CR101 Radio - Podcast Network

In *Easy Chair 148* (June 4, 1987), R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott argue that the French Revolution didn’t merely “happen” in history—it **still shapes the modern world**, and its errors keep replaying wherever elites try to seize man’s destiny. They trace the revolution’s logic back to Enlightenment assumptions (especially Locke’s belief in morally “neutral” man who can be remade by education), pr...

Rationalism becomes heresy when it places human reason in judgment over God’s revelation. By demanding that Scripture first satisfy the standards of fallen reason, rationalism enthrones man as judge and reduces God to an object needing validation. This repeats the original sin of Genesis 3:5 man seeking to be his own god. Scripture teaches that the Fall corrupted not only man’s will but also his m...

Charles Spurgeon observed that when a man is down, he has his greatest opportunity to trust God, for a false faith survives only in calm waters, but true faith proves itself in storms. Many claim they cannot believe in a God who permits suffering, yet they raise their children with that same creed shielding them from every hardship and then wonder why those children grow into selfish, destructive...

In “The Smiling Face of Evil,” Rushdoony warns that evil rarely appears brutal or grotesque but commonly presents itself as kind, helpful, idealistic, and morally concerned, masking its true nature behind pleasant words, good intentions, and public-relations charm. Drawing on personal anecdotes and biblical examples, he argues that Satan’s most effective strategy is not open hostility but deceptio...

This opening session argues that economic collapse is not accidental but moral, the predictable fruit of a statist, fiat-driven world that has abandoned God’s created order. Using Christ’s parable of the steward, the teaching confronts Christian other-worldliness and insists that faithful stewardship of money is a spiritual requirement, not a worldly distraction. Humanistic economics treats realit...

As we look back on our lives, we often see how little of it unfolded according to our own plans, and this can trouble us unless we grasp the truth Solomon expressed: “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps” (Prov. 16:9). We are responsible for our choices and accountable for our actions, yet we are not omnipotent, and countless forces lie beyond our control, making self-d...

A man recently sighed, “Problems, problems how I wish I could be rid of them,” and in truth we all share that longing at times. Yet problems never disappear; they simply change shape, following us through childhood, youth, adulthood, and old age, and appearing in our homes, work, churches, nation, and even our own hearts. They belong to life in a fallen world, but even before the Fall Adam faced t...

In “Abominations”, Rushdoony explains that Scripture’s strong language about sin reflects God’s holiness and justice, not vulgarity or excess, and that the biblical term abomination consistently denotes what God finds utterly abhorrent because it is idolatrous, lawless, and spiritually corrupt. Drawing on Hebrew and Greek usage, he shows that abominations are actions and attitudes that despise God...

This passage argues that a new form of bigotry is emerging in the foster-care system, where devout Christians though responsible and moral are being rejected as foster parents. The author cites a tragic case in Pomona, California, where a child was sexually abused and killed in foster care, suggesting that prejudice against Christian foster parents may contribute to such failures. The broader conc...

One of history’s recurring problems is the stubborn survival of false ideas, and among the most destructive is the Jeffersonian belief that evil is a product of the environment rather than of the human heart. As Daniel J. Boorstin notes, Jefferson treated moral corruption as no more blameworthy than catching yellow fever. Scripture, however, insists that man is morally responsible, and that evil f...

This session presents Abraham and Sarah as Scripture’s model—or “normative”—marriage, not because it was easy or sentimental, but because it was forged through responsibility, obedience, and costly decision-making under God. Sarah, whose very name signifies authority, was no passive figure; she commanded decisively when right and submitted faithfully when obedience to God required it, even in terr...

One of the great heresies of our age is the notion that “being spiritual” is the same as being Christian, when Scripture never calls us to pursue spirituality as such, but to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Greek philosophy prized spirituality over materiality and condemned Biblical faith as too earthly, but Scripture teaches that holiness not abstract spirituality is God’s command. Holiness means...

Rationalism fails because it ignores the Fall. Scripture teaches that man’s original sin was the desire to be his own god, and as a result every part of his being including his mind is corrupted by sin. The Bible is explicit: “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7). Fallen reason is not neutral, nor capable of judging God rightly, because it refuses to submit to God’s law. Rationalism a...

A great deal of nonsense is written about the supposed last days of California or the imminent end of the world, as though fear should drive us into the arms of whatever theory the writer is selling, despite our Lord’s plain declaration that no man knows the day or hour (Matt. 24:36). Scripture is not secretive about the true “last days”: the new creation began when Christ rose from the dead as th...

Man’s recurring temptation is to claim infallibility for himself or his institutions whether in government, church, or popular opinion but such claims are dangerous and false, because fallen, sinful man is by nature erring and finite. History shows that whenever men declare their laws, leaders, councils, or collective will to be infallible, they inevitably diminish or deny the sole true standard:...

A young prince once demanded that economics be explained to him in ten words, until a courtier answered with nine: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” That principle lies behind many of our modern problems, because someone always pays through work, money, or taxes. The same truth applies to salvation: Scripture never teaches that it was “free” in the modern sense of “without cost,” but that...

Power and authority are inseparable from God’s law: power is mere force, but authority is the lawful right to rule, and only where both are grounded in God’s word can true order exist. Scripture teaches that the saints are called to govern the world not through humanistic coercion, miracles designed to compel belief, or institutional dominance but through obedience to Christ’s law and faithful sel...

This talk argues that the Christian is not an anarchist but a believer in God’s government, and that modern speech about “the government” wrongly treats the state as ultimate, when Scripture places the real “seats of government” first in self-government under God’s Word, then the family, then church, school, vocation, and community, with the state only as civil government—limited and subordinate t...

Modern rationalism begins with René Descartes, whose famous claim “I think, therefore I am” made human self-consciousness the starting point of reality. Instead of God creating and defining all things, man’s thinking became the judge of what is real. God was reduced to an object that must be validated by human reason, laying the groundwork for the modern idea that God can be “created” or dismissed...

When Jacob lay dying, he prophesied of the Messiah and called Him Shiloh “He whose right it is” the true King and Lawgiver to whom all authority and all nations belong (Gen. 49:10). Christ affirmed this office after His Resurrection when He declared, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth,” commanding His church to disciple the nations and teach them to obey all His commandments (Matt....

In Easy Chair No. 147, R.J. Rushdoony and Otto Scott host Dr. Philip Wayne Powell to discuss his book The Tree of Hate, which exposes the historical myths and prejudices surrounding the Hispanic world, especially the Spanish Empire and Latin America. Powell explains how Northern European propaganda, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries, fostered widespread misconceptions about Spain’s colonizat...

Israel offers Gideon the crown. He says the right thing — the Lord shall rule — and in the very next breath asks for the gold. He builds an ephod, fuses kingship with priesthood, and brings the philosophy of Midian into his own tent. And yet the land gets forty years of peace. This episode unpacks why the king-priest fusion is the defining mark of paganism, why "Christ rules my heart but men rule...

From the 1920s through the ’40s, the detective novel and Western were wildly popular because, in a culture where modern fiction was denying God and morality, these stories still portrayed a world in which right was right, wrong was wrong, murder was evil, and justice was pursued. But as writers grew “sophisticated,” even mysteries and Westerns began excusing evil with psychological explanations, b...

In “Blind Faith” (Chalcedon Report No. 419), Rushdoony argues that Darwinism functions not as proven science but as a massive act of blind faith, embraced because it promises liberation from the God of Christianity rather than truth. From its rapid acceptance in 1859 to its dominance in modern education, culture, and even churches, this faith in humanistic evolution has shaped a civilization that...

This session exposes inflation as a moral disease before it is an economic one, rooted in fiat money, statist power, and a humanistic belief that value can be created by decree rather than by work, thrift, and godly character. When money is severed from real wealth, it becomes a tool of theft, rewarding debtors, punishing the faithful, and financing cultural decay—from foreign Marxist regimes to d...