Tag: www.chalcedon.edu

Rushdoony on ‘Education’ (Love of Life Podcast)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

R. J. Rushdoony: Champion of Faith and Liberty – Christ Rules

R.J. Rushdoony

Have you got a few minutes? Listen to R.J. Rushdoony introduce this Love of Life Podcast (interview with Chalcedon’s Andrea Schwartz). It doesn’t take him longer than that to make the case for a Christian education!

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/videos/the-love-of-life-podcast-interviews-chalcedons-christian-education-advocate

I’ve said it before: If we, the world’s people, were actually to do all the things that self-proclaimed saviors and experts of the Far Left Crazy say we ought to do–abortion, transgender, homosexuality, assisted suicide, etc.–the result would be the extinction of the human race. As King Solomon put it, the voice of God’s wisdom reminds us, “All they that hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:36).

If they can’t get to our children via public education, they can’t get ’em at all.

‘When You Hear the Bell, Come Out Writing’ (2019)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

the Bell Mountain series – Spread the Word

This is an article about how my Bell Mountain novels came to be written. Hopefully it will ignite an irresistible desire to buy them–and read them.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/when-you-hear-the-bell-come-out-writing

I was hoping Behold! (No. 12 in the series) would be published in time for Christmas, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Well, by the time you finish reading the others, it should be ready.

Come on, now–isn’t it time you met Jack and Ellayne, and squirrel-sized Wytt, who climbed the mountain? Obst the hermit, and Martis the assassin-turned-protector; Helki the Rod, the personification of the forest; Lord Reesh the villain (boooo! hiss!); King Ryons, born a slave; Gurun the queen, who came to Obann on a raft–they’re all waiting to do their stuff for you.

I mean, if you want to watch Law and Order reruns, that’s your business and you’re welcome to it…

If wonder what kind of response I’d get if I asked readers who’s their favorite Bell Mountain character. I just hit the wrong key and the whole screen went black for a moment. I wonder what that means.

R.J. Rushdoony, ‘Capitalization and Decapitalization’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Home - Rushdoony Radio

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.

‘How Should a Christian View Organ Transplants?’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

What's Wrong with Loving what God Hates? Ep. 179

Dr. Heidi Klessig is part of our blog fellowship, a regular visitor here. She was also invited a few days ago to be Andrea Schwartz’s guest on “Out of the Question.”

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/audio/how-should-a-christian-view-organ-transplants-ep-210-guest-heidi-klessig-m-d

Organ transplants is a thorny subject. I keep thinking of a line in The Princess Bride, spoken by Miracle Max: “Mostly dead is a little bit alive.” And that takes us straight to the heart of the ethical dilemma.

Who could be more helpless, more defenseless, than a hospital patient whom the doctors have given up for lost? And we do know what God thinks of taking advantage of the helpless, don’t we?

There’s a lot of food for thought here, and none of it’s easy.

‘The Problem IS Sin’ (Mark Rushdoony)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

The Evolution of Finger-Pointing: Part One, Forgiveness | Dizzy On a Tightrope

“Politics will never solve man’s basic problem of sin,” writes Mark Rushdoony.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/the-problem-is-sin

He got that one right, didn’t he?

Look, I’m a political scientist, got the papers to prove it. An all-purpose definition of “politics” is “the authoritative allocation of value.” But our politics seeks an authoritative allocation of blame. “We attack other men, not sin,” Rushdoony says. And some new scapegoat always comes along–or else is chosen arbitrarily by the newest battalion of blame-givers.

We “falsely limit evil to a group” until the next group is chosen: the sin itself is always passed on to whoever’s next in line.

Yeah, I know, I do it, too. We’re always advised to separate the sin from the sinner; but in too many cases that’s like separating the head from the body.

‘Social Justice’ (R.J. Rushdoony)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Rousas Rushdoony.jpg

In just a very few words, all the way back in 1978, R.J. Rushdoony demolished the whole concept of “social justice”–so don’t bother to wonder why the Wokies don’t like him.

https://chalcedon.edu/blog/social-justice

“Social justice does not exist. It is a myth,” he wrote. Sinners define right and wrong, so that for them sin equals virtue and lawlessness is law.

But the thrust of God’s justice is restitution and restoration, and taking responsibility for one’s actions. Any reading of Exodus and Leviticus will clearly teach that.

In “social justice” you just decide whom to blame and sic the state on him–the same state for which God’s laws don’t exist.  And we can all see how that turns out, can’t we?

R.J. Rushdoony: ‘The Culture War’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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)

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

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!

‘The Smiling Face of Evil’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Happy Devil Cartoon Clipart Vector - FriendlyStock

How do you tell the Devil is evil when he doesn’t look evil?

R.J. Rushdoony wrote this essay back in 1986, but it has a very long shelf life.

https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/the-smiling-face-of-evil

Bad enough that Satan deceives us; but how many are there who want to be deceived? As Rushdoony put it, “people earn hell.” They work for it, sacrifice for it, they’re always reaching for it. They think it’ll be a God-free zone where they can do anything they want and it’ll all turn out just fine.

I think of the grins on the faces of certain politicians… and then I think I understand precisely what Rushdoony meant.