R. J. Rushdoony

[[File:Rushdoony.jpg|thumb|right|165px|R. J. Rushdoony]]
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{{Sources needed}}
{{cquote|The state is a bankrupt institution. The only alternative to this bankrupt '[[Humanism|humanistic]]' system is a God-centered government.|||R.J. Rushdoony advocating for [[theocracy]]<ref>''The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance and Pluralism In America'' by David Cantor & Alan M. Schwartz (1994) Anti-Defamation League.</ref>{{rp|121}}}}
'''Rousas John (R. J.) Rushdoony''' (Armenian: Ռուսա Հովհաննես Ռշտունի) {{lived|1916|2001}} was an [[Armenia|Armenian]]-[[United States of America|American]] [[Calvinist]] and considered to be the grand-daddy of [[Christian Reconstructionism]] in the [[United States]]. He was a major proponent of [[homeschooling]]. His parents moved to the USA after fleeing the [[Armenian genocide]].

==Theology and other writings==
Rushdoony is known for his works and commentary in Calvinist theology, some of his more famous works being ''By What Standard?'' and ''The One and the Many: Studies in the Philosophy of Order and Ultimacy''. His 1973 book ''The Institutes of Biblical Law'', a blueprint for a [[Dominionism | Dominionist]] society, is considered{{cn}} his most influential work.

Rushdoony also wrote a number of books on education and history. He promoted homeschooling in his writings as a 
way of teaching nothing at all
 corrective for the [[secular]] [[public schooling]] system. He was also a fan of [[the United States as a Christian nation]] myth (this time with a Calvinist flavor).

==Raging bigotry==
Rushdoony hated anyone who wasn't a white Christian. [[Racism]], in addition to the [[Lost Cause of the South]] and other [[Neo-Confederate]] mythology, can be found throughout his writings. He was a [[Holocaust denial|Holocaust denier]] who accused the [[Jew]]s of "bearing false witness." He also supported the death penalty for various "abominations" like being [[gay]]. [[Irony|This from a man whose parents fled genocide caused by bigotry]].

But he was cool with divorce. His first wife, Arda Gent-Rushdoony, filed for divorce on account of his "extreme cruelty" and "inflicting mental suffering" on her. He won the lawsuit against the mother of his five children, taking the house, car, children and leaving her with $1/month of alimony. As he wrote in his ''Institutes of Biblical Law'': "Divorce by death made remarriage possible, and freed the innocent partner from bondage to a guilty and unclean person."

Since the [[Bible]] is rather unequivocal that the only acceptable basis for divorce is infidelity ''on the wife's part'', which was never alleged during divorce proceedings, Rushdoony's remarriage constituted [[bigamy]], [[adultery]] or both in the eyes of [[God]], according to his own purported beliefs. His actual respect for the Biblical law he claimed to want to live under is revealed by the fact that he never complied with its dictates on adultery by having himself stoned to death.

==Sources==
*''Christian Reconstruction: R.J. Rushdoony and American Conservatism'' by Michael Joseph McVicar (2015) The University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 1469622742.

==See also==
*[[Gary North]], his batshit crazy son-in-law
*[[Howard Ahmanson]], important source of funding for the [[Discovery Institute]]
*[[Hyper-Calvinism]]

==External links==
*[http://chalcedon.edu/ Chalcedon Foundation], the propaganda organ he founded in 1965
*[http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north33.html R.J. Rushdoony, R.I.P.], an obituary by North
*[http://www.publiceye.org/magazine/v22n3/libertarian.html The Libertarian Theocrats]
*[http://theonomists.blogspot.com/ Meet the Theonomists]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100216160913/http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2005/spring/a-mighty-army?page=0,1#4 SPLC on the Chalcedon Foundation]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070113130400/http://bcseweb.org.uk/index.php/Main/RousasRushdoony In extremis: Rousas Rushdoony and his connections]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160320182645/https://www.au.org/church-state/october-2015-church-state/books-ideas/the-religious-right-on-steroids The Religious Right On Steroids? Inside The Disturbing World Of Christian Reconstructionism] by Sarah Jones (October 2015).  ''Church and State''] A review of the book ''Christian Reconstruction: R.J. Rushdoony and American Conservatism'' by Michael J. McVicar

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Categories: Antisemites, Authors, Christian apologists, Creationists, Fundamentalists, Holocaust denialists, Homophobes, Libertarians, Ministers, Paleoconservatives, Pseudohistory promoters, Racists, Sexists, Slavery apologists, Theocracy