What a Theocracy Might Mean

After being truly struck by a couple of Iowa voters who, when interviewed, said we need "God in America" or "God in government," as I previously wrote, I want to write a bit more about what theocracy means, what a theocracy might be like.

When religion and the government are in the same hands, you have people making laws according to what they believe God likes and wants. To me it is supreme arrogance for anyone to claim to know what God wants; and certainly not everyone is going to agree about what God wants. No matter how confident this or that person is as to what God's will, wishes, likes (etc.) might be, we will have a difference of opinion in a society as diverse as America. We do, after all, have not only different religions in America and even within Protestantism we have many denominations and sects.

These differences of opinion can mean religious war; and in a theocracy, religious war is civil war. We should look at the example of the Muslim world where the two main branches of Islam, Sunni and Shia, are constantly at war with one another, bombing and murdering one another.

The Inquisition was a good example of the Church and the State, while not officially one and the same, practically being one. In Spain, once Christians had reconquered all of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors (and in fact a bit before), the Inquisition was started. Many Jews and Muslims—who had previously lived in harmony with Christians—now had three choices: leave the country, convert or at least pretend to convert, or be tortured to death.

The Framers of the US Constitution had the negative example of England one to two centuries earlier. In the period between the death of Henry VIII and the first Elizabeth, there was considerable jockeying back and forth between Catholics and Protestants. The country was Catholic one day, Protestant the next. It was hard to know which side your bread was buttered on, it changed so fast. And the consequences of who was in power at the moment were not inconsequential. For example, Catholics—at least wealthy ones with big houses—had secret rooms and passages built in their houses where priests and other artifacts of their worship could be concealed. Queen Mary, who ruled, I believe, on and off in the period between Henry VIII and Elizabeth, was known as "Bloody Mary" because of her practice of burning Protestants at the stake. And Elizabeth, once in power, executed Catholics who she believed had been plotting against her. There was armed strife and many people lost their lives. "By 1643, hundreds of thousands of Christians had been slaughtered by other Christians because of the way they worshipped Christ."*

(There was again strife later in the 17th century when King James II, suspected of being secretly more Catholic than Protestant, was forced out in the so-called "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 that installed the Protestants William and Mary.)

It seems that wherever there is not complete religious homogeneity—and there is nearly always someone with differing ideas—there is likely to be strife. Theocracy is a recipe for terrible conflicts.

You know, I just said to myself, looking over what I wrote: "God, I shouldn't even have to write this!!"
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This quotation is from an article, "God, Government and Roger Williams' Big Idea," Smithsonian, January 2012; adapted from the book, Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul by John M. Barry, copyright 2012 by Viking.

Update: This posting was updated with additions on January 13, 2012.

Copyright © 2012 by Richard Stein