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Whether a faith should inform law and policy depends not on whether it is religious or secular but on whether it is true and good.
By Danny Frost
America is facing an acute threat of “theocracy” — or so you would think from reading several recent articles. “Welcome to the theocracy,” writes Ruth Marcus in The Washington Post. “If you don’t think this country is sliding toward theocracy, you’re not paying attention,” writes Charles Blow in The New York Times. “The Republican Party wants to turn America into a theocracy,” reads the title of a Robert Reich piece in The Guardian.
The occasion for the recent handwringing about theocracy is the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that frozen embryos in IVF centers count as “human lives” for the purposes of Alabama law. Chief Justice Tom Parker wrote in his concurring opinion (which doesn’t carry the force of law) that “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.” According to this judge, Alabama law recognizes “that even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory.”
Parker’s use of religious language in a legal opinion is rare today, but the premise of the theocratic concern — that any influence of religious beliefs on public policy is the establishment of theocracy — is misguided. Religious ideas have been influential throughout U.S. history, including in America’s foundational beliefs as well as in its most important social and moral reforms.
As I argue below, the charge of theocracy in American politics is also used very selectively, often as a rhetorical device to marginalize certain viewpoints, particularly on controversial topics such as abortion or sexual morality. Though we should be careful to maintain an institutional separation between church and state, religious Americans should not feel like they have to check their beliefs at the door when engaged in the public square, including seeking to shape public policy.
https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2024/04/01/theocratic-fears-are-overstated/