Theocracy

A prime example of a religious leader, who claims he interprets god's will and tells others how they should live, would be recently deceased Reverend Jerry Falwell. Moral Majority, which he founded in 1979, was a movement to take religion from the church into the political sphere (while keeping tax exempt status wherever possible).

Falwell's goal was to put Christian values (as interpreted by himself) onto the entire country by law. They call that a theocracy if it succeeds. Electing Christian politicians (as interpreted by himself) into office was more important than the skills of these officials. The motivation for believers to support this goal, which if successful would end separation of church and state, was a combination of righteous zeal and fear. If the right conditions were not met, well you know what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Falwell, to the end of his life, taught fear of a wrathful god. Hurricanes, 9/11, you name the disaster, and he and his ilk were out there crying-- See! See! God smites innocent people for what others do; so you better smite the guilty ones before god gets you. That was not a quote but the gist of his fear driven message to gain power and control.

Although the Moral Majority faded out after about 10 years, its religious view of god has led us directly to the political situation we have in this country today. It never was about one man. This kind of fundamentalist movement, which sweeps through every so often, requires support and it still has it among one sector of the populace-- exactly how large that group is would be hard to determine.

Andrew Sullivan calls this particular group of Americans promoting a theocracy-- Christianists. They use the name of Christ but little else of Jesus's actual words. What particular Gospel relates to demanding lower taxes? Or what scripture says religious schools should be funded by government tax money? How about the verse where Jesus says don't help the poor unless they come to your church service? Or the one about how the poor are living in poverty because they are lazy? or where homosexuals should not be permitted to marry? Interesting how gays deserve AIDS but no mention that overweight people should have heart attacks in punishment for gluttony. And it goes on.

While it is true our country was founded by certain groups seeking religious freedom, a lot who left Europe did so because their brand of Christianity was not safe to practice there. Once they got here, many promptly set it up so that only their brand of Christianity was acceptable. Read up on the Puritans sometime and see how desirable a more or less theocratic system is-- even when it's your religion of choice.

At a certain point, a lot of the founding of this country was reinterpreted to suit current religious ideals-- for instance the idea that our government was founded on the Ten Commandments. Cecil B. DeMille did a lot to further that way of thinking to promote his movie of the same name by spreading those replicas of the stone tablets around the country-- those same tablets that recent battles have been fought about. Personally, I don't care if they are in parks or on government lawns, but this nation was not founded on those principles. It was founded on Masonic principles. Democracy is not part of the Bible. Yes, don't murder and steal are part of the Commandments; but those are principles that began before the Commandments were given to the Jewish people.

For early Puritans even bathing should be done with garments on. Exposing your body, even to yourself, was asking for temptation. Today there is a lot of the same thinking among certain Christianists, but entertainment showing someone being blown apart seems to be all right. This is probably how we end up with a crowd cheering when Republican presidential candidates endorsed torture (although not McCain who knows a thing or two about torture). My bet is most of the crowd that night would proudly identify themselves as Christians. Considering the words of the scripture, the fact that Jesus himself was tortured to death, that's quite a paradox, isn't it!

The United States is not the only nation where you can see how theocracy and a religious view of life impact those citizens living under it through the kind of leaders and laws that govern them. Many of us recently learned, when Richard Gere kissed a beautiful Bollywood star, that it is against the law in India for those of opposite sexes to kiss in public. Women in Muslim countries can be beaten or killed for not dressing according to the edicts of that area's current religious leaders. And the stories go on and on.

If you think a theocracy wouldn't matter to you personally, think again.