The Question of Theocracy

 

We’ve all heard the argument before. Typically it is embedded within a spurious tirade against a politician who happens to take a stand for his faith. The argument is generally used assumptively rather than  backed up with any substantial facts. It goes something like this:

 

“He wants to outlaw abortion. He is just trying to bring us one step closer to a theocracy” or “Christians just want a theocracy so that they can control everyone”.

 

In recent years, this accusation has been specifically aimed at President Bush and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia among others.  In American history, the Puritans are often accused of trying to institute a theocratic government.

 

You may know someone like this yourself. Maybe a coworker or a neighbor. I have a friend like this. Every time we discuss anything substantive he invariably falls back on the capstone of his defense; as if expecting two thousand years of Christian apologia to crumble under the genius of his retort: “ Don’t push your morality on me. You just want to revert back to a puritanical theocracy”.

 

Is that what we as Christians are trying to do when we stand up for our Christian values? Should we, as Christians, be working toward a theocratic state here on earth? Or is a theocracy something that we have as our hope for the future in heaven?

 

Aaron