Earlier this week I kept asking presuppositionalists where do we go for our interpretation of Scripture. Of course, I got accused of being “emotional” when I was asking a serious question.
R. J. Rushdoony, a renowned Christian dominionist icon (yeah, big time influence on Gary North [who was Rushdoony's son-in-law] who influences Ron Paul and the Tea Party Movement). I have already showed problems with North’s interpretation of Scripture, which means he has to take it out of its historical, linguistic, and cultural context to arrive at his conclusions. Rushdoony is by no means any less problematic.
In Rushdoony’s The Institutes of Biblical Law, RJR makes a case, defending racial segregation and human enslavement based on ethnic background and race. No objective scholar can deny this polemical approach to the Bible, and call it “biblical” yet some still do. Sure, he would slam Marxism and the Darwinism, but he still believed in eugenics: “Selective breeding in Christian countries has led to … the progressive elimination of defective persons” in Foundations of Social Order. For more, see this post on Unreasonable Faith: :RJ Rushdoony: Reconstructionist and Racist Bigot
I wish I could go back and just slap the people who told me to read Gary North (which meant reading Rushdoony too!).
Oh, and Rushdoony on the Early Church, it’s a dooozy!
See, Presuppositionalism, because the Bible is whatever I say it is!
FYI: R. J. Rushdoony was a disciple of Cornelius Van Til; historical fact. No emotion needed.
Rod the Rogue Demon Hunter, Preacher of Hope | Black Scholar of Patristics | Writer for Nonviolent Politics. Destroyer of Trolls. It must be that angry puppy.
While I am a pacifist at heart: I really believe this guy needs a huge head butt!
What ever happened to Paul’s teaching – For there is no Jew/ Gentile, Slave or Free, Male or Female in Christ Jesus.
What? That’s found in Scripture?
Oh my…..
If I may, I just want to clarify one thing to defend poor Van Til from the drubbing he gets over his “disciple” Rushdoony. It is true that RJR relied heavily upon Van Tillian presuppositionalism, or at the very least did so early in his career, but Rushdoony is solely responsible for his own peculiar mix of piercing social insight, bizarre reading of biblical laws to justify segregation, and, believe it or not, geocentrism. He is a disciple in the sense of a student, but a long-distance student and one who did not agree with his teacher on all important details.
Van Til disagreed with Rushdoony’s view of biblical law, and wanted it to be known that Rushdoony-like beliefs are, in his words, “not inherent” in Van Tillian presup.
[...] the awkward positions that famous racist presuppositionalists such as R.J. Rushdoony have held: see me on Presuppositionalism and Segregation [linked here]. My purpose is to show the Christian presuppositionalism is really a merri-go-round epistemology, [...]