The Myth of Neutrality

In “The Myth of Neutrality” (Chalcedon Report No. 224), Rushdoony argues that neutrality is a fundamentally false and destructive concept rooted in atheism, because it assumes a meaningless universe of “brute facts” detached from God. He insists that no law, court, education system, or institution can ever be neutral: all law presupposes moral judgments, all education transmits a religious worldview, and all courts enforce values. The claim of neutrality, especially by the U.S. Supreme Court, functions as a mask for enforcing humanistic religion while suppressing Christian faith most clearly seen in the treatment of state schools as “neutral” and Christian schools as “religious,” despite humanism itself being recognized as a religion. Rushdoony contends that the neutrality myth has also crippled the church, persuading Christians that most of life lies outside God’s authority, thereby dividing the world into sacred and supposedly godless realms. In reality, Scripture affirms that all of life is under God’s law and sovereignty; to deny this is to embrace polytheism and rebellion. Neutrality, he concludes, is man’s attempt to carve out a realm free from God but since God controls all reality, the myth ends not in freedom but in judgment.