WHO IS GARY NORTH? HOW MUCH "PULL" DO HE AND "CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTIONISTS" HAVE IN TODAY'S RELIGIOUS RIGHT?
Who is Gary North? He is one of today's leading proponents of the Christian Reconstructionist movement. How closely related is his movement to the "Christian Right" of today? I believe this question bears some research.
Take a look at the following, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. If the links included in this post will work, there's a lot of frightening information here. My post is a composite of two Wikipedia entries, one on Gary North and one on his relative, Mr. Rushdoony.
(Redirected from Christian Reconstructionist)
Christian Reconstructionism is a religious and political movement within Protestant Christianity. It calls for Christian dominion over government and the enforcement of the general principles of Old Testament moral law, as expounded in the case laws and summarized in the Decalogue. It is opposed to some forms of religious tolerance, but it is equally opposed to Erastianism (from Thomas Erastus, 1524-1583, the doctrine of the supremacy of the state in ecclesiastical causes; but the problem of the relations between church and state is one on which Erastus nowhere enters), so it seeks for denominational tolerance within the bounds of Yahwistic Christianity. Further, Christian Reconstructionism does not seek to establish laws to regulate beliefs, only actions, thus religious tolerance is not absolutely shunned, only those forms in which actions that are contrary to the general princples of the moral law (e.g., blasphemy, public dissemination of idolatry) are encouraged or left unsanctioned.
It is best known in the United States of America, where its most vocal advocate was Rousas John (R. J.) Rushdoony.
Rushdoony's first focus was on behalf of homeschooling, which he saw as a way to combat the secular nature of the U.S. public school system, and he vigorously attacked the liberal philosophers who had influenced the development of said education system, such as Horace Mann and John Dewey. He also stressed that Christianity had always been present in U.S. history; and while he supported separation of church and state at the national level, he claimed that the First Amendment was designed to protect the already existing "state churches" in each of the colonies—thus, the amendment had not been designed to wholly secularise society, as it had been used to do.
His first book in 1959 was an analysis of the philosophy of Christian Apologist, Cornelius Van Til entitled, "By What Standard?" He also wrote several book reviews that were published in the Westminster Theological Journal. And wrote many other books applying the Van Tillian presuppositional philosophy to critiquing various aspects of secular humanism.
Perhaps his most famous work, however, was The Institutes of Biblical Law. With a title modelled after Calvin's The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Rushdoony's Institutes were arguably his most influential work. In it he proposed that biblical law should be applied to modern society—to wit, that there should be a theocracy; and discussed how to go about doing this. He also proposed great freedom in the economic realm of public life, following in this the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and calling himself a Christian libertarian.
Some quotes from Rushdoony:
"God in His law requires the death penalty for homosexuals." [R.J. Rushdoony, Reconstructionist theologian, in a letter to Mel White]
"Democracy is the great love of the failures and cowards of life." [R.J. Rushdoony, _Thy Kingdom Come_,1978]
"The 'civil rights' revolutionary groups are a case in point. Their goal is not equality but power. The background of Negro culture is African and magic, and the purposes of magic are control and power. . . Voodoo or magic was the religion and life of American Negroes. Voodoo songs underlie jazz, and old voodoo, with its power goal, has been merely replaced with revolutionary voodoo, a modernized power drive." (p. 61) [R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law]
"All who are content with a humanistic law system and do not strive to replace it with Biblical law are guilty of idolatry. They have forsaken the covenant of their God, and they are asking us to serve other gods. They are thus idolaters, and are, in our generation, when our world is idolatrous and our states also, to be objects of missionary activity. They must be called out of their idolatry into the service of the living God. "
"The goal is the developed Kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem, a world order under God's law." [R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1973), p. 357]
Christian Reconstructionism is closely related, perhaps indistinguishable, from Dominionism, and is based on the ideas of Theonomy (the establishment of "God's law" in the civil order) and Dominion Theology.
Christian Reconstructionists generally hold to a form of Postmillennial Eschatology, though the distinctive tenets of the movement (generally referred to as Theonomic Ethics or Theonomy) are purported to be compatible with other eschatological viewpoints.
It is unrelated to Reconstructionist Judaism..
So, after all that, what do you think? These folks are viewed as crackpots by many Americans, but there are large numbers of "true believers" who follow this line.
Take a look at the following, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. If the links included in this post will work, there's a lot of frightening information here. My post is a composite of two Wikipedia entries, one on Gary North and one on his relative, Mr. Rushdoony.
(Redirected from Christian Reconstructionist)
Christian Reconstructionism is a religious and political movement within Protestant Christianity. It calls for Christian dominion over government and the enforcement of the general principles of Old Testament moral law, as expounded in the case laws and summarized in the Decalogue. It is opposed to some forms of religious tolerance, but it is equally opposed to Erastianism (from Thomas Erastus, 1524-1583, the doctrine of the supremacy of the state in ecclesiastical causes; but the problem of the relations between church and state is one on which Erastus nowhere enters), so it seeks for denominational tolerance within the bounds of Yahwistic Christianity. Further, Christian Reconstructionism does not seek to establish laws to regulate beliefs, only actions, thus religious tolerance is not absolutely shunned, only those forms in which actions that are contrary to the general princples of the moral law (e.g., blasphemy, public dissemination of idolatry) are encouraged or left unsanctioned.
It is best known in the United States of America, where its most vocal advocate was Rousas John (R. J.) Rushdoony.
Rushdoony's first focus was on behalf of homeschooling, which he saw as a way to combat the secular nature of the U.S. public school system, and he vigorously attacked the liberal philosophers who had influenced the development of said education system, such as Horace Mann and John Dewey. He also stressed that Christianity had always been present in U.S. history; and while he supported separation of church and state at the national level, he claimed that the First Amendment was designed to protect the already existing "state churches" in each of the colonies—thus, the amendment had not been designed to wholly secularise society, as it had been used to do.
His first book in 1959 was an analysis of the philosophy of Christian Apologist, Cornelius Van Til entitled, "By What Standard?" He also wrote several book reviews that were published in the Westminster Theological Journal. And wrote many other books applying the Van Tillian presuppositional philosophy to critiquing various aspects of secular humanism.
Perhaps his most famous work, however, was The Institutes of Biblical Law. With a title modelled after Calvin's The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Rushdoony's Institutes were arguably his most influential work. In it he proposed that biblical law should be applied to modern society—to wit, that there should be a theocracy; and discussed how to go about doing this. He also proposed great freedom in the economic realm of public life, following in this the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and calling himself a Christian libertarian.
Some quotes from Rushdoony:
"God in His law requires the death penalty for homosexuals." [R.J. Rushdoony, Reconstructionist theologian, in a letter to Mel White]
"Democracy is the great love of the failures and cowards of life." [R.J. Rushdoony, _Thy Kingdom Come_,1978]
"The 'civil rights' revolutionary groups are a case in point. Their goal is not equality but power. The background of Negro culture is African and magic, and the purposes of magic are control and power. . . Voodoo or magic was the religion and life of American Negroes. Voodoo songs underlie jazz, and old voodoo, with its power goal, has been merely replaced with revolutionary voodoo, a modernized power drive." (p. 61) [R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law]
"All who are content with a humanistic law system and do not strive to replace it with Biblical law are guilty of idolatry. They have forsaken the covenant of their God, and they are asking us to serve other gods. They are thus idolaters, and are, in our generation, when our world is idolatrous and our states also, to be objects of missionary activity. They must be called out of their idolatry into the service of the living God. "
"The goal is the developed Kingdom of God, the New Jerusalem, a world order under God's law." [R.J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: Craig Press, 1973), p. 357]
Christian Reconstructionism is closely related, perhaps indistinguishable, from Dominionism, and is based on the ideas of Theonomy (the establishment of "God's law" in the civil order) and Dominion Theology.
Christian Reconstructionists generally hold to a form of Postmillennial Eschatology, though the distinctive tenets of the movement (generally referred to as Theonomic Ethics or Theonomy) are purported to be compatible with other eschatological viewpoints.
It is unrelated to Reconstructionist Judaism..
So, after all that, what do you think? These folks are viewed as crackpots by many Americans, but there are large numbers of "true believers" who follow this line.
2 Comments:
[Hey Snave my sites gone rouge again mid-post session, so I'll add a response in your commentry.
[Snave wrote]
Heh!
I did notice you are a Pixies fan. My favorite Pixies CD is "Doolittle". "Monkey Gone To Heaven" and "Debaser" are classics, and I think "Here Comes Your Man" is one of the best hit singles never to become popular.
I'm also a big fan of the Finn Brothers/Split Enz/Crowded House. You're from NZ, do you like those artists? I think they're immensely talented!
[Damien wrote]
Tim and Neil are NZ royalty,
Honestly NZ is small enough to virtually know everybody through somebody. The handful of times I’ve been to Te Awamutu [Tea hour moo two, their small hometown] I’d seen Tim out shopping, seen Neil live a couple of times as a student in Hamilton. If you liked Neil and Tim try and find these NZ artists. Dave Dobbin [this guy kicks ass], The Mutton Birds and The Exponents [same era similar styles, actually I’ll search for ya and try to find online mp3s].
The first time I heard ‘Surfer Rosa’ by the Pixies I thought they were on another planet. The end sequence of ‘Fight Club’, best ending ever!!! [although the movie has dated poorly]. [Plus the Gay marriage bill will pass in NZ this Tuesday, I'll post about that in a week]
It depresses me greatly, because it's a logical progression from the thinking of many ultra-right religious radicals and conservative evangelicals. It frightens me, actually. How sad how our country has evolved, to this point, from its brillinat beginnings. (Heart, Soul & Humor...http://HeartSoulandHumor.blogspot.com )
Post a Comment
<< Home