The Library
July/August 2014
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My father, Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001), was not one to boast of the naughty things he had done as a youth, but he would recount the challenge his parents had in getting him to stop reading and go to bed. He admitted his deception: he would turn out the light and leave the door open a crack, just enough to let in a sliver of light by which he could read. I have a list he compiled at a very young age of the books he had read.
In the previous two articles in this series, we contrasted the revolutionary achievements of Dr. Punyamurtula Kishore in the field of addiction treatment with the treatment given him in return by the state of Massachusetts.
“People look at all the trashy books, movies, and music of today and compare them to books from the past and bemoan the fact that the standards for the arts have collapsed in recent decades. The truth of the matter, however, is that the past has plenty of trash in its own right. The trash of the past simply did not survive to the present. The ‘historical classics’ of today were not well known in their time, but their worth carried them down through the years to our own time. Because we’re inundated with today’s popular trash, we cannot yet see the best of today’s authors and filmmakers and musicians. In ten or fifteen years history will weed out what’s useless, permitting the cultural gems from our current decade to be clearly seen.”
It seems as if the priests of humanism’s academia have finally claimed victory over what passes for scholarship today. They have successfully filled both public and university libraries with so much junk it is almost impossible to tell one lie from another. Among too many modern Christians the topic of scholarship, serious research, and the importance of books is one of the furthest things from their minds. Scholarship seems to be a thing of the past. Even books themselves have lost their allure, being replaced by superficial Internet surfing, iPhones, iPods, video games, and anything that can easily distract modern man from serious reading and study.
Among the fondest memories of my childhood were our Saturday morning trips to the public library. I loved being around all those books stacked on beautiful shelves nested in mahogany-paneled walls. So it was not really surprising that, early on in my homeschooling career, we made frequent trips to the library and I would allow the children to pick out books on subjects that interested them. However, the more I became a student of R. J. Rushdoony, the more I realized that the public library was by no means a “neutral” place. In fact, I discovered that it was a repository of humanistic views diametrically opposed to a true Christian world and life view, cloaked in an illusion of “neutrality.”
Paul in this chapter has one concern. He has been having problems with the Corinthian church. He is going to visit them again, and he knows that they are already raising objections. The last time he was there, he called attention to many sins in the members, and demanded that they deal with the sins, and that the congregation repent. As a result, there were a number in the church who were very unhappy about Paul returning.
If you’ve got a fairly sizable library of Chalcedon material at your home, you may want to consider looking at other volumes that, in their own way, will further equip and edify you and your family. The following books represent an interesting cross-section of sanctified Christian thought that would add value to any library. While not intended as substitutes for the unique offerings of Chalcedon, they all represent aspects of the faith for all of life that should garner respect among all thinking Christians.
Seven years after he was fired from his job, middle school science teacher John Freshwater hopes the United State Supreme Court will hear his case.