Thursday, February 23, 2017

A Brilliant Idea We Can't Afford to Abandon!


A Theocracy is a form of government in which a deity is the source from which all authority derives (Wikipedia). 

In some theocracies clergy serve dual roles as spiritual leaders and political leaders.

Afghanistan is a theocracy.

Iran is a theocracy.

Mauritania is  theocracy.

Saudi Arabia is a theocracy.

Sudan is a theocracy.

Yemen is a theocracy.

All Muslim countries.

The Vatican is a theocracy.

Obviously a Christian State.

They share one thing in common and that’s one dominant religion.

America is not a theocracy.

It is a government of the people, by the people, and for the the people. We were not created to be a nation ruled by divine fiat or religious law, but by the consent of the people. 

The idea proposed by Thomas Jefferson that there should be a wall erected between the Church and State was genius—it was also a very progressive idea for its time. One could say that Jefferson's idea was far from conventional.

I don’t want a government that believes its authority is given to it by a single deity of one  given religion. I don’t want a government that only recognizes one faith tradition at the expense of all others.

Christianity is not the only religion that is practiced in the United States. But some wish it were the only religion. These are the folks who lust for America to become a theocracy.

There are Evangelicals who do not subscribe to the Jeffersonian ideal of the separation of Church and State. Maybe it's because Jefferson was not an Evangelical. Yet I think Jefferson’s idea was brilliant because:

I don’t want the government telling me which religious values I must embrace and which ones I must let go; 

I don't want the government dictating to me which rights I can exercise and which rights I can’t;

I don't want the government telling me when to pray, where to pray, nor how to pray; 

I don't want the government to allow teachers in public schools to lead my children in prayers or provide them religious instructions patterned after their own religious values;

I don’t want the government telling me what medical procedures are best suited for me and which ones violate some religious law that I may not embrace;

I don’t want the government legislating religious values for the population in general; a one size fits all approach;

I don't want the government legislating moral values;

I don’t want a government that bends its knee to the authority of one particular religion—even if that religion is my own;

I don't want a government interfering in my bedroom nor in my prayer room; 

I also don’t want a government interfering with my right to worship in whatever community I choose. 

Well these are the things that happen in theocracies. America is not a theocracy. We are a liberal democracy (a.k.a. Western Democracy). Our democracy is a government of elected representatives and not of religious autocrats.

Simply put, I don't want to live in a country like Iran or Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia or Sudan.

Thank God for the separation of the Church and State. It’s a progressive idea we all can live with and be forever grateful to the one who conceived of it in the first place.

Thank you Tom!

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