chief among our Lord’s supports.

[Rushdoony] They are still not.

[C. Miller] They are still not and instead we had a group of... or he had a group of disciples from all walks of life high and low. He worked through people such as the woman at the well and likewise in Britain today the rebuilding and the revitalization and the reform that is just beginning and should continue. It isn’t emanating from the office of the Archishop of Canterbury and it isn't emanating from very many established channels. And, instead, it is people like Steven and Mike and some of their cohorts where it is happening. And, as such, they need to be encouraged...

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[C. Miller] And are worthy of our support.

[Rushdoony] We should make a note of the fact that we have someone whom we came to know through the 1987 visit in Edinburgh in Scotland who is here training in the United States to go back and apply Christian Reconstruction and the reformed faith to Scotland. So I could add the same thing is happening in a number of other countries including Africa, but I won’t go into the specifics now. We will have more in the Chalcedon Report later on this year on that aspect of it.

But things are happening all over the world. And I think it is wonderful that people in England see you as a threat. That indicates they are afraid. They are disturbed by the fact that it isn’t cleaned up Humanism they are going to get, but the unadulterated biblical faith. And that is what we need more of.

Is there anything any of you would like to add in the minute or so we have left?

[C. Miller] I might just add if there are any listeners in the Seattle area that would be interested in coming to our home church there, they might give us a call.

[Rushdoony] Very good.

[C. Miller] Our telephone number is 206 329 8511. We would be...

[Rushdoony] Please do so if you are in that area. And call if you want any more instructions about starting a home church.

Well, thank you all for listening and God bless you.