I am a strong proponent of homeschooling and believe that for
Christians it's the best option available when it comes to educating our children.
While we deliberately never joined the Homeschool Legal Defense Association
(HSLDA), we nevertheless made occasional use of their website, following some
of the legislation and developments in our state and around the country. And so
it was in that vein that we began to hear about Patrick Henry College and later
the HSLDA-connected Generation Joshua project.
While the movement drew from a wide variety of Evangelical
spheres and ideologies, the core and driving doctrine of these various
organisations was (and remains) Dominionism. I don't doubt that many involved
with these groups are not even particularly familiar with the nomenclature or even
the notion of identifying the particular set of ideas known as Dominionism – as
anything remarkable. By the early 2000's the ideas had become so ingrained and
commonplace they were (and increasingly are) taken for granted.
Moving beyond the intent of post-war Evangelicalism to
influence and preserve culture and to carve out a place for Christians in the
various spheres of social, economic, and political life, the 1990's saw a
transformation of these ideas. The failures of the Moral Majority and Christian
Coalition in the 1980's, and the rapidly changing nature of American and
Western culture, and the (perceived) immediate crisis of the Bill Clinton
presidency led to an aggressive programme of disseminating Dominionist
doctrine. Building on the foundations laid by early figures such as Abraham
Kuyper (1837-1920), the movement also heavily relied upon the teachings of
Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), and RJ Rushdoony (1916-2001). One of the seminal
figures in propagating and popularising these ideas was Charles Colson
(1931-2012).
No longer content to merely influence culture, or to have a
place at the table, Dominionism largely eschewed the principled or preferential
pluralism of earlier Evangelicals. They didn't want culture to respect
Christianity or even give it a preference. They wanted to dominate culture and
as culture was rapidly changing there was an urgent push to transform not only
culture but Christian life, thinking, and ethics. This period of the 1990's was
when the 'worldview' campaign began in earnest – an attempt to range far beyond
Scripture and create a unified theory for Christians not just to live and
function in society but to lead it, and it was critical that Christians engage
with and master all spheres of culture. The older approach toward Christian
education which largely mirrored the secular variety but with a few 'extras'
such as prayer, Scripture reading, the Decalogue on the wall – and maybe a
chapel service, was no longer going to be sufficient. And as far as it goes,
they were right. That kind of public school education was never actually
Christian.
Though both Falwell's Liberty and Pat Robertson's Regent
University were founded in the 1970's, they began to generate a great deal of press
and attention in the 1990's as one of the hallmarks of Dominionist thought –
which again was being rapidly disseminated in the 1990's, was this notion of
Christians transforming society. In order to do this, Christians needed to be
competently educated and able to work within the ranks of the cultural elite.
These schools played an important role in this project and in 2000, Patrick
Henry was founded. The Church would need Christian cultural warriors (the
premise of Generation Joshua) and thus it was important to train young
Christians in the arts, law, politics, economics and the like.
While there was never an official platform which spelled out
beliefs regarding eschatology and family size, there were certain 'types' that
were drawn to these schools and Patrick Henry in particular. Large families,
the Quiverfull movement and the like were common enough in these circles, the
idea being that these children would grow up to shape culture and since the
secular world's child-bearing rate is in decline there was (and remains) a hope
expressed by some that eventually the Christians would overtake the secular
sphere and effectively out-breed them. These notions find common cause with and
are often influenced by Postmillennial thinking – particularly the sectors
affected by Theonomy and the theology of RJ Rushdoony. Some Postmillennialists
simply believe the long battle will be won with a gradual takeover and
transformation of society by the Church. Rushdoony's narrative varied in that
it looked for a coming cultural collapse and then from the ashes (as it were)
the Christian movement would arise. As society was in disarray, an army in
waiting, an army of trained culture warriors would step into the gap and
rebuild the culture. These ideas are common enough in the circles of which Patrick
Henry College is a part, and these ideas were percolating and proliferating in
the 1990's and early 2000's.
Growing up in a Right-wing household I could have easily been
swept up into these movements. Lost and misled by Dispensational Evangelicalism
I was finally converted as an adult in the mid-1990's and as I married and
began my family, the more I learned and consequently the more I recoiled and
moved away from these people. At one time it seemed as if my wife and I would
have a lot in common with some of them – nice families, women with long hair in
dresses, lots of kids, social and theologically conservative values, but I came
to realise that the outer packaging was incidental and in fact the foundations
and goals were totally different. We could attend church with such folk – and
we looked toward moving near some of these groups in other states, but I realised
that within a short time the real differences would come to the fore and that
in fact we had almost nothing in common with these people. Our reasons for
doing what we did, and presenting ourselves as we do are quite different and
motivated by a different set of ideas, values, and ethics. The more I studied
the Scriptures the more I became 'socially' conservative (one might say) but
that didn't translate into political conservatism, let alone the Libertarian
and Right-wing radicalism that was beginning to take over by the early 2000's.
And I found that many of these people were drinking from wells other than
Scripture and in other cases the Scriptures were at best a kind of subordinate
authority in their lives. I watched this for years and my wife and I eventually
reached the point where we didn't want to be around these people very much. We
still struggle with it because the options for church attendance continue to
narrow.
By way of example, I have a friend who attends a Doug Wilson-influenced
CREC congregation in Idaho. He attends largely because of their practice of
paedocommunion. While I hold the same view with regard to the Supper, I'm
afraid I wouldn't attend that church even if they met next door. They may be
right on a few points but their overall understanding of Scripture in terms of
the Kingdom and ethics is so far off the mark that I cannot fellowship with
them and increasingly (for the sake of my testimony vis-à-vis the world) wouldn't
want to be around them or in any way associated with them.
Twenty-some years later we're seeing the harvest of the
Dominionist push of the 1990's and early 2000's. The Quiverfull movement is now
best represented by the tabloid television disgrace that is the Duggar family.
And while Patrick Henry College has produced some minor Right-wing media
figures and political officeholders – and even a beauty queen, the real face of
the movement (at least at present) is Madison Cawthorn.
Now, I do not doubt the school has produced dozens if not
hundreds of students that have gone off to work in law firms, finance, and in
other spheres and lead culturally respectable lives and are influencing culture
in their respective capacities – at least as they see it. The fruit of this
type of cultural engagement will be seen (for good or ill) in another
generation or so. Will they produce 'godly' offspring that will continue the Dominionist
project and trend? Time will tell.
But in the meantime we're seeing other forces at work that
are playing their part in shaping the so-called Generation Joshua – the
generation meant to begin conquering and taking Dominion. The ethos of New
Calvinism which while also Dominionist is cut from a somewhat different cloth
and possesses a different style. At least that would have been the case in the
early 2000's as New Calvinism (as it would later be known) was starting to come
together. And yet the current crop of young Dominionists is patently influenced
by the movement's Evangelical ethos, its culturally friendly (and even
culturally hip) style.
And this is the generation that largely came of age during
the Obama years. Many grew up in households dominated by FOX and the narratives
it promotes. Because of these foundation stones, coupled with the drive and
emphasis on Dominionist doctrine we're seeing a different type of young
Christian emerge. I have interacted with more than a few of them in the
Evangelical and Reformed setting. Apart from those who are simply wild,
spoiled, and undisciplined, there are many who know their politics and FOX
talking points, but they don't seem to know their Bibles. They know Right-wing
celebrity culture and revel in social media memes, GIF's, and victory lap/slam-dunk
sound clips but they're unfamiliar with Reformation doctrine or even the
distinctives of their own theological traditions. They know about finance, the
economic theories of Thomas Sowell, and increasingly about guns, but
sanctification, mortification, and the Sermon on the Mount are strangers to
them and in fact when pressed, they're hostile to the teachings.
I've run into others that have picked up on the family theme
and as a result have very large families – which in most cases they seem unable
to control. As one who is largely opposed to birth control, at one time I
thought I might find some fellowship with these types but I quickly realised once
again that the motivations are very different. For me it was a faith and
Providence issue, combined with some scepticism regarding the medical
technology. And my views of faith, children, family, economics, and antithesis
were rooted in the New Testament and involved an embrace of relative poverty,
but for these folks it's about Dominion and producing culture warriors. And yet
I must say I've seen many a family of this type that has bitten off more than
they can chew and by not laying the foundations of discipline and order in
their young children I can only imagine what happened later. As any parent of
older children knows (or ought to know) the task doesn't get easier as they
near adulthood. The early years are physical, tying shoes, changing diapers,
strollers, high chairs, always keeping close tabs near roads and crowds and the
like. As they get older and become more autonomous, these tasks fade away but then
the real work (which was present all along) takes over – the shaping of
character, realising your children aren't automatons that are produced as to
order, but they're people with strengths, weaknesses, flaws, emotions, and
inner struggles. It's very challenging and difficult and my wife and I have
come to realise that many parents (including many we know) are not aware of
what awaits them and the struggles they will face. It's challenging and
emotionally and spiritually exhausting. And I say this as one who has children
that are not in rebellion – not in the least. We've had no struggles in that
regard. I'm simply speaking of teaching them character and helping them to
'launch' into life and interact with the world. There are fine lines and
tensions and I've seen kids over-sheltered and upon interaction with the world
it leads to quick disaster. I've seen others who have been too engaged, to invested,
and they've been swept away and become all but indistinguishable from the world.
We've also see many parents simply abdicate and let nature
take its course as it were and the results are sometimes disastrous. I've seen
more than one large 'covenant' family utterly collapse and far from influencing
culture, the end result is a new crop of bitter and angry apostates.