Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Biblical Law

Lawyer and Tv personality Catherine Cryer is hopping mad about the Republican who have "conquered congress and the presidency". The reason?
Most of them would like to see the United States under biblical law. Comparable to countries like Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, all of which live by Sharia (the strict Islamic code of the Koran), America's right-wing fundamentalists seek a nation governed by Old and New Testament scripture. Born-again Christianity will supplant the Constitution.
What the hell is Biblical Law? Certainly not a strick enforcement of Mosiac Law ala Sharia. I don't know any Christians who want to keep Kosher. I don't know any who want to start applying stonings left and right either. About all we would like to be able to do is swear allegiance to our Nation by our God. Being allowed to judge morality for ourselves instead of having it indoctrinated by our government might be nice too.

It is all scare tactics. You cannot equate Islam, which has a long tradition of theocracy starting with Mohammed himself, with Christianity, which has a long tradition of endorsing secular government starting with Jesus Christ himself. Paul had a lot of good things to say about government in Romans. With only a few exceptions, Christianity has a long history of secular government. Yes there were state churches, but these were as much about the church running the state as they were about the state running the church.

No comments: