This chapter in Rushdoony's work is one of the most important for understanding the unfolding events in American society today.
We start with Rushdoony answering the question, what is government? The answer to this is one reason, in this blog, I have attempted(not perfectly) to always use the word government with a descriptive title such as state, federal, civil, etc...In an effort to shorten the paragraph, will paraphrase Rushdoony's definition of the word government: "originally, the word government was never applied in this country to the state. The word government meant, first of all, the self-government of the Christian man, second,and very closely, government meant the family. Every family is a government; it is man's first church and first school, and also his first state. Third, the church is a government, fourth the school, fifth, business or vocation, sixth, private associations and seventh, the state is a form of government and originally it was always called civil government." The problem that we have today in our society which is easily traceable given Rushdoony's definition of government is that ultimately, our self-governance is appalling. The sad state of self-governance is not formed in a vacuum though, it is a product of family government that has thrown off its rightful duties and responsibilities which in turn breeds children with little example of or capability to effectively perform self-governance. Add to this the poor way in which the church teaches disciples, the lack of individual attendance in church, the humanistic driven public school agenda and you have a recipe for disaster and an open invitation to the Civil government to assert itself in all of these other areas that are now no longer self-governing. As Rushdoony shows, "more tragically, civil government today claims to be THE government over man, not one government among many, but the one overall government." And is this not what we actually see taking place in society today where even the families, churches, businesses, etc that are trying to properly administer governance in their sphere are under attack and assault by a civil government that is filling the void for the many that have abdicated their rightful responsibilities.
The proper question to ask next is how did we come to this place in our society. Rushdoony answers in two parts, "first, we can say that we have been subverted by revolutionary and totalitarian groups, and second, we can say that our own spiritual delinquency has led us into this sorry condition." Since subversion is always a tactic of the enemy and is ever present, we must be primarily concerned with our part in this debacle which is the rotting morality and foundation of our nation. We, as Christians, have lost our way, we have not prepared ourselves to meet the challenges that our faith and practice have encountered and which we were warned about. Too often, we have even accepted the idea that in some way, "Americans have lost their faith in Christ as Savior, and they expect civil government to be their savior. They have no desire for the responsibilities of self-government." Rushdoony continues, "to have free civil government it is necessary first of all to have free men whose greatest desire is responsible self-government under God. It is because we are refusing to govern ourselves under God and by God's grace and word that we are being governed by the state." I think that Rushdoony has hit the nail on the head. We see the reckless way in which the civil government attacks the rights and liberties of citizens on an almost daily basis but we look to treat the symptom of the disease(the failings and overreach of government) instead of the root problem which is our own failure to embrace liberty and self-governance through a solid foundation in Christ as Savior. Make no mistake, there are subversives and they are trying to destroy each of the spheres of governance in order to assert their control over every place in life and society, but until we get our own house in order, we contribute more to the problem than the solution.
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