Theocracy is a bad word these days. There is great fear of theocracy, perhaps because something akin to it is present in places like Iran and because of the specter of it being present in some of the pronouncements of the Religious Right.
And so I was surprised to see
Richard Mouw, President of my alma mater, Fuller Theological Seminary, trying to rehabilitate the word. He begins his blog posting by saying: "I keep reading about how bad it is to be a 'theocrat,' so every chance I get I try to own up to the fact that I am one of them. I am a theocrat." My sense is that Mouw has a different understanding of theocrat than I do -- and indeed he does.
For Mouw, theocracy is equated with the "reign of God." If you believe that God is sovereign then by virtue of that you're a theocrat.
I made this point with a rabbi friend a while back. He was complaining about “those theocrats” in the evangelical world whose views about public policy he abhorred. I said to him, “But you’re a theocrat too, aren’t you?” “Of course not!” he replied. But then I pointed out that the Jewish prayers he regularly intoned often begin by addressing God as “King of the Universe” or “Sovereign Ruler of the Universe.” Theocracy is the rule by God, and the biblical psalms, for example, make it very clear that God rules over everything in the world: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and those who live in it” (Psalm 24:1); “The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice!” (Psalm 97:1). That is theocracy!
I respectfully beg to differ with Dr. Mouw's assessment, because at least in our day and age that's not what it means. Theocracy may be the rule of God, but it seems to have a definite "institutional" cast, and when implemented it is usually disastrous in its consequences. I'm also not nearly as in tune as he seems to be with the concerns of the Religious Right -- but that's a whole different issue.
He writes that:
The problem is not with theocracy as such. It is with how we theocrats deal with the fact that right now we are living in a world that has not yet been renewed by God. It is not our job to rush God in bringing the Final Judgment. This year at Fuller our theme verse is Micah 6:8, and that gives us a great set of marching orders for how we theocrats are to behave ourselves in the here-and-now: “Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before your God.”
I agree fully that God is God and we are not. I agree that we should "do justice, love mercy, and walk humble before your God." I'm just not sure that this word theocracy is redeemable. Let's just stay with the "reign of God" and not try to implement politically God's rule. Jesus didn't try it, so maybe we shouldn't either.
Comments