Easy Chair No. 131, September 16, 1986

In this wide-ranging episode (Sept. 16, 1986), R.J. Rushdoony opens with Tertullian’s striking line “Your Emperor is more our Emperor than he is yours” to argue that Christians alone can truly interpret civil power because they know rulers come by God’s providence, whether as judgment or blessing, and this certainty is part of why the early Church outlasted Rome. From there he surveys the spiritual emptiness that made paganism hopeless (“grant me what I deserve”) and critiques how first-century Judaism could be reduced to external markers (“perhaps you will find mercy”), contrasting both with Christianity’s vitality in reaching “the man in the Roman street.” He then pivots through a series of modern parallels and warnings: stories from early American life on duty, marriage, and work ethic; a note on how unbelief can be treated as the great sin while immorality is minimized; a biting example of educational decline producing arrogant illiteracy; and economic reflections on regulatory “welfare for the well-to-do” that strangles nations over time. He closes by exposing the modern idolatries of **peace-at-any-price** and **need-as-morality** (“I need, therefore I am”), spotlighting Sweden as a cautionary model of state intrusion, and ending with a sobering picture of public-school historical ignorance calling listeners to recover faith, virtue, and real dominion before cultural decay becomes irreversible.

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