Our Threatened Freedom

Is There A War Against Children? (03:41)

R.J. Rushdoony

Transcript:

R.J. Rushdoony: 00:01 Is there a war against children? This is RJ Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom. We are all familiar with the fact that the Swedish parliament has passed a law limiting the powers of parents in the name of children’s rights. Parents may not discipline their children either via physical spanking or by depriving them of TV, or in any similar way imposing a restraint upon them. The United Nations also has a child rights declaration which makes these points.

R.J. Rushdoony: 00:36 First, the child must have reproductive freedom. That is freedom for abortions, test tube babies and so on. Second, the child must have freedom for unrestricted sexual practices or preference including homosexual relations. Third, Unisex Education. Fourth, there are to be federally funded child development centers. Fifth, the child must have a right to freedom from parental authority. Six, liberation from patriotism and all such teaching. Seventh, liberation from capitalism and freedom for a new order, international and socialistic. And eight, liberation from religious training.

R.J. Rushdoony: 01:20 These so called rights are being enacted piecemeal by various states and courts. In one state, the age of consent has been lowered to 13. In many states, teenagers may obtain abortions without parental knowledge and consent, and the US supreme court has sustained such laws. In one state a minister was convicted of child abuse or making his 14 year old daughter go to Sunday school and Church and sit through family prayers.

R.J. Rushdoony: 01:54 Much more can be added but this is enough to indicate that a war is being waged against the biblical family and against children. It is a war which threatens to reach into your own home and family, like it or not, you are involved. According to the Bible, the care and the discipline of children belongs to the family under God. The Bible is, from beginning to end full of commandments to parents and children and the pattern for our family life is to be derived from God, not from humanism or the state.

R.J. Rushdoony: 02:30 What we are witnessing is a total war against biblical faith, the family and the child. Make no mistake about it. This is a religious war. Humanism against Christianity. The lives of your children are state. The courts and judges are saying that they and not the parents will make the basic decisions concerning the child. The sociologists and legislators together with the bureaucrats claim that they know best what is good for our children and they are sure that we are not good for them. In fact, some of them regard us as the worst possible guides were children. They seem to be sure that all wisdom and all light was born with them and their kind.

R.J. Rushdoony: 03:17 Clearly there is a war against children and against parents also. There is no escaping from this wall and there are no neutrals, our future is at stake. Either we restore all the family under God or we lose our families and our freedom. This is RJ Rushdoony with a report on our threatened freedom.

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.

Learn more about R.J. Rushdoony by visiting: https://chalcedon.edu/founder