Christianity, Theocracy, and Reason

Today the No. 1 fear of the political Left seems to be the prospect of an unholy alliance of religion and state. However, these folks are not afraid of a radical Islamic government like Iran getting nuclear weapons to use in a jihad against the United States or Israel. No, their biggest worry seems to be of Christians here in the United States.

Journalist Kevin Phillips has written a new book, American Theocracy: Oil, Preachers, and Borrowed Money—America’s Coming Catastrophe. According to the publisher, the book, which will be released in March, is “an explosive examination of the axis of religion, politics and borrowed money that threatens to destroy the nation.” According to Phillips, the real “axis of evil” involves radical Christians who are trying to take over America and institute a Cromwell-like reign of religious terror.

Lest you think these are simply the fevered imaginings of a hard-bitten member of the secular media, then consider the heavily hyped new book by former President Jimmy Carter. The book, called Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis, presents more of the same.

Is Carter primarily concerned about the high crime or divorce rate in America? Hardly. Instead, he takes aim at the influence of conservative Christians on issues ranging from national defense to the environment to “America’s global image.”

Carter, a Baptist who has won widespread admiration for his commitment to build homes for the poor, laments what the publisher calls “disturbing societal trends . . . as the lines between politics and rigid religious fundamentalism are blurred.”

Curiously, Carter, who sat with conspiracy theorist Michael Moore during the Democratic National Convention, has little to say about members of his own party who show up to troll for votes in strongly Democratic-leaning churches.

No Christian I know wants anything like a theocracy in America. Knowing how power corrupts even those with the best motives, we believe in the separation of church and state. However, we don’t believe in the exclusion of religious values from the state. In fact, we think they are absolutely vital for the healthy continuance of this grand experiment we call democracy.

Another new book, called The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success, is a tour de force. Author Rodney Stark, the eminent Baylor sociologist, makes the point that the Christian faith was not a stumbling block to our current political and economic prosperity, but its very foundation.

“The success of the West,” Stark writes, “including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians.”

Think about that the next time you hear that Christian belief and political freedom are incompatible. And keep in mind that the logical reasoning that people such as Phillips and Carter use in an attempt to discredit Christians would not have been possible without Christianity in the first place.