Republicans and Evangelicals I RJ Rushdoony and Christian Reconstruction

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RJ Rushdoony is not a household name. But he influenced a lot of interesting people, from members of the New Right to the Christian homeschooling movement. His books and lectures inspired people to pull their kids out of public schools and teach them at home. But who was RJ Rushdoony?

He was deeply impacted by his time doing missionary work on a Native American reservation. There he saw how difficult it was to get anything done and to give people proper access to their government. He went on to work with libertarian organizations like Spiritual Mobilization and the Volker Fund. His mentor Cornelius Van Til taught him to see the triad of government, church, and family in a new way. In Rushdoony's mind, those three spheres should not interfere with each other. BUT, he did want Christians to run the government. Instead of doing a top-down change, he wanted change to begin with families, then rise to the church, eventually taking over the political sphere.

Howard Phillips, one of the founders of the New Right, was a disciple of Rushdoony. So was his son, Doug Phillips, who founded the homeschooling movement known as Vision Forum. In this episode, Chris interviews Paul Hastings of the Compelled podcast about how they met at a Vision Forum film festival.

The special guest for today is Michael McVicar, author of "Christian Reconstruction: R.J. Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism."

Sources:

• Christian Reconstruction: R.J. Rushdoony and American Religious Conservatism by Michael McVicar
• Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
• The Evangelicals by Frances Fitzgerald
• Helpful article about libertarian philosophy
• One Nation Under God by Kevin Kruse

Discussion Questions:

• How do you think Rushdoony was impacted by his experiences on the reservation?
• What is libertarianism? What do you think about it?
• In what ways have you seen libertarianism presented in evangelical culture?
• What did Rushdoony think about public schools? How was this a departure from progressive-era Christian thinkers?
• How does Christian homeschooling differ from other forms of homeschooling?
• Why did homeschooling take off in the 1980s and 1990s?
• What role, if any, should Christians play in public schools?

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