Theocracy In America

Recently I entered a video called "Theocracy in America" into a contest sponsored by The Richard Dawkins Foundation For Reason and Science. The video was to take a look at the growing desire of some in the United States to make America a theocracy, ignoring the Constitution and the separation of church and state.

I thought, since it is still a relevant topic given the tone of the Republican Presidential nomination race, that I would post it here for you to watch and read. There is a little more content in the script than in the final video.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

The United States constitution and the subsequent Bill of Rights are not only important documents for America, but have had a great influence around the world.

One of the great achievements of America's founding fathers was that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”: the founding fathers wisely established a separation of church and state. Despite what some in America(an alarmingly large some) choose to believe, This is clear not only from the wording but also from the words of its authors themselves.

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between church and state."

- Thomas Jefferson

"An alliance or coalition between Government and religion cannot be too carefully guarded against......Every new and successful example therefore of a PERFECT SEPARATION between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance........religion and government will exist in greater purity, without (rather) than with the aid of government."

- James Madison

"I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution."

-George Washington

The founders of the United States were creating a secular society based on reason. A society where people were free to have faith in any god, if they so chose, or no god, without any interference from the government. There would be a separation of church and state.

Over 200 years later, one could be forgiven for assuming that the United States would now be the shining example of a secular society. But that is not the case. America has in many ways become a more fundamental religious society. Religious groups (lets be honest, Christian groups) have warped the ideas of the founding fathers and increasingly we see the wall of separation between church and state being eroded. America is, as Sean Faircloth put it, under Attack of the Theocrats.

"I believe that God wants me to be president."

- George W. Bush

"Our greatness would not long endure without judges who respect the foundation of faith upon which our constitution rests."

- Mitt Romney

"The first job we have as Americans is to reach out to everybody in the country who is not yet saved, and to help them understand the spiritual basis of a creator-endowed society."

- Newt Gingrich

"I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

- George H. W. Bush

"I think it's time for us to just hand it over to God and say, “God, You're going to have to fix this.” ... I think it's time for us to use our wisdom and our influence and really put it in God's hands. That's what I'm going to do, and I hope you'll join me."

- Rick Perry

"God will wash this nation with blood if he has to."

- Glenn Beck

"Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face."

- Ronald Reagan


"The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical."

- Rick Santorum

"I think we should keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They're quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments. It's pretty simple."

- Sarah Palin


"We need common-sense judges who understand that our rights were derived from God."

- George W Bush

These are all people that have been or are in political power or who's views have influence over a large number of Americans.

Many of them continue to beat the drum, incorrectly, that the founding fathers of the United States based the constitution and the bill of rights on Christian values and the ten commandments. This is blatantly untrue.

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."

- James Madison


"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."

- Thomas Jefferson

"When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."

- Ben Franklin

"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion & Govt in the Constitution of the United States the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history."

- James Madison

And other more recent leaders, many who would be considered conservative, agree.

"To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church, or because, like Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his allegiance to any church, is an outrage against that liberty of conscience which is one of the foundations of American Life."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"The great decisions of government cannot be dictated by the concerns of religious factions... We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we mustn't stop now. To retreat from that separation would violate the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic republic."

• Barry Goldwater

Since its founding, the United States has had a great influence around the world. People everywhere look to it for guidance. So when the values, the secular and free values, change to be exclusive and based on the ideology of one religion, it worries the rest of the world.

Perhaps it is easier to see when you live outside of America. When you can see the way the political tone in the U.S. Is making its way into other countries.

When you see religious extremism in other countries react in violent ways to policies of the United States that appear to be based on religion.

If even one American soldier occupying a Muslim country is allowed to have Christian prayers inscribed on their guns, it gives the appearance of a religious crusade.

When you see religious groups denying science and insisting that creationism be taught in schools, it makes you worry about the education of future generations.

It is worrying when you see a state governor resort to praying to the supernatural for rain to end a drought while denying climate science.

When children are denied medical treatments because the religion of their parents forbids it, you worry.

The same when you see people discriminated against because of their sexual orientation because someones religion says its okay.

All of this worries the rest of the world and it should worry America.

If you believe in a free secular society that is based on reason, facts and science and not religion, hucksterism and bigotry, then I encourage you to think about these things. Get involved, talk to people. Talk to politicians. Let them know what is important to you. Lets hope that we can return to the brilliant guiding principles that inspired the writers of the Constitution of the United States.