Our Threatened Freedom

How Much Honesty is There in Civil Government

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Political Studies

Lesson: 42-169

Genre: Conversation

Track: 042

Dictation Name: Vol. D - Part 03 - How Much Honesty is There in Civil Government

Location/Venue: Unknown

Year: 1980’s – 1990’s

[Dr. Rushdoony] How much honesty is there in civil government? This is R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

The year 1980 was an interesting one. As one columnist pointed out, more congressmen were convicted than members of the mafia. And more than a few evidences of dishonesty in high places were revealed. There was, however, one bit of good news, and of all places, from the internal revenue service. The IRS audited the personal returns of some of its own auditors. Not many of us have a good word for the IRS, but this audit does deserve one. The results were very interesting. The IRS selected one hundred and sixty eight of its own auditors for audit. The choice was a random selection. There were serious errors in half of these returns. Of those in error, forty-two of the auditors had underpaid their income tax by an average of seven hundred and twenty dollars. The general public’s underpayment is half that amount, approximately three hundred and forty dollars.

Now, this raises a very interesting moral problem. If a watchman is less honest then the people he is watching, then he is not much of a watchman. Most federal agencies are almost certainly by no means as efficient as the IRS. If these agencies are more wasteful, and data reveals that they are, and less honest, and the evidence seems to indicate this is so, then the general public is in trouble. Then we are not only badly governed, but we are wrongly governed.

After all, we do have a right to expect our police to be more honest than the criminals, our clergymen to be more godly and obedient to the Lord than the flock, and federal officials to be more honest than the public. The old line is still true, ‘Caesar’s wife must be above reproach’, and so to must be Caesar, and Caesar’s assistants. If they are not, then cynicism and bitterness quickly infect people. At one time the idea was commonplace, that the function of civil government is to be an umpire or referee, not taking sides, but administering even-handed justice.

Now federal and state governments and agencies have become the rule makers, coaches, players, and manipulators. They are no longer like arbitrators in a game, they own and control the game. The result is social disorder. Our present scene is marked by distrust and cynicism. In recent years, one president campaigned for office, in the promise of bringing us together, only to divide us all the more. No party, nor man, can bring us together, especially not so when no one shows any trust, nor can, with any common sense, show trust in man. Our old motto which is still on our coins is ‘In God We Trust’, which means in God, not in politicians, the federal government, the president, or the bureaucracy. When we trust in God, we ourselves will become more trustworthy, to the degree that we obey Him, and order our lives in terms of His Word. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, is an ancient and tried truth and wisdom. We need to rebuild in terms of it.

This has been R.J. Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.