The troubling news coming out of Iran these days is a powerful reminder of the institutions of freedom – speech, press and religion – that we hold dear in America, and that would seem to be essential to maintain a stable democracy. At the Washington Post's On Faith site, a panel discusses whether "democracy can ever take hold in a theocracy". Be sure and read the responses from:
Religious men who call themselves "supreme leaders" are not in the business of presiding over fair elections…
When I watch the people in Iran spilling out into the streets, demanding to know where their vote went, I can see the hand of God. The divine spirit in human beings is the foundation of true democracy–people will strive for freedom despite the risk of being battered or killed.
The alliance of governmental power with religion has a long, uneasy history. But separation may be more difficult for Islam, even in theory, than for Christianity. . . . Islam…arose in the desert, where government was not already in place. Civil legislation and religious legislation were not distinguished. The laws of government and the laws of God grew up as one. To disentangle them will not be easy.
And the Baptist Joint Committee's own Brent Walker:
When one religion is…to the exclusion of others, religious liberty of everyone is diminished or eliminated — no matter how often they vote. For example, Massachusetts Bay colony arguably was a democratic theocracy, but the Puritan leaders persecuted my Baptist forebears, most famously Roger Williams. . . .
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Both democracy and religious liberty fare far better when there is a friendly separation of church and state — where, in the words of the U.S. Supreme Court, the government adopts a posture of "benevolent neutrality" toward religion.
Also, see Jon Meachem's Theocracies are Doomed. Thank God in Newsweek.
