Appendix: Law in Western Society (Remastered)

Who is Taking Care of the Poor?

This passage emphasizes that the primary caregivers for the poor in the U.S. are not government agencies, but private and voluntary institutions. The family remains the most effective welfare system, providing for sick members, elderly parents, and children’s education from kindergarten through college. Churches, both Protestant and Catholic, supplement this care by aiding the homeless and transient populations, often with limited resources and in spite of bureaucratic resistance. Additionally, private organizations like Strategies to Eliminate Poverty (STEP), led by wealthy evangelical businessmen, actively work to alleviate poverty and empower individuals to succeed. The author underscores that understanding and supporting these “free sector” efforts is crucial for maintaining freedom and effective social care. #PovertyAlleviation #FamilyCare #ChurchAid #PrivateInitiatives #FreeSectorImpact

Government

All real government begins with self-government. When people refuse to govern themselves under God, they invite someone else to rule them and history shows that tyranny always grows where self-control declines. Scripture is blunt: slavery to sin leads to bondage, but freedom comes only through Christ. Our age wants the comforts of slavery without admitting its cost, dressing dependence and control in attractive slogans. True freedom isn’t autonomy it’s living under God’s Word, growing in self-discipline, and rejecting every false master. The question isn’t political first, it’s personal: are you growing into freedom, or quietly choosing slavery?

Moral Paralysis

In “Moral Paralysis,” Rushdoony argues that modern society is increasingly incapable of decisive moral action because it has abandoned belief in absolute truth and God’s sovereign law, replacing it with relativism and pragmatism. This results in people who may recognize evil but lack the authority, confidence, or will to oppose it, mistaking moral insight for moral strength and denunciation for righteousness. Without an objective foundation, principles become personal preferences that cannot bind anyone else, producing inaction, cynicism, and drift in both liberal and conservative camps alike. Rushdoony contends that moral vitality comes only from acknowledging a transcendent moral order grounded in God, not from human opinion or state decree. Where relativism reigns, society collapses into either anarchy or statism, both expressions of moral paralysis. True moral action, he concludes, requires faith in God’s absolute law, which alone provides a solid foundation for dominion, reconstruction, and a future worth commanding.

The Kick Me Generation

Some people don’t just stumble into trouble they invite it. Like wearing a hidden “Kick Me” sign, they provoke authority, despise correction, and then cry injustice when consequences arrive. Scripture warns of a generation “pure in their own eyes” yet unclean, kicking against every standard while demanding immunity from judgment. But God’s law is not a playground prank. You can mock it, flaunt it, and test it but it always answers back. Playing “Kick Me” with people may bring embarrassment; playing it with God’s law is deadly serious.

Liberty

Throughout history, “liberty” has carried radically different meanings. In pagan cultures, liberty meant freedom from restraint especially moral and sexual restraint. It was celebrated in fertility cults, festivals, and carnivals where lawlessness was treated as a virtue and indulgence as a social duty. This idea of liberty was not about justice, responsibility, or human dignity, but about license: the supposed right to do as one pleased. Biblical liberty stands in direct contrast. Scripture presents liberty as freedom under God’s law, not freedom from it. God’s law is described as “the perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25) because it frees man from sin, chaos, and self-destruction. Liberty in this sense is not bondage but joyful obedience a life ordered by God’s truth and empowered by His Spirit. As Paul declares, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17). When societies abandon God’s law in the name of liberty, they do not become freer. Instead, they lose real freedoms religious, political, economic, and personal and descend into disorder and tyranny. License masquerades as freedom, while true liberty withers. Genuine freedom is found not in lawlessness, but in submission to the Lord who alone gives life, order, and peace.