In Easy Chair No. 145, R.J. Rushdoony and Joseph McAuliffe examine the state of Christian fundraising, highlighting widespread concern over unethical practices, misuse of funds, and the public’s declining trust in TV ministries. McAuliffe cites polls showing that both Christians and non-Christians view many fundraising methods as manipulative, commercialized, and spiritually dishonest. He contrasts this with biblical models, emphasizing that fundraising must align with God’s will, respect donors’ freedom, provide transparency in the use of funds, and uphold integrity. Using examples from the tabernacle, the temple, and the early church, he stresses that giving should support God-ordained projects, advance His covenant, and avoid debt, coercion, or vanity. Both Rushdoony and McAuliffe call for a shift from spectacle-driven “star” ministries to faithful, local church-based stewardship that glorifies God and strengthens the kingdom.

In this broadcast, R.J. Rushdoony, Otto Scott, and R.E. McMaster discuss the moral and religious collapse of the Western world and its profound impact on economics, politics, and society. McMaster emphasizes that government and economics are extensions of religious ethics, noting stark contrasts between Protestant-influenced North America and Catholic/Latin cultures, particularly in terms of productivity, decentralization, and the long-term perspective. They critique the rise of short-term financial speculation, debt-driven economies, and government interference, illustrating how these undermine individual responsibility, long-term planning, and societal prosperity.

The conversation also examines historical patterns, including the role of the Puritan work ethic in American capitalism, the global trade and industrial shifts involving Japan, Korea, and Latin America, and the use of debt as a tool of control. Rushdoony and the panel stress that declining faith and moral standards, coupled with monopolies in money, law, education, and health, erode societal stability. They warn that without a restoration of Christian ethics and a long-term outlook, economic and social collapse could intensify, potentially giving rise to radical movements if ordinary citizens are financially and socially imperiled.

The discussion concludes by noting the Christian community’s limited engagement with economics and the political-economic sphere, emphasizing that meaningful cultural and economic reform must be rooted in faith, biblical law, and long-term stewardship of resources.

R.J. Rushdoony reviews books illustrating moral, cultural, and societal trends. He highlights John Morgan’s Prince of Crime on Catholic dominance in urban politics and crime, A. Craig Copetas’ Metal Men on large-scale corporate corruption, and Major Henry Darley’s Slaves and Ivory on Africa’s moral and social challenges. He also notes cultural degeneration in 19th-century France, historical insights on Roman law, and celebrates entrepreneurial innovation in Donald Lambrou’s Land of Opportunity. Throughout, he emphasizes the need for Christian moral guidance and reconstruction in society.

R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott discuss Christian Reconstruction as the biblical mandate to establish God’s justice and righteousness in every sphere of society. They emphasize that the Early Church became influential far beyond its numbers by helping one another, serving the community, resolving disputes, and creating a moral, functional order amid a corrupt world. Christianity historically transformed civilizations, building cities, draining swamps, cultivating land, and establishing law and education, producing wealth and stability.

Rushdoony and Scott contrast this constructive, faith-driven action with modern society, where humanistic states, urban decay, rising immorality, and bureaucratic interference suppress Christian activity and resist moral responsibility. They argue that Christian Reconstruction begins with individual faith and responsibility, extending to education, charity, and community engagement. Modern tools like computers and global communication offer unprecedented opportunities for a new Reformation, allowing believers to restore order, influence society, and extend God’s justice practically.

They conclude that while short-term challenges may be severe, the long-term outlook under God promises a more prosperous, free, and godly society. Practical application—such as supporting Christian relief efforts like CERT and aiding persecuted believers—is emphasized as the starting point for meaningful reconstruction.

R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott discuss history, its meaning, and how it is recorded, emphasizing that true history reflects God’s hand, not merely human actions. They critique modern historiography, which often interprets events naturalistically, humanistically, or through myths, ignoring divine providence and the unpredictable factors that shape outcomes, such as weather, disease, or unexpected deaths of leaders. Examples include Constantine’s conversion, the Pilgrims’ survival, the Mongol halt in Europe, and the outcomes of World Wars, illustrating that history is far more contingent and guided by God than modern accounts suggest. They note that modern education and social science have largely replaced traditional history, leaving students unaware of patterns of tyranny, the role of faith, and the moral lessons of the past. Rushdoony and Scott stress that Christian schools are uniquely positioned to teach history accurately, recognizing God’s sovereignty and the enduring reality of mystery.

In this 1987 Easy Chair discussion, R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott argue that the “future” isn’t an unreadable mystery so much as the present worked out—and that modern decadence shows itself in a culture that can’t defend itself, won’t think past the moment, and replaces realistic planning with fantasy. They critique celebrity “futurecasting” as shallow, insular, and godless—whether rosy or grim—because it ignores that man is fundamentally religious, and history unfolds under God’s sovereign decree. Against the modern state’s push to “predestine” everything through total control (a horizontal Tower of Babel), they warn of coming judgment and testing, yet insist judgment can also be God’s clearing of the ground for renewal. Their hope rests in God’s unexpected interventions and in a rising, grassroots Christian seriousness—discipleship, responsibility, and rebuilding—so that believers don’t merely comment on the future, but work to create a godly one.

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In this episode (Feb. 12, 1987), R.J. Rushdoony dismantles the modern “brainwashing” narrative by drawing on suppressed Korean War research: the most resilient POWs were those with **governing convictions**—a living Christian faith and a clear belief in the free market—who were recognized as natural leaders, resisted manipulation, and even attempted escape, while the faithless majority proved tragically leaderless, anarchic, and easily induced to comply because they believed in nothing. From there he pivots to a sobering cultural warning: the same emptiness makes societies vulnerable to hypnotic suggestion through movies, propaganda, and statist schooling—illustrated even by criminals imitating *The Godfather*—and he argues that humanistic education produces citizens who vote for images instead of reality and tolerate absurdities (like Amtrak stopping trains mid-route for Daylight Saving Time). Rushdoony then surveys major fronts in the battle for the faith in public life: the push to rewrite God-language and subvert biblical revelation, the false “gospels” of technology and political revolution, modernist capture within church institutions and the Marxist distortion of “liberation,” the weaponization of child-abuse accusations to expand state power, and the pride of man exposed in tragedies like the Titanic—closing with a call to recover a faith that acts, serves, and builds dominion, and to tangibly aid persecuted Christians rather than merely sympathize.

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R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott examine the cultural and philosophical climate of the 20th century, focusing on existentialism and its pervasive influence. Existential philosophy, originating with Kierkegaard and popularized in the U.S. through Emerson, emphasizes living for the moment, personal experience, and the negation of objective truth or moral absolutes. Rushdoony notes that modern man increasingly mirrors the limited temporal perspective of “savages,” living in the present with little regard for the past or future, which manifests in short-term thinking in politics, media, and everyday life.

The discussion highlights the moral consequences of existentialism in culture and the arts. Figures like Sartre, de Beauvoir, Genet, Camus, and Polanski exemplify a system where personal experience and notoriety outweigh ethical conduct. Artistic acclaim and intellectual respectability often reward contempt for traditional values and embrace of evil or immorality as “new good.” Rushdoony and Scott link this to media, theater, and entertainment, showing a pervasive drive for continual sensation, visual shock, and superficiality that undermines historical awareness, thoughtful engagement, and enduring meaning.

Existentialism has also infiltrated the Church, seminaries, and education, producing a focus on personal experience over objective truth and a repudiation of serious moral or historical reflection. Rushdoony observes that this leads to infantilization, self-centeredness, and a collapse of communal and intergenerational wisdom. The resulting culture elevates triviality and egoism, prioritizes sensation over continuity, and fosters widespread moral and intellectual disorientation—what Scott describes as a society in which life itself has become a theatrical spectacle, leaving citizens trapped in perpetual “no exit” existentialism, oblivious to God and moral reality.