Faith in Public Live: Prescott Wraps The Discussion
Dear Randall and David,
This has been a very enjoyable exchange. I think Randall is right about hitting a raw nerve with the mention of theocracy. As Shakespeare had a character say, “Me thinks they doth protest too much!”
Steinfels’ response to the recent spate of books about theocracy is fairly typical for people who lack full comprehension of the mindset of many of the evangelicals influencing the Religious Right. I witnessed the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention by Christian Nationalists and I observed well organized bands of Christian Reconstructionists takeover the local GOP precincts around the churches that I pastored. In both instances, when I raised a hue and cry about these takeovers, I met the same kind of naïve faith and “It can’t happen here” attitude exhibited by Steinfels remarks.
Henry Kissinger had a good grasp of the way that people typically respond to revolutionary powers that do not accept the legitimacy of the existing order. Here’s his analysis:
Lulled by a period of stability which had seemed permanent, they find it nearly impossible to take at face value the assertion of the revolutionary power that it means to smash the existing framework. The defenders of the status quo therefore tend to begin by treating the revolutionary power as if its protestations were merely tactical; as if it really accepted the existing legitimacy but overstated its case for bargaining purposes; as if it were motivated by specific grievances to be assuaged by limited concessions. Those who warn against the danger in time are considered alarmists; those who counsel adaptation to circumstances are considered balanced and sane. . . . But it is the essence of revolutionary power that it possesses the courage of its convictions, that it is willing, indeed eager, to push its principles to their ultimate conclusion.
We’ve seen a process like this slowly working its way out in American politics for about a quarter century now. We are dealing with patient revolutionaries. Reconstructionist goals have been advanced and implemented so methodically and incrementally that most of them no longer appear revolutionary. Here is an outline of the blueprint for civil society that R. J. Rushdoony laid out in his Institutes of Biblical Law:
1) Acknowledge the ten commandments as the foundation for civil law (Could that have anything to do with Roy ‘s Rock?).
2) Strengthen patriarchically ordered families (Could that have anything to do with opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and with new Baptist creeds that insist that wives must “graciously submit” to their husbands?).
3) Close the public schools and make parents totally responsible for the education of their children (Could that have anything to do with the incessant push for vouchers and the explosion of home-schooling — especially among Baptists?).
4) Require “tithes” to ecclesiastical agencies to provide welfare services (Could that have anything to do with ‘Charitable Choice’ and Faith-based initiatives?).
5) Reduce the role of government to defense of the nation and the defense of property rights (Could that have anything to do with the rhetoric about ‘starving the beast’ of government and policies that bankrupt the government with expensive wars while cutting taxes?).
6) Close the prisons — reinstitute slavery as a form of punishment and require capital punishment for all of ancient Israel’s capital offenses — including apostacy, blasphemy, incorrigibility in children, murder, rape, Sabbath breaking, sodomy, and witchcraft.
The only thing that still looks revolutionary in this list is the last one. All of them were considered extreme in 1973 when Rushdoony wrote his Institutes.
How sure can we be that this last goal will remain outside the realm of possibility?
All the best,
Bruce
As Delmar said to Pete and Allahwyshus in the Movie Oh Brother: “I’m with you fellers.”
Great stuff, this exchange. Got an email from Michelle Goldberg today. She has been lurking here and will be reading the Steinfels article soon as she can get her hands on a print copy.
Will be interesting to see how she weighs in as well.
Click on my name for the latest from Alabama; FBC Auburn pastor Jim Evans–he preached in the National Cathedral in DC April 03–on the lack of integrity in the Christian Coaalition here in Bama
Sfox
While much of Rushdoony’s agenda, adopted a generation ago by a rising tide of power-hungry religious right-wingers, is indeed a part of public policy, or at least a part of our public policy debate (I question their success at really achieving these goals), I still insist that their power is waning, like secular right-wingers. I do not doubt they are a force to be reckoned with, and can do much damage as they fall, but they are falling.
O also insist that, rather than worry about what they are doing, rather than react to them, we need to follow our own agenda, set and meet our own (much more laudable) goals, and in a generation people can look back on us Christian progressives as the forerunners of a movement that has done much to make America better.