Basic Education
Education must be in the basics of life, or else it is miseducation and impoverishment.
- R. J. Rushdoony,
Education must be in the basics of life, or else it is miseducation and impoverishment. The three fundamental areas are, first, religious education. Since the triune God is the Creator, and the most important fact of life, because He is Life (John 14:6), to neglect Him in our schools is to educate for ignorance.
Second, the family is the central and basic institution on earth. It is our first school, church, vocation, government, and much, much more. To be ignorant of the importance of the family is to be educated as a fool. Our fundamental human relationship is all-important to our personal and national well-being. Its neglect is criminal.
Third, education must emphasize the basic learning skills. Those skills and knowledge are the tools of everyday life. To educate a child poorly is like sending a soldier into battle without a gun.
This is why the Scriptures stress so strongly the importance of education. In Deuteronomy, we have Moses’ summary of God’s law for families. In Proverbs, we have instruction for a young man. Throughout Scripture, the instruction of the whole man is stressed.
If we want to perish as a nation, we can do so easily, by neglecting basic education. This is, in fact, what many are doing. We are producing an unfit generation of drugged youth who are stumbling through life towards death. This must be what we want, because too many of us work for it, and pay for it.
- 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.