Those of us who have frequented H2O and have otherwise encountered our fundie friends from the USA have many times been reminded of their strange arguments and ideas. All of them seem to long back to Biblical times and particularly the times of the Old Testament. They have got the idea that those days were so wonderful when everybody was adhering to Biblical morals, values and such. They speak warmly about a theocracy:
Recently I have read a very good book on the subject written by Steve Allen. In the foreword he is discussing what would happen if the American society were going back to Biblical values, and becomes a theocracy. He observes:
Since the new ultra-extreme fundamentalists are so displeased by democracy, what, specifically, do they recommend as its replacement? On this question, too, they are quite frank. A theocracy. Shades of Puritan England, Inquisition Spain, or Iran, 1979-1989!Theocracy means: rule not by the people, not by elected representatives, but by God (and whoever has the power to enforce claims that he speaks for God). Those of us who assume that God exists would presumably object to such a system only in the absence of God from the earth in a physical form. God can take over the administration of the affairs of all the nations of earth anytime he wants to, so far as I am concerned, but this has never happened. In the governments throughout history that have considered themselves theocracies, we have witnessed rule by clergymen who simply asserted (and in many cases may have honestly believed) that they were God's specially chosen representatives. Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion & Morality, 1990. page 32.
Then Allen goes on to describe some of the consequences to the US society if those who want this theocracy should succeed in their undertaking. First of all the homosexual community would have no reason to rejoice:
Let us now consider specs. As regards the question of homosexuality, it is clear that most Americans regard the sexual preference for a member of one's own gender as a problem. Some people have fascistic and heartless attitudes on the issue; others strive to be fair.The Christian Reconstructionists are perfectly clear about a solution to the problem. That solution is nothing more complex than the prompt imposition of the death penalty.
To those unfamiliar with the recent drift of the public dialogue on this and related questions, what I have just said will sound like a libelous distortion. Would that it were. The Reconstructionist movement, which is chiefly Protestant although it has interested a few Catholics, absolutely insists that homosexuals ought to be killed. I do not mean that individual Reconstructionists consider themselves at liberty to arm themselves to the teeth and travel about their communities in vigilante bands, shooting or stabbing homosexuals on sight. That would, obviously enough, be a horrifying spectacle to witness. I refer to something worse.
The Reconstructionists insist that the slaughter of millions of their fellow citizens is to be conducted in strict accordance with the law. They argue, in other words, that homosexuality must simply be added to the list of capital crimes punishable by execution.
Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion & Morality, 1990. page 32, 33.
Of course the homosexuals wouldn’t the only “undesirable” elements that would be unwanted in a Society of true believers, so there would be a number of other people that would have to be killed:
What other crimes would the new fascist movement like to see added to the list of capital offenses? Habitual juvenile delinquency, for one. Please do not take my word for this; consult the public statements and writings of leaders of the new movement. It should take only a few days of investigation to establish that yes, the group at present is working very hard to do nothing less than take over the administration of the local, state, and national affairs of the United States. It insists that swiftly imposed death is the proper punishment for the kind of lamentable and sometimes criminal behavior engaged in by millions of young men and women in our presently troubled society.If, as is commonly believed, about 10 percent of Americans have homosexual leanings, it inescapably follows that if the Reconstructionists ever do take over control of our country, some 25 million Americans will shortly be executed. Statistics about juvenile delinquency may be variously interpreted, but let us say that in that category perhaps another 20 million young men and women would be killed, and this, bear constantly in mind, by those who consider themselves Christians. It is obviously impossible to get precise statistics concerning that percentage of the approximately 250 million American population who have committed the moral and sometimes legal offense of adultery. Most of us would be pleased if no one ever was unfaithful to a marriage partner, and the American home would clearly be a more secure institution if this were the case. But, as the scriptures constantly remind us, humans have apparently as much a gift for wrongdoing as for virtuous conduct. So let us arbitrarily say that 75 million Americans have offended the moral law in this way. Add that to the other arithmetic.
Hitler's Nazis became the objects of most of the world's contempt by killing six million Jews, equally as many, if not more, Balts and Slavs, and being responsible for waging war in which millions more civilians and soldiers died. The Reconstructionists do not seek to obscure the fact that they propose the slaughter of their fellow citizens in numbers that Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot may never have dreamed of.
Steve Allen on the Bible, Religion & Morality, 1990. page 33, 34.
As we can see this wonderful new American theocracy would be founded on the execution of about 120 million Americans. It is of course still not as radical as the Watchtower Society "solution" that will kill 6 billion people, but at least the Watchtower Society leave the actual killing to their homicidal God. Their fundy brothers would like to do much of the killing by their theocratic state penal system.
Either way they both are according to themselves preaching “Good News”. How wonderful and attractive it must be to be this kind of Christian. Wouldn’t you all love to live in such a system?
Norm.