The Ten Fundamentals of Modern Statism ~ R.J. Rushdoony (April, 1985)
- R. J. Rushdoony
1. The first duty of every state is to protect the state, not the people.
2. Other states are occasional enemies; the people are the continual enemies.
3. The purpose of taxation is confiscation, control, the redistribution of wealth, control, the support of the civil government, and control.
4. All steps to increase state power must be done in the name of The People, but the people are to be used and stripped of freedom in the process.
5. Freedom is dangerous; controls are good.
6. Freedom must be redefined; it is a right to be morally loose and irresponsible, but Christian morality is social slavery.
7. Children are the property of the state.
8. The two great sources of evil are the church and the family.
9. The only world is the world; there is no God, no heaven, nor hell.
10. Anything the state operates or does is good, in any and all spheres: education, war, peace, spending, and so on. What is "public" or statist is good; what is "private" is bad.
- R. J. Rushdoony
Rev. R.J. Rushdoony (1916–2001), was a leading theologian, church/state expert, and author of numerous works on the application of Biblical law to society. He started the Chalcedon Foundation in 1965. His Institutes of Biblical Law (1973) began the contemporary theonomy movement which posits the validity of Biblical law as God’s standard of obedience for all. He therefore saw God’s law as the basis of the modern Christian response to the cultural decline, one he attributed to the church’s false view of God’s law being opposed to His grace. This broad Christian response he described as “Christian Reconstruction.” He is credited with igniting the modern Christian school and homeschooling movements in the mid to late 20th century. He also traveled extensively lecturing and serving as an expert witness in numerous court cases regarding religious liberty. Many ministry and educational efforts that continue today, took their philosophical and Biblical roots from his lectures and books.