Democracy is a concept of government whereby the general population consents to abide by rules of society set in place by elected representatives. In a democracy, everyone is supposed to have a chance to speak their mind on any given issue through their vote or through direct petition to the government. In a democracy, government is entrusted with enforcing the laws and protecting individual freedoms. In a democracy, everyone can follow whatever religion they want to follow. Democracies thrive upon individuality, innovative thinking, integrity, and cooperation. Above all, democracies are flexible, allowing room for change with calm transitions. Democracy is the recognition that all people are equal at birth, and that all people have the right to find happiness in their own way, so long as they do no harm to another.

Theocracy is a concept of government where adherence to a specific religious belief is compulsory. The rules of society are taken from a holy book or relayed through religious leaders as interpretations of scriptures or updates from the god. In a theocracy, challenging the government is akin to challenging the god and is often met with harsh retribution. In a theocracy, individuals are expected to follow the laws of the church, with individual freedoms having less importance than acquiescence to the will of the god, and by extension, the government. In a theocracy, religious intolerance reaches its peak, because religious homogeny removes threats to the government’s power, especially when the religious leaders run the government. Theocracies thrive off of conformity, faith (or at least the appearance of it), fear, and exclusion. Theocracies are inflexible and accept change only through explosive confrontation. Theocracy aims to keep earthly power in the hands of the few and exploiting the lives of the many, while using religion as both a pacifier and an object of control.

Given the choice, which would you prefer?

For most Americans, the answer should be pretty obvious. The United States was founded as a democracy from the very beginning. Our Constitution clearly establishes a democratic form of government with provisions relating to the election of government representatives by the citizens. Nowhere in the Constitution is there a reference to religious law. Nowhere in the Constitution is there a reference to a god, save for the common usage of the word “lord” in the signatory paragraph when referring to the year it was signed. The Constitution mentions the word religion one time, but not in an attempt to infuse it with government. In fact, it is just the opposite. The very first sentence in the Bill of Rights reads:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

What exactly this means is that the government itself is prohibited from embracing and impressing any specific religion upon the citizenry, and government is enjoined from prohibiting any specific religious beliefs from being practiced, at least so far as those beliefs do not include ritualistic murder, rape, theft, or other antisocial activities. Government cannot promote one religion over another through legislation or appropriation. Even if every person in the country followed a single faith, laws based on religious dogma, especially those that restrict individual freedom, are not allowed under the Constitution.

It’s all there in black and white (or maybe brown and yellow due to age), so why does there seem to be a push within certain segments of society to align our government with a specific religion, namely Christianity. Claims of America being founded upon Christian principals are hard to prove, though endless debates have raged on about the subject, usually referencing various writings of the original politicians. Regardless of the personal faiths of the founding fathers, the fact that they specifically declined to advance one religion over another is evidence that they believed that government and religion would be best left apart. In their wisdom, they sensed that promotion of a certain religion above others would immediately negate the promise of freedom for anyone not believing of the state approved god, and instead would amount to the eventual creation of a theocracy and destruction of democracy. They must have felt that the governance of man, while he lived on this earth, should be directed by other men, and be flexible enough to accommodate the changing tides of history. Further, since the cost of government must be borne by all citizens, government belonged to all citizens, and must be accessible to all citizens, regardless of their spiritual beliefs. Religion, and all its trappings, belongs not in the public realm so much as to the individual. Faith, of whatever flavor, makes us who we are but it does not permit us to make others think like we do.

We talk about theocracies as if it could never happen here, but under certain conditions, it could. With public apathy at high levels, and a high number of American’s professing to be of the Christian faith, a slow but steady reversal of laws could erode the freedoms granted us by our social contracts. Our shortened attention spans and sound bite mentality make it easy for minority fringe politicians to inject bits of legislation here and there that set the stage for religious interference. At the very least, America could become a hybrid democratic theocracy where our political leaders seek guidance from religious leaders whose adherence to organized religious dogma always seeks to divide humanity instead of connecting it together. Religion is an individual salvation, but government rules our day-to-day lives and is supposed to be based on the rule of man’s law. We need to keep it that way.