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Our Constitution was written partly to help us avoid theocracy.
Unfortunately, theocracy is the goal of many Americans today who clearly think the Founders were wrong. They want their groups of churches to dictate to the White House, the Congress, the Courts and the rest of us.
We do need God’s wisdom, help, and protection.
I hope we seek and pray for those things daily. And we need to practice the faiths we profess.
But we have three branches of government precisely in order to keep any group from running things their way without criticism or restraint.
America’s would-be theocrats raise some important concerns that we need to consider. Unfortunately, they also fully intend to have their group running things just as they wish, without criticism or restraint. In that they are wrong. We do not welcome that nightmare – their efforts to stamp their image on all of us.
John Danforth was an Episcopal Priest, then a US Senator. He said this last year, about seeking theocracy:
“Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of Conservative Christians
We are free today to practice our faiths. If we each did that more thoroughly this would likely be a happier and safer nation. But if we let our country surrender its freedoms to a home-grown theocracy, we, our kids, and our grandkids will deeply regret it.
This is from one of my letters to the editor of a local newspaper, September 20, 2006.
See also:
Christians & Churches Should Not Enforce the Bible on Us.
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Here is a poignant repost! Isn’t there some irony in that the chief charges you laid against Christian conservatives 8 years ago, exactly describe (and with much greater justice, too) progressive Democrats today?
THIS administration rules as if it were the voice of god, by arrogating its own political agenda over the Christian’s conscience and the clear teachings of Scripture. It does this with little restraint, simply ignoring whatever laws- Amendments, even- happen to stand in the way. Criticism is suppressed beneath the cogs of the tax code, or failing that, discounted as racist. Of the three branches of federal government, one is blithely lawless, another has long ago ceded its power to ungovernable regulators, and of the last many rule as if the Constitution were mere guidelines and not the supreme earthly authority in this country.
Perhaps, 8 years ago, Sen. Danforth may have touched on something, but the fact is that Republicans vote now along much the same lines as they have for the past 150 years. The Democratic Party however, has been completely overturned by its bloated Saul Alinsky underbelly. Theirs is no theocracy of God, but it is a theocracy nonetheless; a radical secularism with its own perverted scriptures and self-righteous dogma, its own inquisition, and an ugly strain of coercion. Do not welcome their efforts to stamp their image on all of us.
Right-wing writers are kinda like country music. The setting varies but the themes remain the same. Except with country music the themes were the same 10 years ago or 40. But Republican propagandists worry deeply about the Constitution when a Democrat is in the White House. Not at all when Bush was running rampant. They (falsely) believe the IRS is persecuting “conservative” groups but have nary a worry about the enormous tax benefits churches and religious organizations enjoy – even when those organizations’ blatant and dishonestly political activities are ignored by the IRS. Your thoughts are well and interestingly expressed, JDK, but that makes them no more valid than when vented by less educated Tea Partiers. 🙁
I’ve always thought that the only Christian belief that was empirally proveable, was the doctrine of Original Sin. 😉
What is mindboggling is the fact that these folks can’t see that they, too, are sinners. Though many non-pentecostals would
deny it, I think they, in practice, hold “Perfectionist” beliefs (I also think that, in practice, they believe in works righteousness.)
Though many are willfully anti-intellectual, I wish they’d read the history of the 30 yrs war and the English Civil war, so they know why the Founding Fathers
approached religion the way they did.
Evangelicals claim a gift of devine wisdom when they accept Christ – they show no sign of it in their politics!!! Pretty bogus witnes.