Rushdoony, Rousas (1916–2001)

Rousas J. Rushdoony's writings, addresses, and political activism have had a profound influence on the Christian day school and homeschooling movements from the 1960s to his death in 2001, making him one of the 20th century's most important dissenters against the U.S. public school paradigm. Born in 1916 to Presbyterian Armenian immigrants who had narrowly escaped the Armenian genocide during World War I, Rushdoony earned his B.A. and an M.A. in education from the University of California at Berkeley. After further study in divinity, Rushdoony was ordained in the Presbyterian Church, USA. He spent 8 years as a missionary preacher to Native Americans in Nevada, during which time he came under the influence of Calvinist philosopher Cornelius Van Til, whose “Biblical presuppositionalism” argued that the Bible's veracity cannot be debated but must be either accepted or rejected a priori. Building on this claim, Rushdoony spent decades unpacking a biblical view of law, politics, economics, history, family, and education under the auspices of the Chalcedon Foundation, which he founded in 1965.

Three of his views have proven especially influential among conservative Protestants. First, Rushdoony is often cited as the father of “providentialist history,” the view that history rightly told reveals God's guiding hand and that the [Page 779]United States has played, and should still play, a key role in God's divine plan. Rushdoony's account of America's Christian founding, its subsequent betrayal by the forces of secular humanism, and its inevitable restoration as Christians rise up and take back the land that is rightfully theirs exerted profound influence on many of the leaders of the Christian Right in the 1970s and 1980s, notably Francis Schaeffer, Timothy LaHaye, the Rutherford Institute's John Whitehead, and the Home School Legal Defense Association's Chris Klicka and Michael Farris. It has spawned a growth industry of popular historical works that celebrate the United States' “godly heritage” and Christian roots. Second, Rushdoony's claim that the Bible's moral precepts should be the law of nations today has inspired a small but vocal political movement often dubbed “Christian reconstructionism” or “theonomy,” which works toward a preordained future when the United States and eventually all the world will be governed by biblical law. Finally, Rushdoony claimed that the restoration of Christian America must begin with “dedicated minorities” who remove their children from public schools that espouse secular humanism and instead teach them in authentically Christian environments, be they Christian schools or homeschools. Two of Rushdoony's books on education, The Messianic Character of American Education (1963) and The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum (1981), achieved a readership far beyond his Calvinist base. The first examines the history of public schools in the United States through the educational writings of leading reformers of the 19th and 20th centuries, concluding that the “religion” of secular humanism is the official dogma of public education. The second provides one of the most vigorous and creative accounts ever penned of precisely what a distinctively Christian curriculum should entail. Rushdoony popularized his message through several decades of public speaking at Christian venues and expert testimony in court cases and public hearings defending the rights of Christian schools and homeschools to exist free of government entanglement.

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