Tag Archives: Rushdoony

The Downfall of Doug Phillips and Chalcedon’s Half-Hearted Defense of R. J. Rushdoony’s Legacy

The Kinist community has been watching with great interest the fallout from the public revelation of Doug Phillips’ marital infidelity. While I in no way celebrate the damage done by his sins, I am nevertheless rejoicing in the downfall of a man whose public and private actions have done so much harm to Christendom. Phillips never injured me personally, but let’s just say I find high-functioning pathological narcissists to be intellectually interesting. Plus, a number of my friends were not left unscathed, and Kinists tend to be very protective of their kith & kin from outside attacks. read more

Unity of the Godhead When Man is Your God

“[H]umanity is the true god of the Enlightenment and of French Revolutionary thought. In all religious faiths, one of the inevitable requirements of logical thought asserts itself in a demand for the unity of the godhead. Hence, since humanity is god, there can be no division in this godhead, humanity. Mankind must therefore be forced to unite. Since Enlightenment philosophy is monistic, this means an intolerance of differences as unessential. National and racial differences, instead of being God-given and possessing richness and dignity to be respected, are to be obliterated. The goal is not communion but uniformity. Again, since humanity is god, the killing of any man either for crimes or in warfare is an offense. (The only permissible killing is possibly George Bernard Shaw’s execution ‘in a kindly manner’ of the enemies of socialism.) Humanistic pacifism is the result, and a pro-one-World, United Nations, peace-at-any-price faith. The godhead must be united. This faith ﬁnds expression in the U. S. Department of State Publication 7277, ‘Freedom From War,’ September, 1961. This faith was expressed in the midst of war by Churchill and F. D. Roosevelt in Point 8 of the Atlantic Charter, and was ascribed to their governments: ‘They believe all the nations of the world, for realistic as well as spiritual reasons, must come to the abandonment of the use of force.’ But Scripture does not consider the legitimate use of force as an evil but rather as a necessity and a good to be used to prevent the rise and triumph of evil. Roosevelt’s faith required messianic intervention with force and at the same time a condemnation of all force! Because of this coincidence of messianic interventionism and pacifism, this philosophy has created war even where men have talked most about world peace. The very idea of a United Nations requires war, in that it insists on irreconcilable and contradictory things. First, it insists on uniting a world and leveling all differences. Anyone with a sense of integrity must inevitably resist this leveling. Second, it seeks to create a super-state which must increasingly coerce every state, civil government, and person into line with its dream of messianic power. Third, it seeks to arrest history and freeze it into a particular mold in terms of Enlightenment thought. Inevitably, this faith is anti-Christian, and a conflict with Christianity is requisite to its being.” ~ R. J. Rushdoony in This Independent Republic read more

World Missions: You’re Doing it Wrong

“[M]issionary programs have become downright wicked. The purpose of a missionary program is to preach the gospel. What have we made it? Well, we made it extensively, everything else under the sun. We have, among other things, established an education program. Now, this in itself has done incredible damage. It is one thing for Christians in a missionary field to set up their own schools as they become Christians and as they grow, and to train their won, it is another thing for us to go in there and establish schools according to our pattern. Because, what do we do the moment we create such schools? Well, when we go say into the heart of Africa or Asia and establish a mission school, immediately what we are establishing in that school is an American standard of life and an American standard of education which has no relevancy to the life in their village. And when they go back they are very unhappy. And we take the best of these students and we bring them to this country to colleges and universities, and when they go back it is impossible for them to live among their own people, and we support them, because it is impossible for them to get back to the same standard of living. And what do they become, most of them? Leaders of revolution. They are the communist leaders almost uniformly. read more

Trying to be God Through False Charity

“[G]odly man must recognize that he has the obligation to be without pity and without charity in dealing with some, that this attitude, however harsh it may seem in terms of modern sentimentality, constitutes moral strength and spiritual integrity. He must recognize that he cannot rob himself or others in order to feed the undeserving of the world, or the improvident who demand as their right a portion of our wealth. … [T]rue stewardship means a humility whereby man avoids a fundamental sin common to false charity, that of trying to be God. In false charity the whole world is re-ordered and the nature of reality amended by the rebellious man, a would-be god whose societal forms and life constitute an act of warfare against God and His Word. False charity is therefore a war against reality, and every war against reality is an insanity foreordained to destruction.” ~ R.J. Rushdoony in Politics of Guilt and Pity read more