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R.J. Rushdoony, ‘Capitalization and Decapitalization’

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R.J. Rushdoony–he didn’t need a crystal ball to see the future.

I know the title is a little dry and the essay is a long one, but stay with it. R.J. Rushdoony wrote it back in 1967, and it’s still as true as ever. Maybe even more so.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/capitalization-and-decapitalization

“Capitalization is the product of work and thrift,” he said; and these are the product of character. Specifically Christian character. But “socialism is organized larceny,” and its result is decapitalization–more need, less money!–and not only inflation and want, but also a deterioration of character itself. “Things which were once intolerable and forbidden are now openly promoted and sponsored,” Rushdoony wrote. Can you say “transgender”? We go from secret, hidden vices to abominations openly performed.

As our culture, our character, deteriorates, so does our productivity. The inflation that we face today, the worst in 40 years, is exactly what Rushdoony would have predicted.

We can’t just let it all keep going as it’s going.

R.J. Rushdoony: ‘The Culture War’

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Fallout' Tells The Story Of The Journalist Who Exposed The 'Hiroshima Cover-Up' : NPR

Natural goodness, eh?

This little essay by Rushdoony, first published in 1999, packs a sharp punch.

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/the-cultural-war

“Culture war” has been with us for most of my life. Rushdoony boiled it down to Original Sin vs. the “natural goodness” of man.

Let’s scratch our heads over this. The world has just finished fighting World War II, complete with the Holocaust and the atomic bomb. Then war springs up in Korea.

And the world’s intellectuals, and more than a few churchmen, want us to believe that man is naturally good? For that to be true, God’s word must be wrong. So they set themselves up as “God’s editor” and proceed to correct all the mistakes they say He made. Poor God. What would He do without us?

Original Sin vs. natural goodness: “This is the dividing line,” Rushdoony wrote. And we can forget about trying to merge good and evil. All you get out of that is good that used to be good but now is corrupted by evil.

‘Will God Heal the Nations?’ (Martin Selbrede)

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Will God Heal the Nations? Ep. 204 (guest Martin Selbrede)

Have you got an hour to expand your understanding of God’s word? If you do, Martin Selbrede has a podcast for you.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/audio/will-god-heal-the-nations-ep-204-guest-martin-selbrede

We live in “an injured world,” Martin says, which God can and will heal. But a major obstacle to our healing is our disbelief. Although “God will not despise the day of small things” (Zechariah 4: 9-10)… we do! We want big things! The kind of things that cost trillions of dollars, go on year after year, and never solve the problem.

Martin cites the example of Naaman, a Syrian general afflicted with leprosy (in 2 Kings 5: 1-19), who hears that there’s a prophet in Israel, Elisha, who can heal him. Expecting to pay a high price for it, Naaman loads up his valuables and sets out to see the prophet. But he never gets there. Elisha knows he’s coming and sends out a servant to tell him that if he wants to be healed, he should bathe himself seven times in the River Jordan.

Naaman feels insulted! “He wanted to do something massive,” not simple. Something expensive. He’s about to turn back to Syria when one of his aids suggests that if the prophet had counseled him to do something costly and difficult, he would have surely done it: so why not do something simple? What does he have to lose? So Naaman follows Elisha’s instruction, dips himself in this rather unimpressive stream–and is healed of his leprosy. At no cost.

The Bible gives us God’s instructions for healing deep, festering problems… and we don’t believe them. We don’t follow them. We want massive government programs. Not some simple tithe! Not repentance, not spiritual and moral regeneration!

You’ll find much to chew on in this lesson. (It refers back to Martin’s essay, “The Scope of Healing,” which I posted yesterday.)

‘The Scope of Healing’ (Martin Selbrede)

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Martin Selbrede | heroinamerica

Why can’t our civilization solve its biggest problems?

Because we’re always “abandoning the world to humanism” and respond with disbelief to Biblical solutions, says Martin Selbrede.

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/the-scope-of-healing

Because we’re all hung up on merely personal holiness, and merely physical healing, we “barricade our hearts behind a wall of theological excuses” and fail to seek healing on God’s terms–terms that apply to the healing of nations and even to the healing of the earth itself. If only we could spend enough money! If only we could develop more powerful technology! If only government had more authority!

The money gets spent, technology advances, we grow the government–and the problems remain… often growing worse because our humanist solutions don’t work.

This is a fairly long essay, but stick with it–plenty of food for thought!

‘Jumping Off a Cliff’ (Mark Rushdoony)

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Will you jump off that cliff? -

God doesn’t have to punish every sin; a lot of them punish themselves. Hence the title of Mark Rushdoony’s essay, Jumping Off a Cliff. The consequences of a sin, or a folly, provide the punishment.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/jumping-off-a-cliff

We have pursued “a foolhardy course for several generations,” Mark writes, and by now the degradation of our culture has grown painfully obvious. It’ll take more than just elections to fix it. Whole-hearted Christian reconstruction is our only hope to repair the damage.

Even as breaking God’s laws brings on its own punishment, so does keeping them bring on its own blessing.

And we are very much in need of blessing!

Fantastic Rushdoony Quote!

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Photo History: Nearly Two Years Into 'Red for Ed,' Memorable Scenes From the Ongoing Wave of Teacher Protests – The 74

Changing your lives… with your money!

In a 1978 essay on the crusading mentality, R. J. Rushdoony hit the bullseye with this quote.

“Crusaders want to accomplish great things with other people’s lives and money…” (https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/crusading). Really, what more needs to be said?

A lot of us are just not made that way. We want to live our lives in peace, get on with our business in peace, and enjoy our families in peace. We don’t understand the insatiable lust for power over others.

I wonder what Rushdoony would say if he were here to write about the goings-on in 2022. But that duty has been passed on to us who are here today.

 

‘Science and Magic’ (Rushdoony, 1996)

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A Tribute to R. J. Rushdoony

Our culture was already in trouble when R.J. Rushdoony wrote this essay in 1996. It has not gotten better since.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/science-and-magic

One thing has changed, though, that wasn’t so glaringly apparent in 1996:

Science nowadays is heavily politicized–almost to the point where it isn’t “science” at all. Can you say “Climate Change scam”? Transgender movement? “Vaccines” that don’t work but earn a lot of money? “Green energy” that costs a nearly infinite amount of public money but doesn’t work? I mean, just for starters…

That’s all what happens with “science” and politics wind up in bed together. They corrupt each other–and they weren’t exactly squeaky-clean to start with.

Rushdoony believe that Christians have to work to build a Christian culture. Like humanists labor unceasingly to build a Godless humanist culture. They work at it. We haven’t. And it shows.

‘The World the Libs Would Build’ (2017)

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Silhoutte Telling Story Art of Man in the Cage Stock Vector - Illustration of jealousy, control: 220584647

Five years have passed since I wrote this; and the danger has grown greater, not less. The world’s self-proclaimed elites are out to enslave us, and if they half to kill us all to do it, that’s okay with them.

The World The Libs Would Build

Look what they did to us in the “pandemic”–and they’re just getting started! What wonderful new powers will vote-by-mail give them? They’re already calling most of us “useless eaters,” fit only to be sedated by drugs and video games.

Call upon the almighty Lord of Hosts: He can cut them down.

Let’s See What Y*O*U Think

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Cat Question Mark Photos - Free & Royalty-Free Stock Photos from Dreamstime

I’ve just written my Newswithviews column (huff-puff!), in which I posed a question which I want to throw open to regular readers of this blog. Casuals are welcome, too.

Question: What do these off-putting nooze stories have in common?

*New Orleans erects statue of naked woman in the coils of a serpent.

*Kamala Harris sounds the alarm, “Women are getting pregnant every day in America!” Sheesh. Man the lifeboats.

*Rugby team forced to wear jerseys that promote “Gay Pride.”

*Nooze network reports election results a week before the election is held.

*Crayola hires “trans man” to sell crayons to children.

You’ll find my answer Thursday, in the column. But until then, I’d love to know what you think these have in common. Let’s have a conversation about it! We might well find it edifying.

P.S.–All of these stories can be found here on my blog.

Rushdoony: ’20th-Century Plans of Salvation’

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R.J. Rushdoony wrote this essay over 20 years ago, as that lamentable 20th century was winding down.

https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/twentieth-century-plans-of-salvation

In a very few words (quite an achievement!), Rushdoony summed up that century’s “heritage of failure” as worldly schemes for salvation, one after another, had their days in the sun and went promptly belly-up. We tried everything we could think of–except God’s word–and it all failed us: politics, education, money, and war. Even a pagan like Robert Graves saw his own 20th-century world as an unholy alliance of Mars, the god of war, Pluto, the god of wealth, and Mercury, the god of thieves.

But the answers, Rushdoony knew, were to be found in the same place where they’ve been always found–in God’s own enscriptured word.