Thoughts on Christian Theocracy Movements

Steve Harris wrote this recently. It is worth reading, reflecting and living. Unfortunately I get asked the question: “Why do you have higher expectations of Christians than non-Christians”. Apparently I am too harsh, and wrong to expect them to be different (the salty and light bit)…. let me know what you think…. I just don’t like convenient hypocrisy or otherwise……

There’s something about Christian Voice that irks me deeply. Partly it’s because they’re a little bit barking (ok, maybe more than just a little), but also because I find their claims quite incredible, particularly with regards to their core belief that most of the ills in British society stem from the Queen’s failure to uphold her Coronation Oath to maintain the laws of God. Perhaps someone should tell them that laws are made by Parliament and that a British monarch hasn’t introduced or rejected a law made by Parliament for over 300 years.
I think what really troubles me is that at the heart of movements like Christian Voice in the UK or any one of the zillions of theocratic movements in the USA is that they are founded on theological propositions that are wholly inaccurate and unbiblical and that both in theory and practice have very little to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ at all. Here’s a few thoughts:
1. The world is not the church. And nor will it ever be. This might seem obvious but it seems to escape the notice of a lot of theocrats. The world is hostile to God and neither knows nor recognises him, so why do Christians get so upset when TV programmes are ungodly, or when secular music promotes sinful values, or when sexual immorality goes unquestioned and unchallenged by the media? What do you expect?
2. The church is a free community bound together by love. Again, this is not too controversial a thing to say, but it raises interesting questions about the standards of behaviour that some Christians seem to demand of the world. Why do Christians expect those outside of the church to behave in a godly manner? Why is the church up in arms when the goverment passes legislation that is seen to be contrary to Christian values? There is no reason whatsoever to expect people outside the church to live in a manner that reflects the Spirit of Christ, and here there’s a further problem: a loving Christian community can only be brought about by sharing in the trinitarian fellowship of love and grace, not by law or compulsion. Why do we think that it is desirable (or even possible) to try and compel people to behave in a Christian manner? Should we, for example, be insisting that non-Christian teenagers abstain from sex, regardless of its huge failings?
Christian behaviour and ethics arise out of a relationship with God and a confessional commitment to following Jesus Christ. Why on Earth would we expect to be able to produce Christian behaviour through statutory law or by government initiative? Do we really want to create a “righteous” society that imprisons or kills people because they are gay, all in the name of being “faithful to scripture”? It’s insane to think that this is what being a disciple of Jesus means.
3. Some people are gay. Whichever way you try and explain it, they just are. Let’s say that gay people are sinners. How should the church respond to them? Here’s a clue: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, including you of all people. Why are so many of Jesus’ so-called followers so bent on obliterating homosexuality with no regard for the consequences or the people they so love to demonise? Why are Christian theocrats so graceless towards gay people?
4. Have the guts to let the world be the world. America is not God’s plan for humanity, and neither is Britain. God’s plan for humanity is the church, a communion of people from all times, places, and nationalities who are bound together in the love of the Spirit and who mediate the love and forgiveness of God to the world. Being the people of God is not about assuming power and exercising control in the way that the world does through the application of immutable laws backed up by violence. A discipleship that truly follows Christ is cruciform and transforms the world in the way the mustard seed does, not by laws and armies as is the way of Caesar.