R.J. Rushdoony examines the impact of sin on political leadership through the life of Oliver Cromwell. Thrust into a crisis between King Charles I, Parliament, and the people, Cromwell discovered that human sin undermines all institutions: the king was untrustworthy, Parliament petty and factional, the people utopian and irrational, and even the army divided. Forced to rule alone, Cromwell’s experience illustrates that constitutions, laws, and political systems cannot overcome the moral failings of man. His efforts, however, dismantled autocracy and paved the way for constitutional change in England, indirectly influencing the American Revolution.

Rushdoony expands the discussion to modern society, emphasizing the moral and cultural decay caused by indulgent childrearing, the destruction of family and agriculture, and the influence of elite, anti-Christian intellectual networks. Education and socialization divorced from Biblical principles produce individuals incapable of coping with reality and frustration. Drawing on examples from the Amish and Hutterite communities, he contrasts a faith-centered worldview that sustains resilience and hope with the secular humanism that dominates education, law, and politics today. Ultimately, Rushdoony argues that society’s stability and progress depend on obedience to God’s law and the cultivation of moral and spiritual virtue.

Romantic Movement; Thomas Chatterton; Education; Bad Historiography; Mature Criticism; Supreme Court Cases; Cindy Rocker; St. Vincent de Paul Society; Salvation Army; Privatization; Effects of Homosexuality; English Countryside; Murderers; Anne Hutchinson; Sir John Bowring; Water Supply; Rutherford Institute

Financial Fiascoes; India; American Hostage; Prisons; Women; Margaret of Castello; J. Paul Getty; American Frontier; Soviet Union; Philosophy; Poetry Reading

Oil Industry

Economy; Church and State Issues

Home Schooling

Public Education and Its Four Risks

Education and Idolatry

Cindy Rocker; Ministry to the Poor; Africa; Scholastic Aptitude Tests; Public Life and Religion; Emerson; King Arthur; English Land Ownership; Food; Soviet Union; First Umbrella; Revolutionary Lobby; Carnation Milk Company; Light Bulb Jokes; Contempt and Teaching

Ministry of Cindy Rocker