The United States of America: A Republic or a Theocracy?

Wayne D. Leeper

“If a nation is founded by Christians and its laws are based on Christian principals, is that nation, by definition, a theocracy?”

There is a lot of discussion today regarding America’s Christian heritage and some have proposed that those who want it to remain a Christian nation are trying to create a theocracy.  A good place to start this discussion would be to understand the definition of “theocracy.”  According to Webster’s Dictionary a theocracy is:

1. The rule of a state by God or a god; hence,

2. government by priest   claiming to rule with divine authority.

3. a country governed in this way.

4.  A group of clerics with political power.

This isn’t and never will be the definition of America.  I do not know one religious person who does or would advocate this.  Yet it the precise claim by the liberal left and the various “Separation of Church and State” organizations is that Christians want to turn America into a Theocracy.  Either these people do not understand what a theocracy is or they are totally misrepresenting the views of America’s Christian community.

There is no question that the original pilgrims came to America to find the freedom to practice their religion without government interference.  That is made very clear from the text of a sermon preached by John Winthrop during their voyage to America.  In part he stated:

“We shall find that the God of Israel shall be among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies; when He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, ‘the Lord make it like that of New England.’”

Winthrop had a deep understanding of God’s divine purposes for the colony. “We shall be a city set on a hill,” he said of Boston – where the church was the center of life during those early years of the city’s history. He described a harmonious Christian community whose laws and government would logically proceed from a godly and purposeful arrangement.

It was in this manner and by these thinking people that this nation came into existence.  But America was to be a republic, not a theocracy.  No one, even Winthrop intended otherwise.  The whole idea was that freedom of  religion would be a hallmark of America.  Thus it has always been and thus it is today.

Two hundred and fifty-nine years later President Ronald Reagan, who had long been impressed with Winthrop’s view of the “New World.” made the following statement as a part of his farewell address to the nation on January 11, 1989:

“…I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it.  But in my mind it was a tall proud city on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”

This is the best definition I have ever heard regarding the United States of America.  Yet Winthrop also issued a warning that is still true today.

“The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause us to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world.”

Today we see a nation that has strayed from its historic roots.  Beginning in the 60’s a secular humanism began to develop in our nation that has sought to change “freedom of religion” to “freedom from religion.”

A nation does not have to be theocracy to have its laws based on Christian standards.  National morality is necessary if any nation is to prosper and this nation has prospered beyond all others for the exact reason that until recently we have had a code of national morality.  No one can deny that that is no longer the case.

Abortion, pornography, and same sex marriage all fly in the face of Biblical teachings.  It is the purpose of Christians, not to create a theocracy, but see our nation return to its roots.  Tolerance of others is a hallmark of Christians but legalizing sin and immorality is not.  Most of the nations of the world have turned their back on God and there is ample room in these nations for people who want to practice lifestyles condemned by the God of the Bible.

We continue to be, and always should be “a republic,” never to become a theocracy.  We want our government to be secular but we want men and women at the helm of power who respect God and his principals for national greatness.  We want our children to be safe from predators, our schools opened to the discussion of and the teaching of Biblical principals of conduct.  We want our wives and mothers free from abuse and unafraid to walk our streets.  We want the smut called “freedom of expression” removed from our children.

If things are not radically changed in the near future there will be no concern about our nation becoming a Theocracy.  We will no longer have a nation to be concerned about as it will have be relegated to the ash heap of history along with Rome and many others.  It is time for the good men and women to refuse to keep silent and refuse to allow the ungodly to determine the course of our nation.

Either we will rise up and take back our nation or our children and grandchildren will pay a terrible price for our indifference and neglect.