Holy War! The Rise and Fall of the American Theocracy (2039-2079) (Part 2)
By Nathaniel Lane Stewart, M. A.
Introduction: The Unique Phenomenon of the American Theocratic Republic (Part 2)
(The following post is the continuation of the introductory chapter to the book cited above which was (supposedly) published in the year, 2195. This essay offers some opening observations to the historical narrative of the American Theocracy of the 2060’s and 2070’s. The numbers in parentheses indicate foot notes at the end of the article. You may click the link below if you wish to read Part 1 of this post:
What was the American Theocratic Republic of the 2060’s and 2070’s, and how did it differ from the Federal Constitution of 1787?
Asking that question is far more easier than attempting a fair and candid reply. In the opinion of this writer, some historians over the past two decades have rendered very shoddy work in both narrating and analyzing the rise & fall of the American Theocracy. The chief blunder most scholars of our day have committed is they fail to acknowledge three necessary presuppositions regarding the historic context of the Theocratic Republic as well as the character of this unique marriage of religion and politics in the Americas that enable a student of the past to rightly understand these events. Those three presuppositions are as follows:
One, the pan-centennial arc of the Theocratic ideals flowing through the history of Christianity in North America which climaxed during the era of the American Theocracy.
Two, the unique, and in one sense, unprecedented world of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in the history of the world which gave birth to the American Theocracy.
Three, the contradictory character of the American Theocratic movement demonstrated by a peculiar intellectual paradox embraced within their beliefs and their practices.
Without a precise understanding of these three factors, a candid narration as well as an honest assessment regarding the historical significance of the American Theocratic Republic will be quite difficult if not impossible to offer. The definition of these three presuppositions is the subject of this introductory essay. We shall now consider of them in brief:
The Pan-centennial arc of the American Theocratic Ideals
One of the most misunderstood attributes of the American Theocratic movement is that it was not exclusively an event of the twenty-first century. Though its period proper extends roughly from the fall of Jerusalem to the armies of the Confederation of Arab States in A. D. 2039 to the defeat of the American Theocratic forces at St. Louis, Missouri, in June, 2079, by the armies of the Eastern Alliance, the origins of the Theocratic movement can be traced to the mid-twentieth century while its core principles and ideals can be traced to the early nineteenth century. The most unbiased statement one could make regarding the American Theocratic movement is this: it was a spirit whose arc was like a river in a dale which can be traced throughout the entire history of the American republic. As one writer in the early twenty-second century noted, the rise and fall of the American Theocracy cannot be explained without first understanding the rise and decline of religion among the American people from A. D. 1650 to A. D. 2050 (1).
The forces that propelled the Theocratic Party forward were deeper than such events as the coalescing of Islam in the 2030’s or the Arab-Mexican Pact of A. D. 2043. Their crusade to remake society after a more ‘Biblical fashion’ was driven by more than the Fall of Jerusalem in A. D. 2039, or the “Gay Rights” amendment to the Federal Constitution in A. D. 2037, or the Neo-Libertarian embrace of Anarchist government and the doctrine of ‘Free-Market Politics’ (2). If we are to find the source of this unusual party in American history, we must go past the explosion of the Militant Islamic revolts in early decades of the 2000’s. We must move beyond the traumatic attacks of September 11, A. D. 2001. We must travel back in time prior to the Cultural Revolutions of the twentieth century, the world wars and the rising threat of Materialistic Dialectic Communism. We must trace the arc back to the nineteenth century and understand the dramatic epistemological revolution that occurred in that century which was believed to be the seminal threat to the existence of Christianity. But even after we have noted that essential fact, then we must travel further into the past where we shall discover that the ultimate root of this oddly deformed hybrid of a tree and a boulder called the American Theocracy is located in the very early days of the American Republic itself(1650-1800). It is only then that we find the true significance of this unique phenomenon of the twenty-first century called the American Theocratic Republic. Hence, unlike other histories of this period, we have chosen to begin ours at A. D. 1650.
The first seed of the Theocratic ideal was actually sowed by a group of individuals so far removed in both time and perspective from the Christian Republic Party that their actions are truly an ironic commentary on the full impact of the law of unintended consequences. That first seed was planted with the establishment of the Puritan Commonwealth in the colony of Massachusetts in A. D. 1629. Those ancient ‘Puritans’ desired to institute the ideal Biblical Commonwealth upon earth, and even though they were also an extremely militant form of Christianity (quite unlike the true manifestation of Christian Catholicity that we know and enjoy), even their worldview did not call for the total eradication of every perceived enemy of Christendom as did that of the Christian Republic Party (3). This Puritan Vision died by A. D. 1700, but its ideal was resurrected in a rather secular form 76 years later with the Declaration of Independence by the 13 British Colonies that later took the name the United States of America. Then with the ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787, in one very real sense, this new organization of the United States enacted into law with the famed first amendment a totally secularized vision of the Puritan dream (4). This act ensured a certain level of freedom for the individual conscience-both the freedom to practice one’s religion as well as the freedom NOT to be coerced into submitting to a government administrated church (like those of the European monarchies of their own time, and much like what we enjoy today, though in a more spiritually refined position than did they enjoy).
Nonetheless, this act of instituting a ‘secular republic’ caused great consternation among the more strict Protestant churches of the populace as many of these militant ministers feared the ‘secular identity’ of the American nation would only lead the Republic into moral chaos and ruin. Hence, those ministers watered the old seeds of the Puritan vision through a series of mystic revivals, movements of communal spirituality, programs of social reform, and a spirit of militant cultural activism-all of which were promoted by the Protestant Evangelical churches who had experienced a great revival in the years preceding the revolution of the 1770’s and wanted most earnestly to perpetuate that same revival in their own day. It is from this spirit which originated in the century spanning A. D. 1750 to A. D. 1850 that we find the true origins of the theology and thought of the American Theocratic Republic.
(To Be Continued. . .)
(1) See ‘A Secular ‘Faith’: The Problem of the American ‘Religion’ by Cardinal Xander Morino, SJ, former Executive Dean, Catholic Academic League; essay published in A. D. 2134, by the International Catholic University, Rome.
(2) See Volume 1, Part II, Chapter 10, of this book for a more thorough explanation of this political theory of the early twenty-first century.
(3) See The Quest for a Christian Commonwealth (A. D. 1550 to A. D. 2120) by James A. Morris, Ph. D., Published by Commonwealth International University, Louisville Campus, Kentucky, 2145. Morris documents how the Christian Republic Party of 2060’s appealed to the Puritan Dream as their primary inspiration for establishing the Theocracy in A. D. 2065. His work offers appropriate comparisons between the two visions of a ‘Christian Commonwealth’ while still acknowledging that the Puritan vision was not nearly as militant as the American Theocracy (see pages 93-121).
(4) For a respectable though highly narrow perspective, see A Defense for the Necessity of a Secular Commonwealth, by William Salisbury, published posthumously in A. D. 2129, by official order of the Commonwealth National Assembly. Salisbury attempts to defend the “disestablishment” clause of the Old Federal Constitution. His position is a more precise statement of Grantham’s position outlined in his first inaugural address.
smcope 