1 - I'm not convinced that theocracy is a good idea even if the religion it uses as its basis is sound. At the very least, faiths that best work hand in hand with world governments have seemed to me not to specifically present themselves as sole owners of truth & right.
2 - But even if a religion claims or is seen to be the sole source of transcendent or divine truth, with or without a consequent belief that its word must be spread to many/the whole world, whole new problems come about with popularized forms of the religion. Popularity is power.
3 - The problem is more detailed than a trite "power corrupts" citation would encapsulate. American Christianity has been shaped from our colonial days by influential preachers. Those preachers are infuential partially because of their message, but also because of their backers.
4 - A parallel can be found in popular, influential music: Powerful backers strongly factor in the determination not only of what songs you hear, but in what compositions, genres, and artists become virally popular. Our society acclimates us to pop culture, and it helps industry.
5 - I grew up in an evangelical church and see viral techniques used in popular music and pop culture also employed there: the subtle and gross appeals to emotion, psychology, and human behavior that bring about huge popularity almost regardless of merit. It operates similarly.
6 - Mind you, the understanding of the human mind & social behavior were different in colonial days, & we have made advances. But subtle tricks have always existed, and tricksters have profited from them. Wealth of many was built on the base of a Christian faith okay with racism.
7 - These huge hoards of wealth, guarded by powerful families, organizations, and industries, would not have grown so fast or become so inviolate if forces of Church, State, and Commerce were not joining together to create a Christianity okay with genocide, slavery, & pollution.
8 - There are many central Christian principles being winked at, ignored despite their centrality, here. One need only read The Beatitudes, the parables about rich men, or the events in the New Testament surrounding Christ's death to begin to suspect manipulation & corruption.
9 - Christianity, if America was a theocracy with a sound, Christ-centered faith at its center, would call for an attitude for the poor & the stranger that would be vastly different from what the popular politicians most cozy with the most popular evangelists here are preaching.
10 - What I've attempted to describe here has been my reasoning process in doubting - and seeing as a very real danger - the politicized, manipulative Christianity of leaders like @Franklin_Graham, @robertjeffress, and others, popularized by @FoxNews and the @700club and others.
11 - That these popularized, manipulated, corrupt interpretations & implementations of Christianity are close cousins with the Dominionist view of faith is something I also note. In any case, this is the brand of Christianity whose leaders and followers adore @realDonaldTrump.
12 - I grew up Southern Baptist and only now have seen context and consequence to make me this alarmed. I remember Jesus' warning that the way of destruction is wide. I also remember his dire pronouncement against all those who deceive "these little ones" with false teachings.
13 - The seeds of this unwholesome, manipulated, corrupted faith have always been here in how powerful human beings have implemented and popularized Christianity in America. And now that it's mixed with State and Commerce, it's a virtually insoluble problem. I am scared.
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