Second American Revolution: Rousas John Rushdoony (9 of 9)
Question:-- What about the "establishment of religion" clause in the U.S. Constitution? Doesn't the U.S. Constitution forbid the display of religion in the civil sphere?R.J. Rushdoony: Among the early colonists were separatists or independents or people who maintained the form of establishment but really wanted no part of it. The Congregational Church of Massachusetts was the established church of Massachusetts and legally part of the Church of England. They never broke with the Church of England. The actually had Church of England men in some of the pulpits. In fact, the man at Salem whose family was deeply involved in the witchcraft trials was Church of England. It was only subsequently that they came to a belief that there should be a Christian establishment rather than a church establishment. However, with the Constitution it was believed that legally and on good grounds, the states if they chose could establish a church or several churches or simply say that Christianity is the established faith, but not impose it on the states and counties. In many cases, they settled down to a county by county establishment.Even in my lifetime, especially in the west, you could go to a county in Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and everything would be controlled by a particular church which was the dominant church in that area it could be Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed they were not intolerant of each other. In some places, where I spoke, the priests or the nuns would ask me into the parochial schools to talk about my work among the Indians. Or the Lutheran pastor would ask me into the public schools to speak. He ran it. In some cases the priests ran the public schools and the nuns taught. No one saw anything wrong with that, they were not intolerant one of another. It worked out beautifully on the local level. But we shattered all of that because of Madelyn Murray and her lawsuit.
Channel: People & Blogs
Uploaded: January 15, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Author: jcr4runner
Length: 03:42
Rating: 3.33
Views: 1441
Video Comments
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italianchappy (October 16, 2007 at 10:55 pm)
Europe is run by atheists and its northern "states" especially. Catholic view instead - theorically and at high ranks level - has a view amazingly similar to Rushdoony's one but without whatsoever real grasp on followers. Interesting videos, anyhow. How many Americans do held this opinion ?
Entropy56 (October 6, 2007 at 9:32 am)
I think the answer is that things would be different but not intolerable. For instance, it is possible that vices like pornography, gambling, prostitution and abortion would be outlawed in all forms, and possibly hard alcohol and the teaching of Evolution, but I don't think there would be outright persecution. It is interesting to note that smoking bans, energy resource bans, and parental authority undermining, and disrespect for private property are coming from the Left.
jcr4runner (October 1, 2007 at 10:12 pm)
Can you name a state run by atheists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, etc., that is tolerant to Christians?The fact of the matter is that people of other religions are freer in countries where the predominant religion is Christianity -- even more so than they are in countries founded on their own religion!
Largo64 (October 1, 2007 at 9:11 pm)
If things went your way, that the United States would become a Christian establishment, what would you do to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, etc.? And what would you do to the unchurched, agnostics and atheists? Would you still be "tolerant?" I don't believe you would. |
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