Message to Al Queda

Message to Message to Al Queda: America Is Already a Theocracy

Shortly after 9/11, I attended a local prayer breakfast at which service club members, clergy and town officials gathered to consider the Pledge of Allegiance’s phrase “one Nation under God.”

As I reflected on that theme, it occurred to me that Osama bin Laden and his cohorts – the Taliban of Afghanistan – might also say their objective is “one Nation under God.” After all, they speak of the “nation of Islam” and call for an Islamic theocracy.

A theocracy is defined by Mr. Webster as a state governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials – a monarch, council or junta – who are regarded as divinely guided. What distinguishes the Islamists' version of nationhood from ours?

Let’s start with the Declaration of Independence, our founding document. The Declaration is as much a spiritual document as a political one. It has four references to deity – “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” “Supreme Judge of the World” and “divine Providence.” Those phrases collectively declare that God is the mighty author of our being and the moral authority for our laws, and that we humans, by virtue of our spiritual nature derived from God, are created equal and are endowed with “certain unalienable rights.” The purpose of government, the Declaration says, is to ensure that those rights are not violated because each individual citizen is sacred and sovereign. Did bin Laden and the Taliban offer anything comparable?

Look at Afghanistan under the Taliban, which hosted bin Laden. Where was the freedom we cherish – freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech and the press, freedom to assemble and to travel, freedom to criticize the government, freedom to seek redress of grievances, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, freedom to work as we wish, freedom of education, and so forth? The Taliban suppressed all that. Radio, TV and entertainment were forbidden except for government-approved forms. There were no minority parties campaigning for election because critics of the government were publicly executed. People were jailed for the “crime” of teaching about Christianity.

The Declaration of Independence states that all men – meaning all people – are created equal. Did bin Laden and the Taliban have anything comparable? Just look at the condition of women under their rule. They had to be covered from head to foot, including their face; they were beaten on the street for showing even an ankle. They couldn’t vote. They couldn’t go to school or work outside the home. Female teachers couldn’t teach. Even female doctors, whose medical services were badly needed, were forbidden to practice their profession. (Please note that this terrible treatment of women is not inherent in Islam, but was due to the twisted mentality of the Taliban.) As for other religions, Christians were persecuted and Hindus were forced to wear a sign on their clothing to identify themselves as non-Muslim. Ancient Buddhist sculptures regarded by the world as art treasures were blown up.

Noble-sounding words can be misused to disguise something totally opposite to their meaning. That is what the Taliban, bin Laden and their followers did. Their version of “one Nation under God” was a brutal totalitarian dictatorship – the antithesis of everything for which America stands (and, according to many Muslim scholars, the antithesis of what Islam stands for also).

Whether you believe in God or not, if you are American, you should understand the profound difference which our theory of government makes for us from all other theories and forms of political organization. The fundamental idea of America is this: Our liberty, our sovereignty, our equality, our rights, our justice and our human dignity are bestowed upon us by God and guaranteed by the Constitution; all that may not be violated or taken away by laws, court decisions, executive orders or social majorities who think otherwise. Rather, the primary role of government is to protect all that from anyone who seeks to harm it or override it. As the Declaration of Independence puts it, governments are instituted to ensure those God-given rights.

Our Founders believed that Man is made in the living image of God and that the basis on which our nation stands is acknowledgement of God as the supreme authority for the conduct of our national life and our personal life. If God is the foundation of America, we can rightfully say this nation is a theocracy. But it is a democratic nonsectarian theocracy operating through a constitutional republic rather than an autocratic religious junta such as the Taliban. Our Founders wisely separated church and state to prevent just that.

Unlike the former condition of Afghanistan with the Taliban and unlike the former condition of China and Japan with their emperors, clerics and divine-right monarchs do not rule here and the First Amendment assures they never will. The individual comes first, not the state, not an establishment of religion, not a clerical caste, not a ruler regarded as semidivine. By virtue of our spiritual nature and our moral equality, in American society every citizen is a direct representative of God and every citizen is a full and equal member of the ruling body known as “we the people.” Through the Constitution, we the people rule America.

Ideally speaking, therefore, America is a theocracy because it is governed by God through the total population of our divinely guided citizenry who are the true heads of state and who are educated in the religio-moral ideals, principles and values of our society. They provide the governance of our society from which the representatives of our government are elected. Our national character is the seedbed from which our public officials grow.

That is a radically new form of theocracy – both new and better. It is unique in history. It is an advancement beyond even that which our Pilgrim forefathers intended, which was a theocracy, a Holy Commonweal of the elect. The Pilgrims were separatists; they separated from England in order to set up a society in which God, not the King, was head of state. “No king but God,” they said. Yet for all the debt of gratitude we owe our Pilgrim forefathers, we must not overlook the fact that their theocracy was a decidedly narrow, restrictive one, and intolerant of divergent religious beliefs. In fact, in the case of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it was oppressive enough to send Roger Williams into the Rhode Island wilderness to establish a colony more hospitable to religious freedom for all. So understanding the magnificence of our Founders' achievement – a theocracy based on freedom of religion and freedom of conscience for all individuals, including even those who deny the existence of God – is critical for the future of freedom around the globe.

Although our Founders separated church and state, they did not separate God and state. How could they? The Declaration makes clear that from our beginning we have been “one Nation under God.”

What follows from that theory of government is the marvelous liberty of our nation in which people can worship, speak, assemble, write, travel, work, marry and live as they wish – in short, can pursue happiness as they wish – so long as they do not violate another’s right to do the same. Yes, that marvelous liberty has been abused by some citizens. And, yes, because liberty carries inherent responsibility, it requires a conscience, a sense of civic duty and a sense of respect for public decorum – in short, voluntary compliance – to live properly in accordance with our national ideals, principles and values. As Thomas Jefferson said, the qualifications for self-government are not innate; they are the result of habit and long training. But without that spiritual foundation asserting your right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and without the constitutional protection guaranteeing your freedom and your rights… well, renounce your American citizenship, move to Taliban City and find out for yourself what follows.

We Americans should thank God for the blessings we have: personal, political, economic and social freedom, the right to self-determination of our lives and the opportunity to lawfully pursue happiness as we define it for ourselves, rather than being forced into abject, slavish service to a totalitarian state run by despots claiming to be divinely guided. We should express that gratitude through lives which serve – not rule – others, from the nuclear family to the human family. We should also gratefully honor those who went before us – often in great hardship, suffering and bloodshed – to build and defend a haven for us in the wilderness of man’s longstanding inhumanity to man. Last of all, we should be vigilant, active citizens who work to preserve the blessings of liberty so they may be passed on to our posterity and the boundaries of our haven may be peacefully enlarged to educate and eventually encompass all humanity. We should do all that in recognition that the blessings of liberty come to us from our Creator, Nature’s God, Divine Providence, the Supreme Judge of the world who is, in Thomas Jefferson’s words, “the common Father of us all.”

America – love it and live it!

VOICES OF THE PEOPLE:

My first initial thought is that foreign policy is a gross contradiction to the wishes of President Washington's Farewell address. When has it not been? Ever since the expansion and domination of trade backed by an elite military had become Foreign Policy it has created enemies it has finally brought them home. It's time to revisit the purpose and meaning of republican virtue. Please see The Never Realized Republic: Political Economy and Republic Virtue. President Washington's Farewell address is my conclusion. It ought to be clear; how Foreign Policy was meant to be: vis-à-vis: Social progress, and ethical behavior were of paramount importance and clearly the expectations of the Revolutionary generation. In President Washington’s Farewell Address he made it clear, for all and future presidents: ‟Observe good faith and justice towards all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.-Religion and Morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it?”1 What have American Presidents accomplished in the latter half of the twentieth-century? What will the first half of the twenty first-century realize? What brand of virtue is America exporting? What brand of virtue do these regimes represent? Besides morality in government, Washington had a clear expectation or desire for the future of foreign policy: ‟The great role of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little Political connection as possible,-So far as we have already formed engagements , let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith,-Here let us stop.-”2 As stated in the Constitutional Convention: “Our true situation appears to me to be this — a new extensive Country containing within itself the materials for forming a government capable of extending to its citizens all the blessings of civil & religious liberty — capable of making them happy at home. This is the great end of Republican Establishments.” 3 Neither did the Revolutionary generation abandon their principles. Faith, ethics, and religion were all tied together. “The reconciliation of Christianity with classical philosophy served a vital emotional function: it saved the founders from the painful necessity of abandoning the religion of their ancestors and of their countrymen,” a religion whose principle or basic truth, seemed to be to exemplify the ethical behavior of Jesus Christ."4 __________________________________1 Marvin Meyers, eds., et al., Sources of the American Republic: A Documentary History of Politics, Society, and Thought; rev.ed., (Glenview, Ill: Scott Foresman and Co., 1967),, Vol. 1, doc. # 64, 202.2 Ibid., 207 3 Charles Pinckney (S.C.), in Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, Reported by James Madison, with an Introduction by Adrienne Koch, (N.Y.: W.W. Norton & Co.), 185. 4 Carl J. Richard, The Founders and the Classics, Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment, (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1994), 194. Although Richard refutes the humility of Socrates, he notes that “Benjamin Franklin audaciously paired Socrates with Jesus as the greatest models of humility, ibid., 186. “Jefferson considered...Jesus the best guide for ethics.” Ibid., 187.Addendum: It is important to realize that "Ethics" is the Roman, (Latin) translation of the Greek "Moral Philosophy." Respectfully yours,Peter J. O'Lalor, Ph.D.














"Not all theocracies are Christian. Some are Jewish, Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, and some are secular. There is no escaping theocracy. A government’s laws reflect its morality, and the source of that morality (or, more often than not, immorality) is its god. It is never a question of theocracy or no theocracy, but whose theocracy. The American people, by way of their elected officials, are the source of the Constitutional Republic’s laws. Therefore, the Constitutional Republic’s god is WE THE PEOPLE."People recoil at the idea of a theocracy’s morality being forced upon them, but because all governments are theocracies, someone’s morality is always being enforced. This is an inevitability of government. The only question is which god, theocracy, laws, and morality will we choose to live under?"Excerpted from "The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YHWH" at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt3.php.








Our government cannot be said to be a theocracy under God's law, so I must agree with the comments of Ted Weiland.The evidence is clear. For example: legal abortions continue in America. Any government that makes laws and allows conduct in direct violation of God’s perfect law is corrupt. America, like the rest of the world, is displaying manifold evidence of the extent to which we have become corrupt. America needs a spiritual revival. Only a renewed relationship with our God and obedience to His laws will make our nation safe again. Until then, we are not protected by our Shield."The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him." --Psalm 28:7












Don't get too clever in splitting all those fine hairs in pushing your theocracy on us, . It doesn't make the rest of us any more comfortable or willing to trust that our FREEDOM is safe when you say that it all came from God in the first place.I also find it quite unsettling that you so graciously allow those who don't believe in your God to come along for the ride. We are Americans, and if you choose to believe that this all came from God, you are welcome to it.I, however, am absolutely certain that the foundation of America came from the PEOPLE. It is WE THE PEOPLE who have the idea of God in us, NOT the other way around. God came from the PEOPLE, and if you want to look for power, look at US, not God.God is nothing but the thoughts, prayers and wishes of people who share some things in common and many things not at all. Not all of us believe in God, but ALL of us are here as Americans - it is PEOPLE who founded this country, and PEOPLE who keep it as it is today.John, your argument will appeal to all those who crave a theocracy, and is repellent to those who don't. Quit pushing your God down our throats, no matter how new or improved! We are the PEOPLE who have made America; even though many people have built and sustained America with God in their minds and hearts, it is still US who have made this country, NOT God!















Sunforester: and who made you, the PEOPLE?The People have made Amerfica, but who made the PEOPLE?And if the fundamental liberties don't come from GOD, then they come from people, so please don't cry when the PEOPLE decide that you have too many (liberties, I mean) and take away some of them. All in the name of the common good, the PEOPLE's good, that is.Communism is also the PEOPLE, you know.















Thanks for your thoughtful article. A couple of observations:1) Most of the Founders and early thought leaders of our Nation understood "God" to be not just any "god"...but specifically, the "God" of the Holy Bible.2) From this foundational understanding, they also derived that we were created "in the image of God" (Biblical teaching) and thus had certain unalienable rights.3) Because this definition of "God" and our understanding of man's relationship to God is FOUNDATIONAL to the creation of the Constitution and American Government, several of the Founders (most notably, John Adams) understood that if we (as a people) abandoned our devotion to the "God" of the Bible...the American Experiment would be lost. 4) American Government is dependent upon enough people having an "internal compass" for doing what is good, right, and just...that can only be sustained through the worship of the "God" of the Bible. Though other faiths are welcome to enjoy freedom here (atheists, agnostics, Islam, humanism, Buddhism, etc.), their voices should not be given the authority to change the foundations of this country...or it will certainly crumble and fall.








"Though other faiths are welcome to enjoy freedom here (atheists, agnostics, Islam, humanism, Buddhism, etc.)...." That's polytheism, and regardless how you slice it, Amendment 1's provision for freedom of religion is a violation of the First Commandment. See "Amendment 1: Government-Sanctioned Polytheism" at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/biblelaw-constitutionalism-pt11.php.






The Constitution does not require a "divinely guided" office holder as Mr. White attributes to Daniel Webster definition of a theocracy. The founders purposely established this Republic as such due to the history pf "religious" mandates of the "old world." That said, perhaps the primary author of the Constitution, said it best: "Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe the religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God therefore, not to men, must an account of it be rendered." --James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance (More at "Theocracy?" http://www.earstohear.net/Separation/theocracy.html