What Went Wrong with the Christian Right
January/February 2006
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In recent years, under the influences of humanism on the one hand and pietism on the other, the church has withdrawn from many of its historic and basic functions.
Christians are often told, in not-too-friendly terms, to keep matters of personal faith out of the public arena.
Despite thousands of pages proving the contrary, critics of Christian Reconstruction persist in misinterpreting the goals of Biblical dominion. For them, “political takeover” is the one and only item on the Reconstructionist To-Do list.
“God made you!” Mica exclaimed proudly. “No, no Sweetie,” I said, “God made you, God made you!”
In 1776, Virginia’s Hanover Presbytery called on the legislature to “cast off the yoke of tyranny.”
The answer is simple: the Christian Right has refused to break with the worst assumptions of the pre-Christian Right.
Well, now, where was I? When I last spoke to you from these pages, in 1996, I had been for 11 years, writing a column for Chalcedon under the heading “Our Man In Washington.” In the interest of full disclosure, however, I must confess that, when I wrote, I never was really in Washington, D. C. I wrote often about what was going on in our nation’s capital. But I always wrote from where I live now, in Laurel, Maryland, which at least is close to Washington, D.C.
To hear some conservative Christians talk, you would think they were just as devoted to the state as is the political left.
Much like today thieves were a perpetual annoyance in the Mediterranean world. Unless one was wealthy or held great political or religious power, people could not afford to hire guards to protect their goods and property. So prevalent and anticipated was the thief that God provided Moses with clear penalties for theft. Stealing was a violation of the eighth commandment, and if the thief was caught the punishment usually entailed restitution (Ex. 22:1-4).
The publication of R. J. Rushdoony’s commentaries on the five books of Moses is no small matter.With the release in late 2005 of the third book in the series, Leviticus, we again find ourselves graced by the insights of the theologian who, perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, championed the relevance of the Law of God in the life of faithful Christians.
It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. (Psalm 100:3)