Theocracy in America--Whose religion should rule us?

 “I don’t want to live under sharia law,” a friend once explained as a defense of rightwing ideologies. I reassured them that scenario is highly unlikely in a democracy like the United States. The shear volume of political will and wherewithal to accomplish that outcome combined with tradition and culture makes such a fear of a Muslim theocracy truly unlikely in the U.S.

My understanding of what that person meant when referring to sharia law is that they believed it to mean religion rules the nation rather than the citizenry. That rulers dictate laws based on their personal religious beliefs rather than secular, non-religious beliefs.

With that understanding I wonder how that person feels about the imposition of what I call “Christian Sharia law” whereby various Christian religious advocates impose their faith on the rest of us through legislation and enforcement. Is the Christian version any less of a threat to America and freedom of religion?

None of us want to be governed by someone else’s religion.

The current escalation to impose various Christian theocracies is now a very real battle to restrict our freedoms and to require faith-based legislation. I was pre-teen age when John F. Kennedy ran for president of the United States in 1960. I remember all the talk about fearing the Pope in Rome would rule America if JFK were elected as the first Catholic president of the U.S. Such claims were discounted by Catholics as fear mongering religious bias to win votes for the protestant Republican candidate, Richard Nixon. As a young Catholic and aspiring candidate to the priesthood, I took it as simply anti-Catholic rhetoric. Nonsensical propaganda that could never be a reality in our democracy. I considered ridiculous the idea that the Pope would have any influence in the United States government.

Yet, here we are with a Supreme Court that includes six Catholic justices with five of them steeped in theocratic ideology willing to impose their religious beliefs on the nation through their rulings. And they were not elected, rather, they were installed for life by lying about their intent in a corrupt senate process unfair to the majority of Americans. A case in point is the recent Supreme Court decision to throw out the fifty-year precedent of Roe vs Wade, to outlaw women from making their own decisions about reproductive health and to deprive them of the privacy guaranteed them in the Constitution. While that faith-based decision is not limited to the Catholic Justices, it is clear that the theocratic block of justices has their eyes on other laws that defy their religious beliefs including birth control, marriage, and sexual orientation, to name a few. We see the tax-exempt Catholic church and evangelical organizations spending tons of cash in elections to support candidates and referenda which oppose personal freedoms that are different than their collective religious beliefs, with the intent to impose those beliefs on all Americans.

What happened to the conservatives’ rant about the Constitution’s promise of religious freedom in the face of them depriving other faiths of their freedom of religion?

Imagine those who oppose abortion that use birth control to avoid an unwanted pregnancy being told by their former anti-abortion allies that their choice to prevent pregnancy is no longer legal and they are subject to prosecution for choosing such an alternative to abortion.

One person’s religion is another person’s superstition. Which superstition do you want imposed on the nation?

For advocates of theocratic rule, I suggest they consider those religions that they find offensive or that they consider heresy. Then imagine those heretic religions in power in the U.S. using the same rationale for imposing their beliefs as the current theocrats. How would they feel about Scientology, Mormon, Jehova Witness or Voodoo adherents holding power? Are they willing to wear imposed head covers, restrictions on diet, prohibition of birth control, magic underwear, forced and multiple marriage, racial or gender segregation to codify into law what they might view as superstitions?

The United States’ traditions of separation of church and state serves to assure that no single religion shall impose their beliefs on the nation. Religious freedom in America cannot exist with the imposition of a favored religion on non-believers. That is true tyranny.