Posts Tagged ‘Theocracy’

Trump Appointments: A Case Study in Christian Nationalism

Posted: November 13, 2024 in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
1

As Christian Nationalism ties its wagon to the rise of authoritarianism, we see patterns familiar to us from history, past autocratic regimes that merged with far-right religious movements. The substance of Christian faith is often replaced with an ideology of empire even as the empire coopts religious institutions for its own purposes. In the midst of this, we see how the designs of American White Christian Nationalism tilt toward replacing democracy with theocracy.

Since the President Elect has courted Christian Nationalists, a base that includes rank and file Evangelicals as well as radicalized ones, he is now rewarding political supporters by placing them in positions of authority and leadership. They very often lack experience or qualifications because expertise is beside the point. The same can be said of unqualified judges appointed to posts above their pay grade. The only measure of qualification becomes absolute loyalty to the supreme leader and espousing the correct ideology of the regime.

A case in point is the appointment of Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel. Throughout history ambassadorships in plum positions have been rewards for the rich and famous who have supported people in power. But the Huckabee move is directly related to Christian Nationalism and its implicit convictions about Israel.

Huckabee is a Baptist minister who served a term as the Governor of Arkansas and was a talk show host on Fox news. When Donald Trump states that Huckabee will bring peace to the Middle East, it is not peace in general or peace for all that he has in mind. This peace includes a particular political goal and a view of the end times as embraced by one slice of the Christian spectrum. In their end-times scenario, Israel plays a distinctive part; they need to be consolidated in Palestine as a precondition for the second coming of Christ. That means that Christians of Huckabee’s stripe have a vested interest in making sure Israel has that particular place and privilege. This goes far beyond protecting Israel as ally and friend. This is establishing Israel as a puzzle piece in their eschatological drama.

Jewish Zionists, of course, are committed to the Jewish occupation of Palestine as a part of what they understand to be their birthright, ordained by God. That means that Palestinians are simply obstacles to those designs, and must be expelled, removed from the land. Thus, Zionist settlers continue to displace Palestinians who have lived there for generations, establishing settlements in their place. This is often violent, with settlers relying on government privilege with no accountability. When tragedies such as the attack by Hamas out of Gaza into Israel take place, it provides even more fuel for the complete removal of Palestinians. When we look at Gaza today, beyond the response of Israel to protect herself and hobble Hamas, the actions go much farther, falling into a scorched earth policy – the decimation of Gaza in its entirely with no limits on the destruction and killing.

This is a far-right Israeli response under the guidance of Netanyahu and his military advisors. The action takes place under the auspicious of securing safety for Israelis. But the unspoken part unfolds piece-by-piece. The absolute destruction of Gaza is the prequel to the resettlement of Gaza with Israeli settlers, now poised on the border of Gaza, waiting to go in. This will be endorsed and enabled by the present Israeli government. It is embraced by Jewish Zionists without question. But there is another group that embraces it with equal gusto.

Christian Zionists, those who believe that Israel must take all of the land as antecedent to the second coming, are equally motivated. They want the Palestinians gone as well. But for different reasons than the far-right Israeli government or the Jewish Zionists. The end result may be the same, but they base their conviction on their own Christian grounds.

Do the Israelis know what makes Christian Zionists tick? Of course they do. They secretly disparage them for such hairbrained beliefs. But the Christian Zionists give them what they want: Total support for whatever Israel does in regard to Palestinians and an unlimited cache of weapons.

Mike Huckabee is one of these, part of the Christian Nationalist movement, a Christian Zionist, and a far-right political ideologue. When Trump says Huckabee will bring peace to the Middle East, it is not because they will pursue some negotiated two-state solution. No, they hate the idea of a two-state solution because it doesn’t fit their end-times scenario. Like Trump, Kushner, and Pompeo did in Trump’s first term, they will ignore the Palestinians altogether and never talk with them – and I don’t mean Hamas. I mean that the Palestinians will be disregarded entirely.

This is what Huckabee is being appointed to do. It fits with the vision of Netanyahu and Trump. And Christian Zionists who want this end-times scenario with Israel to play out in a certain way will embrace this as a divinely inspired moment.

This is what happens when autocratic political movements join with one version of religion. They override the concerns of American founders about religion being imposed on the public and religious dogma shaping public policy. Rather, in the interest of pursuing a church-state hybrid, replacing democracy with theocracy, they appoint ambassadors to political posts with the intent of transposing religious belief into foreign policy.

That is what is happening now, in real time. Uninformed and fairly self-centered Americans voted for it, reacting to prices that seemed too high, and the specter of immigration run amuck. Americans distressed about our country’s complicity in the disaster in Gaza staged protest votes against Harris, sometimes voting third party or not at all. The unintended consequences were inevitable. Protest actions helped a much worse option to prevail, a scorched earth regime to take power that will turn tragedy into something much worse.

One thing remains true and has been throughout history: This is how regimes emerge, especially autocratic ones, and how religion props them up to give them the illusion of legitimacy. Once religion enters into the formula, what was once a political conflict turns into a holy war, which is always the worst kind, bloodiest, and most entrenched.

The Rise of the Christian Taliban

Posted: May 17, 2019 in Uncategorized
Tags:
4

There was a time when those of us in Western democracies, republics like our own in which the First Amendment allowed for religious freedom without establishing any form of religion as the official religion of the realm, looked with horror upon militant forms of Islam that took over the law and governance of entire countries. The political leaders were one and the same with the religious Ayatollahs and they conflated Sharia – religious law – with civil law. We witnessed what a theocracy could be in both theory and practice.

We watched as women were forced into tightly prescribed roles and mores that included required dress like hijabs or burkas. They were not allowed in public spaces and had limited freedom. Everything was prescribed by religious authority combined with the enforcement power of government. The conformity police harassed and beat offenders in public. Be-headings and punishments took place in the public square to create fear and reinforce the rule of absolute authority. In every respect men were deciding exactly what women should be and do.

Thank God nothing like that could ever take place here, we said with relief.

Theocracies, however, have never been limited to one religious faith or one geography. Whenever fundamentalist strains of faith become militant and strive to create society in their image, theocratic systems are born. The development is gradual at first, with religious actors entering the public square and exerting influence, which at first only appears as an aspect of freedom. But their objective never stops there. What is desired on the part of those systems is control of everything. Through assimilation or revolution, those religious actors work into positions of authority and influence upon political figures. The politicians eventually need the support of these religious power brokers who control their constituents.  And in time the separation between civil government and religious law dissolves. Religious convictions or values become codified into civil law.

We are living in just such a time in the United States.

Over the past few decades the religious right has joined forces  with one political party. They now serve one another’s interests, trading favors for the promise of power. Even when the values of either party or religion run counter to those of the Theocracy partner, they remain silent or give tacit approval. In statehouse after statehouse across the country the religious agenda of one brand of Christianity is now being reflected in the legislation. On the national stage a certain class of judges are now being appointed who reflect a particular worldview and make those judgments accordingly. We are now living during the rise of the Christian Taliban.

In this Theocracy the Christian Taliban present their values as the only values and enact them into law. The control of women by men is high on the agenda, especially when it comes to reproductive rights. The Ayatollahs of the Christian right – megachurch pastors, televangelists, popular conservative authors, religio-political pundits – present the absolute truths by which everyone should conform. They go so far as to criminalize the violation of their Christian Sharia and punish those who do not conform.

In a regime theocracy such as the Reichkirke in Nazi Germany – the State Lutheran Church became the legitimizer of the Third Reich, naming Hitler as God’s manifestation in the world. As Swastikas flew alongside crosses, there was no separation, no independent ethical reflection, no protest against any policy on the basis of faith or morals. The values and goals of the state were baptized by the church and the church became the religious arm of the regime, the megaphone for religious propaganda. In exchange for that submission the church received the tokens of power, prestige and protection. Until it shamefully came crashing down.

Religions that participate in theocracies inevitably lose their souls for worshiping the golden calves of power. The governments often end up endorsing narrow religious views that are not shared by the majority of its citizens; people conform only under the threat of punishment. Both are sullied in the process.

Protest of a theocracy can be very difficult, especially as power is centralized. But resistance is essential, a necessary refusal to accept either side of the toxic formula. The religious values of the theocratic religion must be publicly critiqued. The government’s policies must be publicly critiqued. And all of this must take place through an articulation of a different set of values and ideals.

The Christian Taliban are terrified of true freedom, allowing for real moral choice on the part of fellow citizens. They deal with this terror of freedom by attempting to control everything and everyone through coercive power. Freedom is the opposite of that and advocating for it, insisting upon it, requires suffering on the part of resisters. The Taliban are fierce in their crusades. They are willing to do anything to both seize and retain power.

The difference between living in a Theocracy and a free society is that in a free society one religious group does not set the agenda, limits, rules, or priorities for everyone else. That Christian Sharia does not become the law of the land, defined by Christian Ayatollahs and codified by Christian Taliban.

Theocracy? Here? Now?

For God’s sake, no.