WTF Is A Christian Doing Here?

[minstrlmummr]

(Blog Against Theocracy submission)

I have learned only recently about the concept of Dominionism and how alarmingly pervasive some breathtakingly theocratic attitudes are in some parts of America.     The opposition to this movement sometimes brings together people from a wide variety of belief systems ranging from paganism to more-liberal branches of Abrahamic faiths to the "non-beliefs" of  agnosticism/atheism.      Many such opponents have much more obviously at stake if theocratic Christians gain control of the entire government.

So why am I here?

At the risk of incurring scorn from people of other faiths or non-faiths who might consider the following thoughts irrelevant to anyone outside the Christian faith,    Jesus didn't tell his disciples to take control of any earthly government.     According to the Gospels, He was much more concerned with the state of individual people's souls, and much MUCH more concerned with the Kingdom of Heaven (which is Not Of This Earth) than with  what Herod and Caesar were doing politically.        Dominionism is simply what C.S. Lewis fitly termed "Christianity And".    
Christianity And "Right To Life".    Christianity And "Family Values".    Christianity And Telling Non-Christians What To Do.     From the Christian veiwpoint, it's one of a thousand kinds of crust that can form on the Christian's faith when the Christian ceases to pay primary attention to...well, Christ.    

The fact that the majority of the Founding Fathers were not avowed Pagans or Atheists or Muslims, does not make America a Christian country.
It makes America a flawed country founded by fallible humans who stumbled onto the blessed concepts of pluralistic tolerance and state neutrality and a birthright of freedom, central concepts to a history which once made America the envy of the world.        

James Dobson does not speak for me--only I speak for me.

Comments

Christians opposed to theocracy

[hudebnik.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, the establishment and free exercise clauses in the First Amendment were put in place at the request of religious communities, not over their objections; they were afraid government would interfere in their religions. Obviously this is a danger for un-favored religions, but it's problematic even if your religion happens to be the "official" one, because the head of government may appoint himself or his cronies as heads of the religion, regardless of their credentials or what respect they've earned within the faith. So I'm not at all surprised at Christians opposing theocracy.

Two hundred years later, the situation has changed: many of us are less concerned about government interfering in religion than the reverse, while a few religious communities (those that happen to be closest to the current government) relish the prospect of controlling government. I hope they realize that governments change, and the next one might not be so friendly to their particular religious views.

As you point out, Jesus explicitly separated what he was doing from government ("render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's...") What he talked about, above all, was helping the poor, the sick, and the hungry, and restraining wrath and violence. Those are all goals that can often benefit from governmental involvement, but one can believe in those goals without being a Christian (and, apparently, one can disregard those goals and still call oneself a Christian :-( ) There's no need for Christians to control government unless they plan to make up and enforce a lot of their own rules, far beyond anything Christ actually said.