Our Threatened Freedom

Freedom or Control

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 12-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 012

Dictation Name: Vol. A – Part 12 – Freedom or Control

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom. The issue, freedom or controls.

Recently a case went to court in which a federal agency sought to compel a theological seminary to conform to the E.E.O.C hiring or employment requirements. The seminary in question was the South Western Baptist Theological Seminary. All employees of the seminary must be southern Baptists or members of similar denominations and all faculty employments are made in terms of godliness as well as scholastic merit.

To this, E.E.O.C. objected. The court ruled that E.E.O.C. did not have jurisdiction over the seminary, because the curriculum and the school are clearly religious. Because the school had submitted to accreditation for administration benefits and to the Texas department of education spot checks, E.E.O.C held that these constituted wavers of 1st Amendment protection.

Although this case resulted in a victory for the seminary, the victory is limited to that case. There is no reason to believe that various state and federal agencies will not continue their efforts to control Christian colleges and seminaries. In fact, everything points to an increase on all fronts of efforts to control the Church and all kinds of religious institutions. What we are facing is an increasing war against all freedom of religion.

I myself, as a witness in a number of cases, have heard state attorneys refer to the 1st Amendment as a document of historical interest only.

One such attorney insisted that a dynamic view of constitutional law and development requires us to see the necessity for federal and state controls.

In his thinking all meaning in the 1st Amendment, as we have known it, is null and void. In other words, freedom of religion, freedom of press, speech, assembly and petition, should be subject to careful and strict controls. There’re even some who hold that it should be illegal for people to try to influence their congressmen or senators. For all such people, the great enemy is freedom.

Now it is very true that freedom can be, and it is commonly, abused. It is very easy to chronicle the abuses of freedom. However, the abuses of power and of controls are far more common, and far greater.

We cannot have perfection this side of heaven and it is a mistake to hope for it. The demand for power to control is based on the belief that abuses can be eliminated, given enough regulation. This is a deadly belief.

The only people who are never out of line are in a graveyard. Every attempt to regulate and to control men into a perfect society, gives us instead a graveyard society. In the name of a new heaven, such regulators place us in hell instead.

There is a war going on against freedom. The basic freedom is religious liberty. If we lose that, we are then a slave people, living in a slave state. Now more than ever, we need to help those who fight in defense of the 1st Amendment. The basic freedom is always freedom for the faith. Religious liberty thus must be defended as crucial for our future.

Copies of this broadcast are available from R.J. Rushdoony. [Address]

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