Doing Nothing

In “Doing Nothing” (Chalcedon Report No. 159), Rushdoony argues that Western society’s failure to resist tyranny is not intellectual confusion but religious apostasy, rooted in a shared humanism that unites both democratic and communist systems. Solzhenitsyn’s critique unsettled the West because he exposed the uncomfortable truth that Marxism and Western statism spring from the same faith: the sovereignty of man and the state rather than God. As a result, persecutions of Christians—whether in Soviet labor camps or American courtrooms targeting Christian schools and parents—are met largely with silence, apathy, or even opposition from fellow churchmen. Where humanism reigns, Christ’s lordship is denied, neutrality is impossible, and nonconformity is treated as a crime. Rushdoony concludes that this is a spiritual war over the reign of Christ, one in which believers must recognize that doing nothing is itself surrender, and that true victory belongs only to those who overcome the world by faith in the risen King. #Humanism #Statism #Solzhenitsyn #ChristianSchools #LordshipOfChrist #NoNeutrality #FaithOverFear #SpiritualWar