Talk:Rousas John Rushdoony

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[edit] Amendment

Rushdoony was correct in stating that the First Amendment was intitally intended to apply only at the federal level. Madison wanted it to say, "Neither the United States nor any State shall make any law regarding the establishment of a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," but other Founders prevailed upon him not to include this out of fear that the Bill of Rights would then not be ratified and that there would be a chance that the country could then fall into civil war. Establishment was already down to around six of the thirteen states at the point of the ratification of the Bill of Rights, I think; the idea that all of the states still had state churches then is incorrect. But in any event, the Fourteenth Amendment has generally been intrepreted as preventing any state from doing anything at the state level that the federal government cannot do at the national level.

While Rushdoony is correct that the Founders were greatly influenced by Christian ideas and even that some of them were practicing Christians, the thought that somehow that most or many of them were supporters of any kind of "Christian theocracy" being the form of government for the United States is just flat wrong. Their concept of religious diversity was undoubtedly limited for the most part to the Judeao-Christian tradition and they presupposed what would now perhaps be called "Protestant morality" as a norm, but the idea that they saw something like seventeenth-century Puritan Massachusetts as the American ideal is ahistorical, and basically wrong.

Rlquall 12:14, 9 Sep 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Democracy and political views

An anon recently removed the "he objected to democracy" section:

"Christianity and Democracy are inevitably enemies" Rousas Rushdoony [1]

A friend tells me that, "Rushdoony was opposed to any form of government which rejects God's law and which thereby elevates and expands the role and influence of the state beyond its God-given functions as revealed in the Bible, specifically defense and justice." This friend also suggests that a bald assertion that "he objected to democracy" would be taking statements out of context. I suggest we readd something on Rushdoony's views on democracy and government that provides some of this context. — Matt Crypto 19:00, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Education

I personally don't know what a "C. Sing." degree is. But it's listed under Rushdoony's heading in the Berkeley alumni database (http://cal.berkeley.edu), so I'm listing it here. Sakhalinrf