Gary North (Christian Reconstructionist)

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For other people of the same name, see Gary North (disambiguation).
Gary North speaking at the Mises Institute in 2004 after receiving the Rothbard Medal.

Gary Kilgore North (born 1942) is an economist and publisher who writes on topics including economics, history, and Christian theology.

Contents

[edit] Education and background

Between 1961 and 1963, while an undergraduate student, North became acquainted with the works of Austrian School economists Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, and Murray Rothbard. Starting in 1967, North became a frequent contributor to the libertarian journal The Freeman where he had first read their work.[1] He later joined the senior staff of the publisher, the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), 1971–73. North received a PhD in history from the University of California, Riverside in 1972. His dissertation was The Concept of Property in Puritan New England, 1630–1720.

He served as research assistant for libertarian Republican Congressman Ron Paul in Paul's first term (1976). He shared a small office with the Calvinistic political philosopher, John W. Robbins, who later became a noted anti-Van Til author and publisher. Also on the staff was economist and historian Bruce Bartlett, although in his pre-supply-side economics days. Many of North's articles have appeared on LewRockwell.com.

[edit] Political beliefs

North argues for the abolition of the fractional-reserve banking system and a return to the gold standard. He also opposes the US Department of Education and Council on Higher Education Accreditation claiming it is a "cartel" and the group has, in part, caused higher education to "become uniformly secular, liberal, and mediocre: raising the cost of entry."[2]

[edit] Religious views and affiliations

He is the founder of the publishing firm Institute for Christian Economics (ICE). The company reportedly got its start with a bequest from an anonymous benefactor. North never received a salary or book royalties for the twenty-five years of its existence. At North's request, the board disbanded the ICE in 2001. The assets were transferred to Dominion Educational Ministries, Inc., a non-profit organization that operates Christian day care centers. North is a member of the Presbyterian Church in America.

R.J. Rushdoony, one of the founders of Christian Reconstructionism, was North's father-in-law, and North is a Christian Reconstructionist. The Institute for Christian Economics[3] published many Christian Reconstructionist books online. Christian Reconstructionists are also presuppositionalists in their approach to Christian apologetics as taught by the Calvinist philosopher Cornelius Van Til, and oppose natural law theory as a basis for civil law order.

[edit] Books and newsletters

North has authored or co-authored more than fifty books, most of which are available for free download.[4] For many years, North has been the author/editor of the newsletter The Remnant Review. More recently, he has also edited Gary North's Reality Check[5], a widely-circulated free e-newsletter.

[edit] Documentary and educational film

[edit] Y2K controversy

North gained some notoriety for his prediction of a possible Y2K catastrophe in print and online, before 2000. Like economists Don McAlvany[6], Joel Skousen, Ed Yourdon[7] Ed Yardeni[8], and many others, North suggested that a Y2K date-rollover failure of the global Information Technology (IT) infrastructure might precipitate severe disruption and perhaps even an economic collapse. North urged his readers to take "prudent" survivalist preparedness measures.[9] A concerted effort in 1998 and 1999 by IT professionals[10] prevented any problems, but North later described Y2K as "a close call." His web site Gary North's Y2K Links and Forums has been preserved at a mirror site.[11] North's Y2K forums[9] were all moderated by volunteer subject matter experts. For example, the Securing Your Home Forum was moderated by survival retreat expert Joel Skousen, and the Inventory and Barter Items Forum was moderated by the survivalist novelist James Wesley Rawles, who later went on to be a survivalist blogger and preparedness guru. North's main Y2K web site was taken offline early in 2000.

[edit] Quotes

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There is no doubt that Christianity teaches pluralism, but a very special kind of pluralism: plural institutions under God's single comprehensive law system. It does not teach a pluralism of law structures, or a pluralism of moralities, for this sort of hypothetical legal pluralism (as distinguished from institutional pluralism) is always either polytheistic or humanistic...
In this structure of plural governments, the institutional churches serve as advisors to the other institutions (the Levitical function), but the churches can only pressure individual leaders through the threat of excommunication. As a restraining factor on unwarranted Church authority, an excommunication by one local church or denomination is always subject to review by another, if and when the excommunicated person seeks membership elsewhere. Thus, each of the three covenantal institutions is to be run under God, as interpreted by its lawfully elected or ordained leaders, with the advice of the churches, not their compulsion.
— Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism, pp. 576–577.
In winning a nation to the gospel, the sword as well as the pen must be used.
—Christian Reconstructionism, p. 198.
The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church’s public marks of the covenant – baptism and holy communion – must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel. The way to achieve this political goal is through successful mass evangelism followed by constitutional revision.
—Political Polytheism: The Myth of Pluralism, p. 87.
As a tactic for a short-run defense of the independent Christian school movement, the appeal to religious liberty is legitimate. Everyone who is attempting to impose a world-and-life view on a majority (or on a ruling minority) always uses some version of the liberty doctrine to buy himself and his movement some time, some organizational freedom, and some power. Still, nobody really believes in the whole idea. Politics always involves establishing one view of the 'holy commonwealth,' and excluding all other rival views. The Communist Party uses the right of free association to get an opportunity to create a society in which all such rights are illegal. The major churches of any society are all maneuvering for power, so that their idea of lawful legislation will become predominant. They are all perfectly willing to use the ideal of religious liberty as a device to gain power, until the day comes that abortion is legalized (denying the right of life to infants) or prohibited (denying the 'right of control over her own body,' after conception, to each woman). Everyone talks about religious liberty, but no one believes it.
So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.
—"The Intellectual Schizophrenia of the New Christian Right", The Failure of the American Baptist Culture, pp. 24–25.
The stranger in ancient Israel did not serve as a judge, although he received all the benefits of living in the land. The political question is this: By what biblical standard is the pagan to be granted the right to bring political sanctions against God's people? We recognize that unbelievers are not to vote in Church elections. Why should they be allowed to vote in civil elections in a covenanted Christian nation? Which judicial standards will they impose? By what other standard than the Bible?

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ North, Gary. "What Made Rothbard Great." Ludwig von Mises Institute. Mises.org. 28 July 2004. [1]
  2. ^ North, Gary. "The Coming Breakdown of the Academic Cartel." LewRockwell.com. [2]
  3. ^ www.reformed-theology.org/ice
  4. ^ http://www.entrewave.com/freebooks/sidefrm2.htm
  5. ^ http://www.garynorth.com/public/department50.cfm
  6. ^ http://www.armageddonbooks.com/20tidal.html
  7. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Y2K-Home-Preparation-Guide/dp/0130143065
  8. ^ http://www.gwu.edu/~y2k/categories/bigbusiness.html
  9. ^ a b http://www.dishangel.com/y2k/Discussion_Forums.htm
  10. ^ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V80-410MFX4-5&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=8fa8c97c7540468822c7259fb4a8f2e8
  11. ^ http://www.dishangel.com/y2k/

[edit] External links

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