What would life be like in a modern day Christian theocracy?

More later, but in short: Pro-life, socialist. Two biggest things.

 

Not in my view. Never found an atheist I would think worth killing. Better things to do than dirty my hands eradicating infidels. Historically, strongly atheist nations have been the ones to exile and kill Christians. Also, homosexuals coincidentally. Atheists must punish Christians here on earth, because this is the only kingdom they believe will ever exist.

 

And men have been molesting little girls for just as long... thus your bias. Do you stand against men raping little girls? If so then what difference is there between heterosexual and homosexual child molestation other than the sex of the victims? Do you advocate men raping little girls but condemn men raping little boys?

HIV infects lots of people even heterosexuals so focusing solely on homosexuals while ignoring heterosexual transmitting of the disease again speaks of your bias. You can throw stats at me all day but so long as you continue cherry pick the data that supports your bias then I will continue to point out your bias.

 

Before I go in depth, I must ask: Do you mean theocracy? Theocracy is the idea that the governing body acts as the direct mouthpiece of almighty God. Not sure any Christian supports this. This was the case in Israel of old. This is no longer advocated by Christians because they believe the church is the mouthpiece of God and the governing body should to different degrees ( depending on what the ideology of the Christian is) conform itself to the church's teaching. I of course don't want to nit pick to destroy good discussion, I just want to know what you mean by Theocracy.

 

I am not much for dictionary definitions of complex subjects such as theology, but for the sake of argument I will use the following Merriam-Webster definition: a form of government in which a country is ruled by religious leaders.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/theocracy

The above definition leaves much open for interpretation, but as the subject of the OP is based upon a hypothetical scenario, all we can do is assume, speculate, and interpret.

 

Ok, I see what you are saying. Well I believe in religious formation of governance. However, I do not support government being led by religious leaders, so I suppose my answer wouldn't be of much use to your inquiry.

 

I was wondering the same thing but assume Dave is referring to the 1000 year reign of peace after Armageddon.

 

Do not mistake the Christian advocate who blindly believes in the perfection of Christian human beings for all Christians who believe that Christian principles ought to be employed in framing social structure. You may not agree with either type of Christian, however, I just wanted to add that in because the discussion needs to start from a place of self- awareness which certain Christians do not possess.

 

I think that he is. Once again, this highlights the difficulty of the discussion given that certain Christian denominations (mine included) do not believe in this literal 1000 years. simplistic interpretations of the book of Revelations are both ostracizing to others and overly simple given that Biblical metaphor and imagery is intentionally complex and interpretive at times. Its not unclear or mistaken; rather it is speaking to a truth far more metaphysically significant than ONLY the progression of human social organization.

 

Schooling would be even more abysmal and we'd still have laws carrying stiff penalties against things like homosexual sodomy (they wouldn't pick on heterosexuals for this), abortion, perhaps even various forms of blasphemy.

 

Hmm, you mean a Christian country as the OP envisions them, rather than the way they really would be. The reality is that this country is run by Christians for the most part. We don't agree enough on most civil matters, that makes that irrelevant. I doubt that would change much if real American Christians are involved, rather than the strawmen that the OP imagines.

 

To argue that that schooling would be even more abysmal seems difficult to establish, given that attendants of Christian educational institutions outperform their counterparts in standardized achievement criteria every year.

 

Most of the Christians in the U.S. are not fundamentalists, so it's unrealistic that an American Christian theocracy would be run by the fundamentalists. Women would be just as free as they are now.

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And your examples of atheists being killed by theists..........

 

I wonder if girls would even be permitted to complete a liberal education? Religious schools would not be the same under a theocracy as they are here in the secular USA.

 

So in other words, you can't name a time when atheists were killed by theists for being atheists.......

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Revisionist history.

The Catholic Church was an anti-Hitler as they could possibly be from the start.

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Blasphemy against what? The different major groups of Christians in this country pretty much think the rest of them are heretics.

 

Nope. That the Catholic Church was killing Christians and Jews alongside Hitler is fact. Your attempts at apology are revisionist history.

The fact is that the Church adopted a similar perspective to Hitler. Your attempts at apology for this are also revisionist history.

Ivan Šarić was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Sarajevo, who supported the Ustaša. His diocesan newspaper wrote:

Not only did the Church support the genocide and forced conversion of Orthodox and Jewish Serbs during WW2, they participated in it.

The Pope even secretly (not so secret anymore) helped Pavelic, leader of Ustasa, escape dressed as a Priest after the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_clergy_involvement_with_the_Ustaše

 

Good point. A theocracy wouldn't last in this country, would it? They'd be at each other's throats in short order.

 

Given, that you are presuming a certain sort of Theocracy without any clear reference to anything that you can demonstrate as being advocated, I am afraid that argument on the subject is quite fruitless.

 

Over-simplification and red herring. The divides between many major Christian groups is largely in relation to theological dogma. This by no means necessarily separates them in their understanding of the best way to organize moral principle and social structure. Further, the idea that every Christian group is so adamantly opposed to every other Christian group is a generalization so sweeping as to be almost ludicrous.

 

Christianity, like Islam, subjugates women to men. It's all over the bible and different sects have different attitudes about it, though all of them tend to do this to some extent.

Theocracies get ugly. They have always been ugly and will always be ugly, because they're fundamentally based on a combination of authoritarianism and institutionalised B.S. that is ever at odds with reality.

 

Oh please. Religious people are seldom tolerant enough of other religious people, groups and ideas to share power peacefully. We've seen what happens in this situation time and again, anyway - bloody sectarian warfare. It happened through Europe's theocratic history and it's happening even today in the Middle East and Africa.

 

Atheistic ideology has also been the cause of bloody warfare, genocide and oppression. Ideology of any kind has the potential to create violence. It does not matter whether that commitment is based in a theistic religion or not.

 

1) Please point out the strawman you claim is in the OP.

2) Can you read my mind? If not then please tell me how you can come to any objective conclusion as to that which I imagine?

If America is run by Christians then please explain why abortion is legal? For the most part this country is run by people who "claim" to be Christian. What makes a Christian a Christian? A simple belief in Christ as ones savior or is something more required? Was Senator Larry Craig of Idaho a Christian as he solicited gay sex in a Minneapolis airport? IMO being a Christian is more an action than anything else as words are hollow if not backed by action. Now save me the "we are all sinners" and "only God can judge" speech as I view that rhetoric as nothing but a justification and defense of bad action.

 

True, the basic problem is ideology (and dogmatism). However, again, this is the sort of thing religion is founded upon and actively encourages in people. American Christians are bad enough without a government trying to legitimise and reinforce their lunacy.

I would argue that one of mankind's greatest achievements in terms of advancement as a species has been the invention of secular government as we have it in the US today. It has actually helped to ensure peace in a nation full of idealogues. However, this may eventually fail anyway as times get tougher economically and socially, and ideological groups get more restless and hateful as a consequence.

 

That is akin to the basic problem with science : Science is founded upon assumptions related to "objective reality"; and assumptions are things that have not been proven to be true.