America Should Be A Thocracy Run By Christians

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Starwynd

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Would you agree with this statement?

“If America is based on Christian values then it should be a Christian theocracy. If it is a Christian nation then it is for Christians only.”
 
Starwynd said:
Would you agree with this statement?

“If America is based on Christian values then it should be a Christian theocracy. If it is a Christian nation then it is for Christians only.”
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Actually, that’s two statements.

I suppose the starting point would be to determine what is meant by the initial premise in each: “Christian values” in the first statement, and “Christian nation” in the second.
 
Starwynd said:
Would you agree with this statement?

“If America is based on Christian values then it should be a Christian theocracy. If it is a Christian nation then it is for Christians only.”
Click to expand...
No & no.

The first one implies that the founders held christian values. Which is true.

The second merely implies a christian majority. The same way we say that Israel is a jewish nation even though there are many muslims in it.
 
AgnosTheist said:
No & no.

The first one implies that the founders held christian values. Which is true.

The second merely implies a christian majority. The same way we say that Israel is a jewish nation even though there are many muslims in it.
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It’s really quite easy to reply. Our forefathers were mostly Christian, most were either Puritan or Anglican. A couple were deists. So we were a nation founded by those who professed Christian beliefs. However the totally abysmal failure of the church/state model in all the colonies did most to convince them all in the end to reject any concept of a theocracy. That is why they were so very careful to keep the two apart. The incredible injustices that were visited upon Catholics, Jews, Quakers and then Baptists convinced our forefathers that primacy of conscience was required in the Federal Government. The 14th amendment made this applicable to the states.

In fact it was the Baptists and other minority faiths that were the most strenuous on fighting for a strict separation of the Federal Govt and any religion. They were the first proponents of primacy of conscience, something that Madison spoke of often and at length.
 
America was founded with religious freedom in mind for all its citizens. Creating a theocracy removes that freedom.
 
If America is run on Christian values, it would be a democracy run by self-governing citizens. One of the Christian values is that the city of man is not the City of God, nor should it aspire to be so.
 
A theocracy is only a true theocracy if it’s run by God. So only very heretical Christians could possibly claim to “run” a theocracy.
 
goofyjim said:
It should never be a theocracy. Freedom of all religions.
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Not to mention freedom FROM all religions. 👍

If it were to be a Christian-run country, which Christians should be in charge? Fundamentalists? Catholics? Methodists? Westboro Baptist Churchies?
 
Newbie2 said:
Not to mention freedom FROM all religions. 👍

If it were to be a Christian-run country, which Christians should be in charge? Fundamentalists? Catholics? Methodists? Westboro Baptist Churchies?
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Episcopalians.
 
Starwynd said:
Would you agree with this statement?

“If America is based on Christian values then it should be a Christian theocracy. If it is a Christian nation then it is for Christians only.”
Click to expand...
If this country were a theocracy, it would be a secular humanist theocracy.

If this country were a Christian theocracy, it would be a fundamentalist theocracy and this board would be outlawed.

Thanks, I’ll stick with “the devil I know.”
 
I think reading Arthur Millers “The Crucible” would answer this question. For those of you who don’t know, its set in a theocracy and highlights the corruption from traditional Christian values. I’m not saying this is how it will happen, but at its heart there is the message that Church and State should be kept apart.
 
Let us recognize that this Christian nation was by and large a protestant or episcopal nation. Catholics were not particularly welcome. Public schools until the late 30’s taught a non-Catholic, non-denominational form of Christianity. The Bible and prayer were prevalent. Separation of Church and State meant separation of denomination and state. The state religion was generic protestantism. Hence the “Blue Laws” involving Sunday commerce, alcohol, contraceptives, sodomy, etc. and one might as well throw in lack of voting rights for women.

I have a daughter-in-law who was to teach a scripture class in her Baptist Church. Several of the elders had a fit because she would be teaching men. I am guessing that anyone born after about 1945 or 50 has very little idea of how dramatically our country and how we live has changed in 50 or 60 years. My grandparents wouldn’t recognize it.

My opinion is that theocracy has been tried and found solely wanting. In many ways we Catholics are more free today than we ever were in the past. Why would anyone want to go back? 🤷
 
No.

Separation of Church and State is essential in a healthy democracy.
 
onetimeposter said:
No.

Separation of Church and State is essential in a healthy democracy.
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Well, that might be true, but it’s more important that separation of church and state is essential to a healthy church. That was the original intent behind “separation of church and state”: not to keep the state healthy, but to keep the church healthy.
 
The best way to protect my right to worship as I choose in America is to support the right of others to do the same. It’s messy, because I have to support the right of people to worship things like Trees and I have to support the right of people not to worship at all-but it means that I can freely trot off to Mass every Sunday and that is indeed worth it.
 
Aye, there’s the rub! (With apologies to Shakespeare!) Suppose people like Reverend Hagee, a demagogue, or Father Pfleger, a racist, were in charge! Wars between religious factions have been bloody and brutal over the centuries. Consider the conflicts between present day Sunnis and Shiites in the Moslem world. It hasn’t been so long ago that the shameful intrareligious warfare in Ireland subsided. I like things the way they are; people have the freedom to believe what they want and to be left in peace.
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To the OP.

I think it would be better to define what you mean by Theocracy before asking people to answer.

The responses make me think people are already confused by the question. Some posts would suggest with same logic that the Holy Roman Empire would have been classified as a theocracy.
 
I’d love to live in a genuine theocracy. I hope and pray that I will eventually. But God will give us one when He’s ready. Meantime, anybody who proposes to do it for God needs to be kept on a very short leash.
 
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