Open Letter to the Editor of the Editorial Page of the Daily OklahomanMarch 17, 2001 Patrick B. McGuigan, Editor, Editorial Page of the Daily Oklahoman Dear Patrick, This letter is written in response to the March 10, 2001 editorial entitled “Scholar, Pastor, Friend” eulogizing Rousas John Rushdoony as “A man or rare grace . . . a scholar with a pastor’s heart. . . (whose) care extended not only to fellow Protestants, but also to Catholic friends influenced by his integrity.” Mainstream Baptists view the eulogizing of Rushdoony with alarm. Indeed, the vast majority of Americans would be alarmed if they knew that Rushdoony devoted his life to promoting the establishment of a Christian theocracy in America. Few Americans have heard his name. Even fewer know that he adamantly opposed religious liberty for all because, “in the name of toleration, the believer is asked to associate on a common level of total acceptance with the atheist, the pervert, the criminal, and the adherents of other religions.” Fewer still know that he advocated 1) replacing the U.S. Constitution with the Bible, 2) making the ten commandments the law of the land, 3) reducing the role of government to the defense of property rights, 4) requiring “tithes” to ecclesiastical agencies to provide welfare services, 5) closing prisons – reinstituting slavery as a form of punishment and requiring capital punishment for apostasy, blasphemy, incorrigibility in children, murder, rape, Sabbath breaking, sodomy, and witchcraft, 6) closing public schools – making parents totally responsible for the education of their children, and 7) creating a society in which women are not equal to men, have no authority over men, and all live in families that are patriarchically ordered. Mainstream Baptists are opposed to Rushdoony’s theocratic agenda and to the “Reconstructionist” movement that he founded. We are proud to live in a democracy. We are proud to be champions of religious liberty for all. We do not believe that granting equal rights of citizenship to people of no faith or of other faiths undermines either our own faith or the fabric of civil society. Our experience has been the opposite. The common, neutral ground for respectful dialogue that was created by separating church and state has made America a very fertile land for sharing our faith. Baptists have increased more in America than in any other country. We view this as evidence that a strong faith grows in a “marketplace of ideas.” Only weak and dying faiths require government legislation to compel adherence to their beliefs. Sincerely, Bruce Prescott, Ph.D. Executive Director Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists |
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