From: Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Date: Wed Apr 22 1998 - 16:10:46 MDT
Someone forwarded my earlier comments about Gary North and the Y2K problem
to North, and he took issue with my interpretation of his theology.
Some of the information below comes from an anti-North site,
http://www.serve.com/thibodep/cr/y2k.htm, some from an anti-Y2K-hype
site, http://www.erols.com/steve451/doom.htm, and some from my own
research. Many of North's books are online at http://www.freebooks.com/
if you want to learn more about his religious views.
I am not very knowledgeable about the theology of the religious right,
including the Christian Reconstruction movement, of which North is a
founder. However it is clear that North has been a survivalist since
the 1960s. From http://www.serve.com/thibodep/cr/jan.txt
> Many newcomers (post-1980) to Christian Reconstruction do not know
> the early history of the movement. For the record, I was an investor
> in the rural retreat set up by R. J. Rushdoony in 1965-66. So were my
> parents. So were dozens of other families. The property was located
> near San Luis Obispo, California. The investors were people who had
> bought gold and silver based on Mr. Rushdoony's recommendation (and
> mine). The project collapsed, as communes tend to do, in a nasty
> split. No one ever actually moved there. It was at the time of this
> survival center that he wrote his booklet, Preparation for the Future,
> in which he outlined his hard-money, survivalist views.
> Mr. Rushdoony now lives on the top of a hill in the gold mining
> country of California. Would-be urban survivalists would salivate
> over his set-up. He went there in 1976 to get away from Los Angeles.
> He asked me to go there, too. I didn't. I went to Lynden, Washington
> -- still a safe place.
>
> In short, the two founders of Christian Reconstruction preached
> survivalism and eventual social collapse even before there was a
> Christian Reconstruction paradigm -- before The Institutes of Biblical
> Law. Mr. Lindsey's sweeping statement about what Christian
> Reconstruction teaches on personal relocation is uninformed
> historically. He was not present at the creation of this movement,
> and he obviously knows little of its early history. R. J. Rushdoony
> got me into survivalism. He has been far more consistent
> geographically in pursuing his vision than I have been. I have now
> escalated my efforts to catch up with him on this point. I suggest
> you do the same. Soon.
It's hard to say to what extent his survivalism is based on his
theological views versus more secular concerns. But here is an
excerpt below from the 1980s in which he lays out his fears of
impending doom due to banking and financial problems, all wrapped up
in religious language:
>From http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0504_North_-_Victory.html
> Earthly Victory
>
> By Gary North
>
> [...]
>
> The blood of this civilization is presently on the hands of
> Christians, who have been too timid, and too unsure of themselves, to
> propose any alternatives to humanist foreign policy in the name of
> Christ and in terms of the Bible. God set them on the towers as His
> representatives to a fallen world, and they have remained silent.
>
> They have thought it only natural that humanists should control every
> aspect of foreign policy, and that the nation-state should constitute
> the heart, mind, and soul of international relations. Now a time of
> vast international crisis lies ahead - military, economic, political,
> and biological (AIDS).5 The banking policies of the West assure us all
> of a coming economic catastrophe. It can be deferred; it cannot be
> avoided.6
>
> In that day of multiple crises, Christians will not escape unscathed,
> any more than righteous Hebrews escaped Assyrian and Babylonian
> captivity. When ungodly men are allowed by the righteous to speak as
> representatives of a nation (point two of the biblical covenant
> model), then that nation will eventually experience judgment. There is
> a cause-and-effect relationship in history between covenantal
> standards and covenantal judgments.
>
> Christians have defaulted on their responsibilities. They have assumed
> that covenant-breaking humanists can and should speak for them. They
> have not cared to see God's covenant publicly affirmed
> nationally. Thus, the 20th century has been the most bloody century
> since the Noachic Flood.7 It has become the age of totalitarianism,
> bureaucracy, and massive international tyranny, all in the name of
> (principle of representation) humanism's false god, the sovereign
> autonomous people.
>
> The result will be default by the ruling pagans on their
> responsibilities to the West, the default of Western civil governments
> on their economic promises to the voters, the default of the
> commercial banks, and the default of private pension plans. The 20th
> century has been a century of moral and religious default, and
> sometime during the lifetimes of most of those who read this book in
> the 1980s, there will be a default by humanist institutions on a scale
> unimaginable today.
>
> These looming crises offer hope for Christian reconstruction of a
> humanist civilization that is on its deathbed. But if Christians
> default once again, refusing to sacrifice their lives and fortunes for
> the crown rights of King Jesus in every area of life, then a new dark
> age of tyranny is the obvious alternative. There is no neutrality. We
> face these choices today: the kingdom of God on earth or the kingdom
> of Satan on earth. We face freedom under Christ or the Communist
> concentration camp. We face life in the Son or death by nuclear
> annihilation.
This was long before North became involved with the Y2K problem. He
is predicting doom based on the financial problems of the 1980s, as
did many survivalists in those days.
One interesting point is that North does not see the impending
destruction as a totally negative thing. He sees the opportunity for
a "Christian reconstruction" after the disaster.
Now North has fastened onto the Y2K problem as the latest
justification for his doomsaying. And even though he thinks it will
lead to a complete collapse of civilization, the end of the world as
we know it, he still thinks it's a good thing:
>From http://www.erols.com/steve451/doom.htm
> The y2k crisis is systemic. It cannot possibly be fixed. I think it
> will wipe out every national government in the West. Not just modify
> them - destroy them. I honestly think the Federal government will go
> under. I think the U.S.A. will break up the way the U.S.S.R. did.
> Call me a dreamer. Call me an optimist. That's what I think.
>
> This will decentralize the social order. That is what I have wanted
> all of my adult life. In my view, y2k is our deliverance.
>
> Just don't be in a city when deliverance comes.
Based on this information, I continue to believe that North sees the
Y2K problem in religious terms, as an opportunity to wipe the slate clean
and rebuild a society founded on Christian principles. If this is true,
it is in his interest to fan the flames of the Y2K crisis, and to work
to bring about the collapse he is predicting.
Use the links above if you want to learn more about North, both from his
own writings and from his critics. His site, www.garynorth.com, is a
useful source of information, but use your judgement as to whether it is
presenting a complete or unbiased picture.
Hal
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