The Theocracy

TimeWatch Editorial
October 03, 2016

According to the Georgia Online News Service website, JOHN F. SUGG is a founder and executive editor of the Georgia Online News Service. Previously he has held senior editing and writing positions at Creative Loafing, The Miami Herald, The Atlanta Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and American Lawyer Publications. Sugg has won more than 40 awards for column writing, editorials, investigative reporting and business writing. On March 24, 2004, his article on the Creative Loafing website was entitled “America the theocracy.” He opens up that article with the following statement. “A band of influential preachers is praying for the power to rule America. For those who disagree, they have a solution -- stoning.” He then proceeds to describe one of the approaches being utilized to accomplish the goal of these influential preachers.

“Gary DeMar makes a disconcerting impression for a firebrand revolutionary who wants to overthrow the established order in the United States. No camouflage and he carries a Bible instead of an assault rifle. Sporting khaki pants with razor creases, tassel loafers and, most of all, a warm smile, he looks like your neighbor. He might be. DeMar, a relentlessly logical (if you accept his assumptions) speaker, excitedly describes a new order; one in which God's trusted servants reign supreme over the three "governments" created, he says, by God: the family, the state and the church. It's a society in which only the faithful are citizens, democracy is a distasteful memory, and the state's primary purpose is assisting in the conquest of the Planet Earth for Christ.” John F. Sugg, “America the theocracy.” Creative Loafing website, March 25, 2004

This article was published twelve years ago. It describes a vision of a theocratic nation that has been in existence for quite some time. That fact that it is rarely discussed among members of the general population is testimony to the dangerous elements at play. Many who momentarily encounter the point of view often smile and express the thought that such an agenda has no hope of ever being fulfilled, but as John Sugg continues:

“This is more than one man's radical dreaming. It's the core belief of a movement called Christian Reconstruction, and DeMar is its Tom Paine. Many followers accord him the status of transforming an arcane offshoot of Calvinism into a political dreadnought — and of launching that theological warship at a speech 20 years ago. The movement, also dubbed "dominion theology" and "theonomy," has spread far beyond the right wing of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. It has penetrated, to some degree, most conservative denominations, including Southern Baptist. The Reconstruction movement has burrowed deep into the religious right. Its architects have gained strength via a broad alliance with other religious advocates who seek a radical restructuring of America. Reconstruction and dominion theology certainly set much of the agenda for conservative Christianity's political activism.” John F. Sugg, “America the theocracy.” Creative Loafing website, March 25, 2004

So what has led to all this? Why the conviction that the nation and the world has indeed lost its way and is in need of Dominion control? Listen to John Sugg’s description of the situation.

“Like ancient Christians, today's ardent believers feel they've been fed to the lions. In the years just prior to the Time apostasy, the U.S. Supreme Court had ripped prayer and the Bible from public schools. Then, in 1973 came the galvanizing abortion decision of Roe v. Wade. Five years later, then-President and staunch Southern Baptist Jimmy Carter demanded that private religious schools, often the segregation academies of white flight, prove they did not racially discriminate — an intrusion, many Southern preachers fumed, onto their turf. Throughout this time, gays at first tiptoed, then charged out of the closet; and women demanded equal rights, upsetting the biblical order of families, as interpreted by religious conservatives.” John F. Sugg, “America the theocracy.” Creative Loafing website, March 25, 2004

But the conservatives didn’t give up. Many of the liberals thought they did. Their constant ridicule, they thought, would certainly be enough to put an end to their “fringe agenda.” But of course, the liberals were wrong. This brand of conservatism does not give up.

“Secular America fooled itself by assuming it had won.”The media subjected the fundamentalists to such ridicule that they slunk away," says Karen Armstrong, author of The History of God. "But these fundamentalists were simply withdrawing in the time-honored way, leaving the mainstream denominations and founding their own churches, Bible colleges, broadcasting stations and publishing houses." Today, a new cultural civil war rages, with political skirmishes as far flung as Massachusetts and San Francisco, but with most of the major battlefields in the South. For Southerners aggrieved at what they see as Northern liberalism, the New Cause is just one more campaign for the Lost Cause.” John F. Sugg, “America the theocracy.” Creative Loafing website, March 25, 2004

Notice the separation described by Mr. Sugg: Northern Liberalism and Southern Conservatism. This is indeed a suggestion of cultural difference that has remained even beyond the years of the obvious antagonism of the Civil War. This battle that is forming is much more deadly than the military confrontation of the past. Positions have been taken that will only be resolved by the illumination of the opposition.

“The faithful, as seldom before, are mobilized and militant, protesting the removal of the Ten Commandments, and urging in strong 55 percent-plus majority numbers that governments erect an impenetrable barrier between gays and the marriage altar. There is a clear direction to the movement — a government more in tune with religion. Beyond that, but not far, awaits the grail for Christian Reconstruction and its allies: a theocracy ruling America.” John F. Sugg, “America the theocracy.” Creative Loafing website, March 25, 2004

The determination that has saturated those who insist upon a theocratic America and for that matter a global theocracy is only equaled by the subtle secrecy of the hidden agenda that is being pursued. We need to be watchful and on guard.

Cameron A. Bowen