Do you get the impression some American Christians WANT to establish a theocracy here in the US?

Question

It makes me wonder just how bad a job our public education does in teaching history and civics. I am astonished and a little appalled at the number of people who really think the US was founded on Judeo Christian principles. As others have pointed out, if this were so, the founders had ample opportunities to establish an 18th C. theocracy. The chose NOT to.
One of our bedrock principles is a separation of church and state. I hate to imagine what it would be like if Christian evangelical fundamentalists had any real power.

Mark: you are missing my point. I can find quotes that support anything taken out of context. The separation of Church and State prevented us from establishing a theocracy. It is irrelevant that these 18th C. people had a religious frame of reference.
What is more significant is that we have NO established state religion. I understand how a few quotations act as an appeal to authority, but it does not address my question. So you DO want to establish a theocracy or we already ARE one ?
Just wondering.

I note how some venerate John Adams. Its interesting how the Alien and Sedition Acts, signed by him, jailed a number of innocent people and political opponants and were repealed as unconstitutional by Jefferson later on.
I hardly rate this President as such a great patriot.

Answer 1

They would like nothing better. Just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan. If you dont promote Christian ideals in the Bizarro Fundamentalist America you would be stoned to death.

I am particularly chucked to see the trash answer provided above mine. Here a blind dogmatic fundamentalist is taking historical notes of out context to prove America was founded to promote the Christian Ideal. But he left out the rest of history, where the founders placed protections against those trying to impose religious beliefs directly into the Constitution? Why, because of the religious persecution in England, among other reasons. Now the Fundamentalists want to create their own nation where its OK to persecute others for not following your beliefs.

Answer 2

Even a cursory examination of the Constitution should clearly show that the FORM of our Government is based on Greek and Roman concepts. NOT Christianity.

The fact that the framers were Christians is beside the point, they were trying to form a nation that would resist interference from organized religion (i.e. Catholic or Anglican Church)

As for a Christian conspiracy, I believe it has existed at least since the 1980's. Notice how in the late 70's / early 80's every
Televangelist's message was strictly about Armeggedon?
This was based on fears about the USSR vs. USA in a nuclear
confrontation. Once the USSR fell apart, and a Democrat got
elected to the White House they sure changed their tune, boy.
All of a sudden, they forget about Armeggedon and start getting more involved in the day to day vulgarities of modern politics.
They realised there was more money to be had by getting out the Republican message instead of Christ's.
The result of organised Christian participation in politics is easily seen today, a hopelessly polarized nation.

Answer 3

Of course they do, though they will deny it tooth and nail and try to make everyone believe that the Founding Father's intended something different.

And they will find a host of quotes for which the context is irrelevant to back their claims.

The reality is that most people coming to America from Europe were seeking their own religious freedom. Calvinists in particular such as the Huguenots sought religious refuge in the new world. Others wanted to be free from the dictates of the Pope or the Anglican Church in England. America was a place where a man could worship as he pleased. And thankfully still is.

And many folks seem to forget that Deism played no small role in the religious thinking of many of the founding fathers.

The Evangelicals of today feel compelled to spread their version of belief in God (and they don't all of them agree on which version that is) to all Americans. They decry public education and clamor for prayer in the schools. But of course every child and adult can pray to God at any time. He hears us without speech and certainly without the fanfare of institutionalized prayer. And of course, what prayer shall we have.. the Lord's Prayer of perhaps we'll have all the kids face the east before the start of each period.

I personally am sick to death of those who would stick their religious views in my face, in my schools or in my government.

It's truly time for all them to sit down and take a break from politics. Religion is a matter of the heart and soul. Politics is a matter for clear headed thinking.

Theocracy is never a good thing. Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc, etc. are perfect examples of the dangers of too much religion.

Each of us must ultimately follow our own path to God. No other man can create the path for us no matter how hard they try. In the end we will all of us discover truths we never imagined.

Answer 4

Thank Goodness (Omnipotent Good) for you, no-duh Yoda, and Kermit (the latter two having answered your question in fine form). I breathe a bit easier knowing there are well-spoken opposers of (in my opinion) dangerous fanaticism that this current regime has been force-feeding us these last few years, with the foundation laid in the Reagan (senile as president) and Bush Sr. years. Since very early childhood, I have believed in and followed metaphysics/quantum physics in my approach to faith, so the emphasis by neocons or right-wingers on Judeo-Christian principles as their version of America's "foundation" leaves me and others like me completely out of the equation--surely not what our forefathers intended. When someone seeking to help the people of New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina's devastation spoke on a CNN news broadcast he'd encountered a government-run (White House established) internet site which listed only "faith-based (i.e., so-called "Christian") agencies or persons", why did no one rise up to object??? I called CNN to ask that they at least explore this violation of our Constitutional protections and examine the long-term impact, but got no response. When Bush Jr. established a "Faith-Based Initiatives" office in the White House that was premised only on "Christian values", where was the justifiable outrage among our citizens??? What bothers me even more is the blatant hypocracy among these fantatical so-called "Christians"...who molest 16-year-old pages, who condone and conceal White-House-ordered torture and unlawful detentions of prisoners, who allow government intrusions into our supposedly Constitutionally protect lives--the whole while chanting their propaganda of "smaller government"...I am indeed alarmed by the apocolyptic directions the current Naziesque leadership is taking our beloved country. Bless you for recognizing the dangers and speaking out. What can we who object so strenuously do now to wrest our nation from the sanctimonious, hypocritical grip of these destroyers of our foundational freedoms? I'm on board once we have formed a plan for defeating these demogogues and undoing the damage the brat-boy-Bush-who-would-be-czar and his diabolically evil puppet masters have reaped upon America's cherished freedoms and ideals. There are some who actually believe Bush to be the anti-Christ, and although I do not embrace the Judeo-Christian principles as fully expressing faith as I've come to believe, the History channel did a piece on anti-Christ that seems to fit the patterns of his persona and practices. How tragic for America that he and his entourage of self-serving and largely incompetent zealots have assumed command of our ship.

Answer 5

It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” [May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses] Patrick Henry:

"We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."John Adams
(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President
“The name of American, belongs to you…[and] with slight shades of difference, you have the same religion.”
--George Washington in his Farewell Address to the American people, September 17, 1796
"The country's first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams,
were firm believers in the importance of religion for republican government." --official Library of Congress statement

Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"?
--1837, at the age of 69,

Where did you go to school so that I don't waste my money sending my daughter there

Answer 6

I get that impression too but I don't feel its like a conspiracy or anything. Just a preference they'd like to have.

Answer 7

oh yeah they want that, they are the most nontolerant folks in the world

Answer 8

Someone is passing around Kool-Aid again....by the way, did you vote?

Answer 9

Nooo.... REALLY !!!????????