Theocracy, American Style

An editorial worth a read was listed off Real Clear Politics this week. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/03/AR2005050301277.html

For those of you not able to link to it, I’ll comment a bit on it here. It is titled “When Columnists Cry Jihad” written by John McCandlish who as reported for the NY Times and the Washington Post. When he signed on at the NY Times he was the only evangelical Christian among the 275 news and editorial staff. His editors defended him, but many questioned the ability of a “deeply religious person” to do reporting.

He cites specific columns from Mareen Dowd and Frank Rich that use the terms “theocracy” and “jihad” to present their views of the “control” of the “Religious Right” in this country. Others are cited, including Paul Krugman who recognizes that even while this “jihad” is going on, the universities are staffed almost exclusively by liberals (try THAT in a real theocracy!), agnostic, and the atheist. Paul explains that the gullibility of those who believe in God disqualifies them from the dispassionate intellectual pursuit needed to teach at our major universities. At least that is explained!

John then goes on a very reasoned and well done description of why it is absurd to think that the “establishment clause” in the Constitution says anything about sweeping all mention of God or Church from every public place in the US. That is certainly worth a read, but it is easier than that. To anyone whose brain is operating at even the most rudimentary level, it is easy to see that appeals back to the “Founding Fathers”, or “The Constitution” with the claim that “we are being driven to a theocracy” are nonsense.

The changes that are being attempted now, gay marriage being the easiest to see, are being attempted by the left, not the right. The change being attempted is AWAY from what any Christian that observes the Bible would be in favor of. The changes made in the latter half of the 20^th century, banning prayer in school and abortion were ALSO from the left and targeted to move the country AWAY from God.

Assuming that the liberals don’t believe that we lived in a “theocracy” from 1776 to 1963 when Abington Township vs Schemp outlawed bible reading and prayer in classes at school (it took longer for the left to do away with voluntary prayer, Christmas programs and such), it is absurd to argue that even “turning the clock back” by overturning Schemp would create a “theocracy”. First of all, reading the Bible and praying don’t even constitute a “religion”, which is what “Church and State” is all about. The Protestants and the Catholics of Northern Ireland may have a history of not following much of anything in Christ’s doctrine of dealing with each other, but both would call themselves “Christian”.

A quick look at Iraq would find that the big issue is how to get Sunni and Shiite Moslems go get along. The Moslem religion actually REQUIRES a “theocracy” … which is one part of what makes democracy in the Middle East such a problem.

Since our media in this country is so far left, questioning a “right” to gay marriage that has never existed before is often portrayed as “extreme”, or “radical”. Humans are generally quite susceptible to begin to believe things that they hear over and over. Marketing people know that if you hear “finger lickin good” enough times, you will tend to believe it is actually true, even if you have experienced no direct experience.

The only way that we are headed toward at theocracy is if we were already in one for 180 years, and it is obvious that if we were, the country lived on. When many only hear one side of the story, belief in the truly idiotic becomes commonplace.