Theocracy and Democracy

Back on January 28^th, I asked the blogger’s question: Is Democracy Really Majority Rule? For those who believe that whatever the majority dictates is a democratic solution, I point out that without individual rights, such governing structures become mob-o-cracies. The essence of the American form of government, a reaction to historical patterns of serial oppression, official or preferred state religions and religious persecution, is a litany of individual rights that rise above any form of potential tyranny of the majority.

But the call of God is a strong pull for too many. “God” generally trumps “country,” and a mandate from the deity is not subject to challenge by mere mortals. We’ve seen the cry of Shiite fundamentalists who have created the most exemplary version of a theocracy on earth: Iran. There, parliamentary elections and basic legal and constitutional rights can be overruled by the religious leaders, who by reason of their connectivity to God, literally can and often do overrule the human-made edicts and statutes. With its emphasis on the Shiite premise that the Qur’an is a mystical book that only the highest prelates in the land can interpret, those same prelates can dictate the social freedoms and political realities for the entire nation. When the Supreme Ayatollah speaks, all other voices of dissent are silenced.

Yet even in the more literal side of Islam – the Sunnis who believe that the Qur’an is the word of God and must be read directly that way – the notion of an Islamic republic, governed by the most conservative application of Sharia law (itself clearly religious), grips the hearts of many of the political factions that have slid into power positions because of the Arab Spring. The Muslim Brotherhood, the party of Egypt’s president, has passed a constitution rife with such fundamentalist teachings, veering away from the more secular elements of society that participated in regime change. Indeed, there are many who fear the rigid application of a law that punishes non-believers and varying interpretations of blasphemy with harsher punishments (even death) than are applied to traditional wrongdoings like murder, kidnapping, rape and armed robbery.

While Israel has created a secular layer of government above the clearly Jewish state, it is also clear that Judaism is the guiding force that often trumps secularism. This is particularly evident in the recent Israeli public debate concerning whether the ultra-Orthodox should remain excepted from otherwise universal military service and whether the state must continue financially to support their religious studies with precious taxpayer shekels. At least there is a debate, and there are strong secular laws! Under harsh theocratic rule, such debate is often severely punished.

Even where God is absent, but some overpowering ideological force created from a God-like forefather is the source of all governance, the same kinds of tyrannical powers over individual liberties define daily existence. Such are the governments and policies of nations like the People’s Republic of China, North Korea or Cuba, where philosophical elites have the power to trample individual liberties in pursuit of ideological purity.

Should we as Americans look down on such political structures as inferior and unsustainable, which we might say are on the wrong side of – pardon the expression – social evolution of increasingly educated masses? Yet the call of God is hard to ignore if you truly believe. There are powerful evangelical religious forces in the United States dedicated to passing constitutional amendments and generating new laws in order to comply with their beliefs of their own personal mandates from God. They are willing to reach into the most private parts of their neighbors’ lives, whose “repugnant” actions don’t immediately impact them at all, and force these non-believers (at least in their view of the world) to adhere to a system of laws and values that these “immoral” factions literally do not want to follow. These passionate believers challenge gay rights, banning school prayers, birth control, actions against climate change, abortion, sex education even though these values are often widely embraced by significant pools of citizens (often a majority)… purely on religious grounds. Whether you agree with these points or not, adapting them into law is a sign of a growing theocracy in our form of government.

How then is the United States different from those nascent countries struggling to blend their brand of fundamental religiosity with some form of “democracy”? And can a pluralistic society actually ever embrace one particular and unique view of God and God’s proscriptions and mandates within its form of governance and claim to be a democracy? Can these concepts be combined? What are your thoughts?

I’m Peter Dekom, wondering why we seem justified in casting the first stone.