In the infamous Dred Scott case of 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court declared people imported from Africa to be sub-human and thus not worthy of freedom. This holding involved such a twisting of the text of the U.S. Constitution that a dissenter wrote: “[W]hen strict interpretation of the Constitution, according to fixed rules which govern [...]
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The radical two-kingdoms perspective has recently addressed homosexual marriage. The result has been erudition in the service of confusion. This result includes the familiar R2K progression: 1) There is a social conflict involving civil law and Christian values. 2) “Christians should not seek to promote distinctively Christian doctrines and practices through the properly coercive power [...]
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In the 1927 case Buck v. Bell, 274, the United States Supreme Court upheld a statute instituting compulsory sterilization of the unfit, including the mentally retarded, “for the protection and health of the state.” This decision flew blatantly in the face of the text of the Constitution, just as more recent cases such as Roe v. Wade (abortion) and Lawrence v. Texas (sodomy) [...]
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Joel Osteen, pastor of a 40,000 member congregation and 10 million TV viewers just gave sanction for American Christians to lay aside their faith as they consider politics. “Lay aside” may be too moderate: perhaps I would even consider “trample.” In a CNN interview, Wolf Blitzer asked Osteen a “what if”: what if a member [...]
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Is American Vision contradicting itself? If you read my article last Thursday, “Theonomy’s ‘Radical Libertarianism,’” but then read Dr. Talbot’s article from this Wednesday night, “Libertarianism vs. Theocracy: Is Libertarianism a Christian Political Philosophy?,” you may be asking yourself (or us) questions like that. Let me assure you there is no—or at most an insignificant—contradiction. [...]
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by Kenneth Gary Talbot, Ph.D. President & Professor of Theology and Apologetics, Whitefield Theological Seminary Board Member, American Vision, Inc. The late Rev. R. J. Rushdoony once wrote, “Few things are more commonly misunderstood than the nature and meaning of theocracy. It is commonly assumed to be a dictatorial rule by self-appointed men who claim [...]
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Opinions have been exchanged over the relationship between Christianity and libertarianism. Some of these have had reference to the heritage of theonomy (or Christian Reconstruction) and the use of the term “libertarianism.” One writer criticizes “professing theonomists” who support the modern Liberty movement with appeal to R.J. Rushdoony’s works: if Rushdoony ever used the term [...]
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Last week, Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat Congresswoman from Chicago, defended deficit spending and welfare by advancing the old Social Gospel on the floor of the House. She asked fiscal conservatives four questions and quoted the Bible in support of each one. (Why there was no huge outcry from the ACLU or the Freedom From Religion [...]
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Joe Carter of the Gospel Coalition writes in opposition to organized Christian boycotts. He calls boycotts against businesses “coercion” and says that “banding together to cut off commerce to an otherwise licit venture has no obvious biblical warrant.” He says, To clarify, the term boycott here refers to the act of refusing to use, buy, or deal [...]
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You know the First Amendment, right? It’s the one about free speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, right? Nope. I am talking about the First Amendment. That is, the original First Amendment. And it was not about these freedoms—vital as they are—but rather about adequate representation in Congress. A primary concern among some [...]
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