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American Theocracy Anyone?---Part One
Peter Marshall Ministries ^ | 08/30/2007 | Peter J. Marshall

Posted on 08/30/2007 3:18:04 PM PDT by Sopater

Here begins a two-part commentary on the verbal bomb-throwing attack on evangelical Christians launched by those who are seemingly terrified that our real agenda is to turn America into some kind of right-wing Christian theocracy.  I mean, these people are serious about this, and there are more than a few of them.  In the last year or so there has been a spate of books published that are sounding the alarm against "a group of religious utopians, (who) with the sympathy and support of tens of millions of Americans, are slowly dismantling democratic institutions to establish a religious tyranny, the springboard to an American fascism"  That quote from American Facists, by Chris Hedges.

Lest you think Chris is out there all by himself in la-la land, here are some other choice quotes: "Religious fanatics who run the country...are close to realizing their vision of heaven on earth: an American theocracy." (Why the Christian Right is Wrong, Robin Meyers).  "We must resist before the fundamentalists do what they have promised (and) turn the world's oldest democracy into a theocracy ruled entirely by 'righteous men' " (Mel White, Religion Gone Bad). 

In addition to the books mentioned above, here are other titles: Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, by Jimmy Carter (yes, that Jimmy Carter!); The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right, by Michael Lerner; The Hijacking of Jesus: How the Religious Right Distorts Christianity and Promotes Prejudice and Hate, by Dan Wakefield; God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, by Jim Wallis; American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century, by Kevin Phillips; The Baptizing of America: The Religious Rights's Plans for the Rest of Us, by James Rudin; Thy Kingdom Come: How The Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament, by Randall Balmer; and Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, by Michelle Goldberg.

Never before has the country seen this kind of concerted effort to attack in writing what these authors call "the religious right."  And, their sentiments are certainly shared by most of the media, almost all of academia, and a huge percentage of the entertainment people, not to mention almost all of the political leadership to the left of George W. Bush. 

What is going on here?  What is this really about?

I think that the solid conservative victories in the 2004 elections, plus the slow and steady gains in the pro-life struggle, plus the strong backlash against the left's attempt to secularize Christmas, plus the Catholic and Evangelical fight against homosexual marriage, plus the Intelligent Design movement against Darwinism in education---all of this and more is scaring the you-know-what out of the Left.  And they are launching a strong attack against evangelicals and conservatives in the ongoing culture war for the soul of America.  Lest you think nobody is reading these screeds, Kevin Phillips' American Theocracy perched on top of the New York Times bestseller list this past spring.

Although other terms like "Christian facists" and "Religious Right" are tossed about with abandon, the term theocracy seems to show up most often in these books.  The word was originally coined by Jewish historian Josephus to refer to the Jews' form of government being rule by God, as opposed to a monarchy or a democracy or a republic.  Later,18th Century Enlightenment writers turned the word into a negative, to express their rejection of the idea that God should be actively involved in governing the world.  In our time, the term has come to be used only in the negative sense, and refers to rule by religious leaders.  Sometimes the word is used to describe government by a particular religious sect---like Shia imams in Iran, where they actually make the laws.

Kevin Phillips seems to be genuinely worried about the Southern Baptists becoming the "state church" of the South.  But I wonder how familiar Mr. Phillips really is with southern Baptists.  The idea of Baptists agreeing about anything long enough to take over as some kind of national Church is really kind of funny. 

Anyway, the boogie man for these writers, and what they really take seriously as a threat to the republic, is what they perceive as the rise of a cross-denominational theocracy that would install a right-wing Christian faith as the established religion, discriminate against all unbelievers, and enshrine Old Testament law as the legal code of the nation. 

In The Baptizing of America, Rabbi James Rudin raises the specter of a national ID card that would list everyone's religion, or lack of religion.  The cards would furnish "Christocrats" (another pejorative term for people that love Jesus) with preferential treatment in many areas of life, including home ownership, student loans, employment, and education."  He is afraid that homosexuality will be prosecuted, and that "known homosexuals and lesbians would have to successfully undergo reeducation sessions if they applied for any public-sector jobs."  Religious censors would police the culture, and the media "would be beaten into submission." 

The writers of these books, and their allies, are apparently truly afraid that the country is about to become ruled by evangelical and conservative fanatics who are only a tiny bit different from Iranian-type ayatollahs.  In fact, they lump all evangelical Christians together with the Taliban and other Islamofacists as dangerous fundamentalists.  Meyers calls his opponents "Christian facists" who "peddle a theology of hatred, condemnation, and cruelty."  And Wakefield considers people like us as "the new Taliban of America," which renounces the Beatitudes of Jesus and "twist(s) the basic message of Christianity from love to hate." 

The chances of any of this happening in today's America are totally non-existent.  In fact, the only people that I can think of who advocate any of this are the tiny band of Reconstructionists, the disciples of the late R.J. Rushdoony, who are still (I imagine) advocating an Old Testament legal system for America.  But, they have about as much influence in America as the Flat Earth Society or the U.F.O people in Roswell, New Mexico. 

None of the well-known Christian leaders in this country (and I personally know most of them) have ever advocated or even hinted that they were in favor of, a theocracy.  But, according to our attackers, this is what we're all supposed to want.  Balmer answers his own question of what America would look like if "the Religious Right had its way" like this: we conservative Christians supposedly long for "the kind of homogeneous theocracy that the Puritans tried to establish in seventeenth-century Massachusetts."  Our desire to see prayer back in public schools is an insidious plot "to dismantle the First Amendment." 

Balmer actually has the loony idea that Rushdoony has been the driving influence behind everyone from Jerry Falwell to Pat Robertson to James Kennedy to Richard Land to Judge Roy Moore -- you name it!  What proof does he set forth?  Well, Rushdoony's Chalcedon Foundation once published a defense of Judge Roy Moore, which was written by "an associate professor at Falwell's Liberty University."  Aha, there you have it!  No question about it!  Case proven!

That's what you call guilt by juxtaposition . . . (!)

In case you didn't realize it, you can actually be influenced by Rushdoony without even realizing it.  Michelle Goldberg admits that David Gibbs, the lawyer for the Terri Schiavo family, is really a Baptist, and not a Reconstructionist.  But then comes this: "But, whether he knew it or not, Reconstructionism shaped his thinking, just as it shaped the thinking of the Christian nationalist movement as a whole." 

Another one of Balmer's zanier ideas is that the crummy church architecture that characterizes most of the all-purpose (groan) boxy, warehouse-looking church buildings going up all over America these days is actually produced by "the belief in dispensational premillennialism."  For those of you who are not up on your fighting Fundamentalist terminology, what that refers to is the belief (which I don't really find to be Scriptural) that the Church of Christ is going to be raptured off the earth before the Great Tribulation, and that all the unbelievers are going to be left behind (hence the popular Left Behind novels) to suffer through it on their own.  Well, I'm glad to finally learn the real cause of the lousy church architecture!  All this time I thought it was just because of the lack of a truly Biblical theology of worship among us charismatics and evangelicals. 

That's the stuff that people are reading and actually believing about us conservative evangelical Christians.  There's much more to be quoted, but you get the idea.  We are viewed as truly dangerous to the future of the republic. 

In this commentary, I've laid out the accusations.  Next week's commentary will present my responses to these accusations, or at least to the ones worth responding to.  What do evangelical Christians want in regard to the relationship between Christians and government and culture?

Copyright, 2007, Peter J. Marshall. All rights reserved.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Religion
KEYWORDS: government
A fear of the "religious right" conspiring to create an "American Theocracy" is something that I've heard here on FR. Pretty silly, really.

Search: Theocracy
1 posted on 08/30/2007 3:18:06 PM PDT by Sopater
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To: Sopater

They’re so afraid of Christians, but say nothing about Muslims who do want a theocracy. Someone explain that to me.


2 posted on 08/30/2007 3:19:23 PM PDT by darkangel82 (Socialism is NOT an American value.)
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To: Sopater
It must be true. Now that abortion and gay marriage is illegal next we can start shutting down those porno places.
3 posted on 08/30/2007 3:21:19 PM PDT by samm1148 (Pennsylvania-They haven't taxed air--yet)
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To: Sopater

The author of the article is the son of Peter Marshall.
He was a prominent Presbyterian clergyman and US Senate Chaplain.

http://www.petermarshallministries.com/about/dr_peter_marshall.cfm


4 posted on 08/30/2007 3:23:50 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Sopater

read later


5 posted on 08/30/2007 5:33:40 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: Sopater

“My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns.”
— James Watt, The Washington Post, may 24, 1981


6 posted on 08/31/2007 5:27:09 PM PDT by RedStateRocker (When the government fears the People= Liberty. When the People fear the Government =Tyranny)
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To: Sopater
The writing style is far too dressed down for what seems to be an 'official newsletter' of his ministry.

Anyway, for the substance of his piece, many Americans--particularly the elitist liberals who seem to frequent the BBC Have Your Says--do seem to believe that the United States is turning closer and closer to a theocracy.

What do they believe the United States was before?

Today abortion is legal. In Massachusetts, state law considers homosexual marriage legal. Other states have civil unions. (Granted, most of the rest of the states have laws defining normal marriage). Homosexual 'relations' are no longer prosecuted. On the state and federal level, embryonic stem cell research goes on.

If the United States is becoming more religious, then that trend is more reflective of the past, when non-Christians still co-existed with Christians in this country.

7 posted on 09/01/2007 2:53:23 AM PDT by Jedi Master Pikachu ( What is your take on Acts 15:20 (abstaining from blood) about eating meat? Could you freepmail?)
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To: Sopater
..the United States is a Judeo-Christian based society--not a Christian nation, as some state, but a republic based on the moral precepts revealed in the Bible, hence it influences our lawmaking, treatment of life, crime and punishment, property rights and defines family, and other basic institutions of society...
8 posted on 09/07/2007 11:41:50 AM PDT by WalterSkinner ( In Memory of My Father--WWII Vet and Patriot 1926-2007)
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To: WalterSkinner
..the United States is a Judeo-Christian based society--not a Christian nation, as some state, but a republic based on the moral precepts revealed in the Bible, hence it influences our lawmaking, treatment of life, crime and punishment, property rights and defines family, and other basic institutions of society...

Absolutely.
9 posted on 09/07/2007 11:45:50 AM PDT by Sopater (A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. ~ Ecclesiastes 10:2)
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