1 7PMVNF 4VNNFS /VNCFS ѮF+PVSOBMPG $ISJTUJBO 3FDPOTUSVDUJPO 4ZNQPTJVNPO 1PMJUJDT "$)"-$&%0/16#-*$"5*0/ A Chalcedon Publication [www.chalcedon.edu] 3/30/07 COPYRIGHT The Journal of Christian Reconstruction Volume 5 / Number 1 Summer 1978 Symposium on Politics Gary North, Editor ISSN 0360–1420 A CHALCEDON MINISTRY Electronic Version 1.0 / July 15, 2006 Copyright © 1978 Chalcedon. All rights reserved. Usage: Copies of this file may be made for personal use by the original purchaser of this electronic document. It may be printed by the same on a desktop printer for personal study. Quotations may be used for the purpose of review, comment, or scholarship. However, this publication may not be duplicated or reproduced in whole or in part in any electronic or printed form by any means, uploaded to a web site, or copied to a CD-ROM, without written permission of the publisher. Chalcedon P.O. Box 158 Vallecito, California 95251 U.S.A. To contact via email and for other information: www.chalcedon.edu Chalcedon depends on the contributions of its readers, and all gifts to Chalcedon are tax-deductible. Opinions expressed in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views of Chalcedon. It has provided a forum for views in accord with a relevant, active, historic Christianity, though those views may have on occasion differed somewhat from Chalcedon’s and from each other. A Chalcedon Publication [www.chalcedon.edu] 3/30/07 THE JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION This journal is dedicated to the fulfillment of the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28 and 9:1—to subdue the earth to the glory of God. It is published by the Chalcedon Foundation, an independent Christian educational organization (see inside back cover). The perspective of the journal is that of orthodox Christian- ity. It affirms the verbal, plenary inspiration of the original manuscripts (auto- graphs) of the Bible and the full divinity and full humanity of Jesus Christ—two natures in union (but without intermixture) in one person. The editors are convinced that the Christian world is in need of a serious publi- cation that bridges the gap between the newsletter-magazine and the scholarly academic journal. The editors are committed to Christian scholarship, but the journal is aimed at intelligent laymen, working pastors, and others who are interested in the reconstruction of all spheres of human existence in terms of the standards of the Old and New Testaments. It is not intended to be another outlet for professors to professors, but rather a forum for serious discussion within Christian circles. The Marxists have been absolutely correct in their claim that theory must be united with practice, and for this reason they have been successful in their attempt to erode the foundations of the noncommunist world. The editors agree with the Marxists on this point, but instead of seeing in revolution the means of fusing theory and practice, we see the fusion in personal regeneration through God’s grace in Jesus Christ and in the extension of God’s kingdom. Good princi- ples should be followed by good practice; eliminate either, and the movement falters. In the long run, it is the kingdom of God, not Marx’s “kingdom of free- dom,” which shall reign triumphant. Christianity will emerge victorious, for only in Christ and His revelation can men find both the principles of conduct and the means of subduing the earth—the principles of biblical law. The Journal of Christian Reconstruction is published twice a year. Copyright by Chalcedon, 1978. Editorial and subscription offices: P.O. Box 158, Vallecito, CA 95251, U.S.A. A Chalcedon Publication [www.chalcedon.edu] 3/30/07 TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright Contributors Editor’s Introduction Gary North . .7 1. SYMPOSIUM ON POLITICS The Myth of Politics Rousas John Rushdoony . .17 The “Boat People”: Symbol of U.S. Failure Peter Berger . .22 On Reconstruction and the American Republic Tom Rose . .25 The Christian Foundation of American Politics A. A. Hodge . .51 The Christian in Politics: The Call and the Caveats Rus Walton . .63 Confessions of a Washington Reject Gary North . .73 The Trouble with Conservatives John W. Robbins . .87 Natural Law and God’s Law: An Antithesis Rex Downie . .104 Apologists of Classical Tyranny: An Introductory Critique of Straussianism Archie P. Jones . .116 Philanthropy, Romans 13, and the Regulative Principle of the State Jim West . .172 The Word of God Versus the Totalitarian State R. B. Kuiper . .198 A Chalcedon Publication [www.chalcedon.edu] 3/30/07 Table of Contents 5 2. CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION The Necessity of the Christian School J. Gresham Machen . .227 3. BOOK REVIEWS The Professional: A Biography of J. B. Saunders, by Otto Scott. Reviewed by Judy Ishkanian . 242 Christians and Marxists: The Mutual Challenge to Revolution, by José Miguez Bonino. Reviewed by David H. Chilton . 248 The Capitalist Reader, ed. Lawrence S. Stepelevich. Reviewed by Tommy W. Rogers . 254 The Ethics of Freedom, by Jacques Ellul (trans. Geoffrey W. Bromiley). Reviewed by Roger Wagner . 257 The Ministry of Chalcedon A Chalcedon Publication [www.chalcedon.edu] 3/30/07 CONTRIBUTORS Peter Berger, Ph.D., is professor of sociology at Rutgers University, New Brun- swick, New Jersey. David Chilton, B.A., is a staff member of the Chalcedon Foundation. Rex Downie, J.D., is a practicing lawyer in Pennsylvania. A. A. Hodge was a professor at Princeton Seminary until his death in 1887. Judy Ishkanian won the $100 essay contest sponsored by Chalcedon. Archie P. Jones, M.A., is a Ph.D. candidate and an instructor in politics at Texas A & M University, in College Station, Texas. R. B. Kuiper was a faculty member (homiletics) at Westminster Theological Seminary. J. Gresham Machen, M.A., was the founder of Westminster Theological Semi- nary and the leading figure in the conservative wing of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., during the liberal-conservative battles of the 1920s and 1930s. He helped start what is now known as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He died in 1937. Gary North, Ph.D., is the president of the Institute for Christian Economics and the editor of The Journal of Christian Reconstruction. John Robbins, Ph.D., graduated in political theory from Johns Hopkins Univer- sity and is president of the Trinity Foundation. Tommy W. Rogers, Ph.D., is a lawyer in Jackson, Mississippi. Tom Rose, M.A., is the author of Economics: Principles and Policy from a Chris- tian Perspective. He is the vice president of the Institute for Free Enterprise Edu- cation, Dallas, Texas. R. J. Rushdoony, M.A., B.D., is president of the Chalcedon Foundation. Roger Wagner, M.Div., is pastor of an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sonoma, California. Rus Walton, B.A., is president of the Plymouth Rock Foundation and author of One Nation, Under God. Jim West, M.Div., is pastor of an Orthodox Presbyterian Church in San Jose, Cal- ifornia. A Chalcedon Publication [www.chalcedon.edu] 3/30/07 EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION Gary North There are supposedly 40 million Bible-believing Christians in the United States, people who affirm their faith in the infallibility of the Bible. A voting bloc of 40 million people, if they acted as a unit, would be large enough to control the political life of the country. Yet it is obvi- ous to anyone that the United States is dominated by the forces of secu- lar humanism. The humanists have driven the Christians from every visible field of potential combat: schools, courthouses, legislatures, bureaucracies. Even if there were 80 million so-called Bible-believing Christians, it is unlikely that their presence, in and of itself, would alter the basic direction of U.S. political life. Consider the state of North Carolina. It is supposedly in the heart of the Bible belt. Its population is overwhelmingly decentralized; it is the eleventh largest state in the Union in terms of population, yet it has only one city over 300,000 and two more over 100,000. It is a state whose small-town population is overwhelmingly fundamentalistic in religious preference. Yet consider the tax code of the state regarding charitable deductions: You Can Deduct Gifts To... Churches, Red Cross, Boy Scouts, American Cancer Society, etc. The deduction for such contributions is limited to 15 percent of the adjusted gross income on page 1, line 11 of the return. Gifts to the State of North Carolina or any of its political subdivisions or any of their institutions, or agencies and to nonprofit educational institutions or hospitals located in North Carolina are deductible without limit (6). The secular humanists who run the State of North Carolina, in coop- eration with the secular humanists who operate the hospitals and pri- vate universities (such as Duke University), have worked out a very good deal for themselves. They have set up a totally discriminatory tax A Chalcedon Publication [www.chalcedon.edu] 3/30/07 8 JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN RECONSTRUCTION code which subsidizes secular humanism at the expense of churches and other Christian enterprises of a charitable nature. But so few Christians give over fifteen percent of their adjusted gross income to any charity, let alone the church, that there is no reaction from the loyal political lemmings in the pews. They could control the state, yet the tax code reveals only too clearly who is really in control of politics in fun- damentalist North Carolina. How did this come about? In the North, it was the preaching of the {2} so-called Social Gospel, which had been preceded by the Abolition- ist movement, that turned the theologically liberal churches to political action. Many fundamentalists had been led by the perfectionist preach- ing of Charles G.