"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy."
U.S. Representative Christopher Shays, R-CT, (New York Times, March 23, 2005)

Theocracy is derived from the two Greek words Qeo/j(Theos) meaning "God" and kra/tein (cratein) meaning "to rule." Theocracy is the civil rule of God, or the belief in government by divine guidance.

It is Dominion We Are After

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.

But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.

It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.

It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.

It is dominion we are after.

World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less... Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land -- of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. (George Grant, The Changing of the Guard, Biblical Principles for Political Action: Biblical Blueprint Series, 1987, pp. 50-51. Grant is an Author, educator and former Executive Director of Coral Ridge Ministries.)

Dominionists are advancing their agenda in the White House, the U.S. Congress, the schools, and the military.

Their greatest obstacle has been a Supreme Court that has upheld the principle of separation of church and state. Now they have found in Judge John G. Roberts a candidate that would dismantle that wall.

This web site demonstrates how the theocratic wing of the Christian Right drives much of its political activity. Chip Berlet and Margaret Quigley, senior analysts at Political Research Associates, suggest the term "theocratic right:"

The predominantly Christian leadership envisions a religiously-based authoritarian society; therefore we prefer to describe this movement as the "theocratic right."

Many leaders of the Christian Right claim that they do not advocate theocracy. Political operative Ralph Reed doesn't advocate theocracy; just a Democracy where everyone believes in his God.

"The surest antidote to tyranny is a free people who believe it owes its allegiance to a Higher Power, not the government. The consent of the governed rests upon faith in a sovereign God. Faith as a political force is the very essence of Democracy."

Television preacher Pat Robertson sent out a memo to his political organization in 1986 calling on his followers to "Rule the world for God." That call to arms sums up the goals of the theocratic right and explains their Congressional leadership which suspends the basic rules of Democracy: all that matters is winning, because it is for God. The ends justify the means.

Twenty-five years ago dominionists targeted the Republican Party as the vehicle through which they could advance their agenda. Today they have extraordinary power in the U.S. government with two branches solidly in their pocket and the third, the judiciary, just a few retirements away. It is also making great strides in schools, in the media, and in State Legislatures.

This movement values guns and the death penalty. It values the rich at the expense of the poor. It favors corporations at the expense of individuals. It seeks to eliminate virtually all regulations that protect the environment, worker safety, and public health.

The theocratic right believes that the Puritans created an ideal society, and, following the Puritan model, strive to limit and control human sexuality.

It opposes international treaties and the United Nations. In his book The New World Order, Pat Robertson accused Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and the first President George Bush of being agents for Satan because they supported international groups of nations such as the United Nations.

In an effort to fulfill the dominionist belief in the manifest destiny of "Christian" nations, the theocratic right values an aggressive foreign policy.

The theocratic right is not a conservative movement. It is striving to radically change the status quo. From a training manual of the theocratic right:

We will not try to reform the existing institutions. We only intend to weaken them, and eventually destroy them.

Christian Coalition Rates the U.S. Senate, 2004

A comparison of scorecards from environmental groups in contrast to the scorecards from dominionist groups is striking. Members of the U.S. Congress who receive the highest scores on the environment also receive the lowest scores from the theocratic right and vice versa. Click here to read the scorecards from the League of Conservation Voters, a consortium of environmental organizations, compared to the scorecards produced by three organizations that promote the theocratic right -- the Christian Coalition, the Family Research Council, and the Eagle Forum. (The tables in the above link were provided by Glenn Scherer, October, 2004.)

Do you know these people?

United States Senate Republican Leadership           Bill Frist, TN Mitch McConnell, KY Rick Santorum, PA           Bob Bennet, UT Kay Bailey Hutchinson, TX Jon Kyl, AZ George Allen, VA They are the seven highest ranking Republican Senators in the U.S. Senate. Every one of them received a scorecard of 100% from Christian Coalition. That means they voted with Christian Coalition 100% of the time. They all received scores of 0 to 16% from the League of Conservation Voters -- a consortium of environmental groups. How were people representing such an extreme ideological point of view elected to the top positions in the Republican Party? The leaders of the Republican Party were chosen by their colleagues who share their values.

Christianization of the Republican Party: In Their Own Words

Christianization of the Republican Party, an article from The Christian Statesman, claims,

Once dismissed as a small regional movement, Christian conservatives have become a staple of politics nearly everywhere. Christian conservatives now hold a majority of seats in 36% of all Republican Party state committees (or 18 of 50 states), plus large minorities in 81% of the rest, double their strength from a decade before.

The twin surges of Christians into GOP ranks in the early 1980s and early 1990s have begun to bear fruit, as naive, idealistic recruits have transformed into savvy operatives and leaders, building organizations, winning leadership positions, fighting onto platform committees, and electing many of their own to public office.

The Christian Statesman is a publication of the National Reform Association. Who is the National Reform Association?

The mission of the National Reform Association is to maintain and promote in our national life the Christian principles of civil government, which include, but are not limited to, the following:

Jesus Christ is Lord in all aspects of life, including civil government.

Jesus Christ is, therefore, the Ruler of Nations, and should be explicitly confessed as such in any constitutional documents. The civil ruler is to be a servant of God, he derives his authority from God and he is duty-bound to govern according to the expressed will of God.

The civil government of our nation, its laws, institutions, and practices must therefore be conformed to the principles of Biblical law as revealed in the Old and New Testaments.

The terms "Christian Conservative" are misnomers. Many Christian leaders believe the theocratic right is an aberration of Christianity. And the movement is anything but conservative. One can see from the national debt that the theocratic right does not care for fiscal discipline, a traditional conservative Republican value. In fact they seek radical change which appears to include bankrupting the federal government and shifting responsibility for welfare and education to the churches.

The Ohio Restoration Project demonstrates how the theocratic right is organizing through sympathetic churches.

How did this happen?

Voter apathy is the key to the phenomenal ascent of the theocratic right in the U.S. government.

With the apathy that exists today, a small, well-organized minority can influence the selection of candidates to an astonishing degree.

Pat Robertson wrote those words in The Millennium, 1990, and it has been a key organizing principle of the theocratic right ever since.

Pat Robertson tells us who makes up that "well-organized minority." It includes only Christians who share his point of view. As he said on his television program, the 700 Club: "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists, and this and that and the other thing. Nonsense! I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist." (Rob Boston, Pat Robertson, the Most Dangerous Man in America?, Prometheus Books, 1996, p. 149.)

"The apathy of other Americans can become a blessing and advantage to Christians," wrote Mark Beliles and Stephen McDowell in 1989, in America's Providential History, a popular textbook for Christian schools and the Christian homeschool movement.

If just 10% of all Christians in America today woke up and realized how easy it is, got involved consistently for the long haul, it would not take long to reform America completely. (p.266)

For the authors, the term "Christian" refers uniquely to people who share their "Christian" nation worldview. The word "reform" is key. It means reforming the United States so that it becomes a "Christian" nation.

Where do we go from here?

The answer to the power of the Christian Right is electoral power of our own. No excuses. Many of us have tended to abandon this cornerstone of citizenship in favor of other things.  It is time to get our priorities strait. Less talk, more action. Less entertainment, more citizen involvement. Less TV and sports. More electoral politics. Do we want the theocrats to win?  More electoral politics.

If we believe that democracy is a good thing, we need to learn to get very good at it. We need to be better at it than those who would destroy it. (How to Beat the Christian Right, by Frederick Clarkson, March 20, 2005)

While a record number of people voted in the 2004 elections, 100 million eligible voters didn't vote. The theocratic right began to seriously mobilize politically in the United States twenty-five years ago, and it is being noticed only now! We need to educate the American public about the political goals of the theocratic right.

The theocratic right has historically targeted midterm elections because voter turnout is much lower than in Presidential elections. Those who favor Democracy and a pluralistic society need to be passionate about saving our Constitution, and they need to be involved in politics. Legislators representing the theocratic right can be replaced in the 2006 elections, but it will take hard, sustained work, and lots of passion.

And traditional Republicans need to wake up. George Bush was re-elected because he hid behind moderates. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California, spoke at the Republican Convention about how the Republican Party is tolerant and inclusive. His speech demonstrates that this country values tolerance and diversity.

But the theocratic right is not a movement of tolerance. In the words of the Christian Coalition field director, Bill Thomson, the "leftist" foes should be destroyed:

You're going to run over them. Get around them, run over the top of them, destroy them - whatever you need to do so that God's word is the word that is being practiced in Congress, town halls and state legislatures. That's your job.

Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey who favors environmental protections, stepped down as director of the Environmental Protection Agency, an agency that has become, under the Bush administration, an advocate for polluters. Strangely, after she left the EPA in frustration, she then went on to lead the Bush re-election campaign in New Jersey. As long as the theocratic right can hide behind moderates, it will be easier for them to remain in power.

Senator Arlen Specter, (R-PA) is considered a moderate even though he received an 80% scorecard from Christian Coalition. This high scorecard from the theocratic right was not enough to protect him from the RINO hunters, a group dedicated to purging the Republican Party of moderates. They tried to defeat him in a difficult primary campaign.

Specter, a pro-choice Republican, has supported Bush's anti-choice judicial nominees 100% of the time. In order to become Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter has promised that he will continue to support all of the President's nominations. It is time to educate moderate Republicans about the forces driving their Party.

And we need to stop using terms such as "Christian," "conservative" and most of all "moral," and start calling it what it is: theocracy.