abstract: some Christians have thought of democratizing a nation as an intermediate step on the way to Christianizing it (if they think in terms of Christianizing a nation at all). Very often, democracy will result in a loss of liberty, as well as a reduction in Christian influence. The framers saw the political and moral disaster of the French Revolution, and shunned democracy in favor of a republic.

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by Timothy Terrell

Last year I visited the Czech Republic for a week of lecturing at universities around that country. The lecture series was a part of a Czech missionary's work, though my talks included few references to the Bible, and no overt mention of the gospel. I discussed the ethics of property rights, government regulation, and American foreign policy.

Can such an effort contribute to the spread of Christianity? What, after all, do politics and economics have to do with missions?

Contending against an overreaching civil government is integral to a comprehensive Christian evangelistic effort because one of the prime competitors to biblical religion today is the religion of the state. The state is seen by many as the source of absolute power and lawmaking authority. Ultimately, if the state chooses not to actively control some part of life, it is merely because it would be an inconvenience to do so, not because of any limit on its jurisdiction imposed by a higher power. Not even salvation is outside its purview. As R.J. Rushdoony wrote in Politics of Guilt and Pity, "the modern state...has made salvation its function." Therefore,

Man is to be saved from poverty, sickness, death, ignorance, sin, war, superstition, and all things else by the saving state, which works steadily to create its divine order, the saving society. Every area the state wishes to invade and possess in the name of the welfare of man becomes its legitimate jurisdiction. A total sovereignty is asserted in the name of man. The state steadily denies the need of Christian theological order as it claims jurisdiction over every area in terms of its royal divinity.

Thus, the expansive state has become a competitor to Christianity. It has become an idol before which men prostrate themselves. This is an ancient form of idolatry. For example, the imperial Roman coinage used during Christ's earthly ministry made it plain that the civil authority was to be treated as a god. On the denarius handed to Jesus in Matthew 22:19 was the image of Caesar, with the inscription, "Tiberius Caesar Augustus, Son of the Divine Augustus." The other side lauded Caesar as the "high priest." Though we may not have this explicit claim to an alternative religious authority printed on our coinage, we can increasingly observe some of the earmarks of religious homage paid to the state. There is extensive regulation of what was hitherto the domain of the individual, family, or church. Our taxes, while not the highest in the world, have been on an upward trend for a century, showing an increasing financial commitment to the state as opposed to other institutions.

Our use of symbols testifies to the growth of the statist religion. Characterizing the period after September 11, 2001, have been the ubiquitous displays of the symbols of the civil government. Nothing is inherently wrong with flying a flag, of course, and in fact there can be great merit in it. Yet it seems that some of the motivation behind the post-September 11 fervor is unqualified allegiance to a particular civil government, along with a kind of wounded pride. In contrast to this nationalism, a biblical patriotism recognizes that the civil government should not occupy center stage in society, and that a disaster requires a response from the church, families, and individuals. Loyalty to an authority does not mean unquestioning approval of that authority's decisions--patriotism is sometimes critical if the biblical principles that made this country great are compromised. Yet, consistent with the idolatry of statism, our response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 has been to expand and reinforce the role of the state. Rather than national repentance, renewed evangelistic efforts, and a reining in of the state in its overseas interventionism, our response has been to grant the state even greater access to our personal affairs, and to renew the international crusade for democracy. Actions by individuals, families, and churches seem limited to demonstrating support for the civil government. In the U.S., some churches even feel compelled to install the flag of the federal government in a prominent place in the sanctuary (actually a longstanding practice with some congregations).

The international campaign for democracy has become the statist's version of a missionary crusade. Yet changing the political form of government without limiting its activities will not solve the fundamental problem. Whether a democracy or a dictatorship, any government can overstep its biblical limits and destroy liberty.

Many in the United States have equated democracy and freedom. This is, as economist Thomas Sowell has noted, a confusion of the process with its hoped-for results. I am sorry to say that some Christians have thought of "democratizing" a nation as an intermediate step on the way to "Christianizing" it (if they think in terms of "Christianizing" a nation at all). Very often, democracy will result in a loss of liberty, as well as a reduction in Christian influence. The framers saw the political and moral disaster of the French Revolution, and shunned democracy in favor of a republic.

Democracy ultimately leads to statism because it replaces a biblical framework for civil authority with the framework that man chooses. Without the limits on the civil government that the Bible outlines, people seek to use the state for personal gain. As the state becomes the agent for wealth transfers between different groups within the population, the state grows more and more powerful. Soon, no individual is safe unless he is a member of an organized group that can offer the state an important block of votes. Eventually, simple expropriation turns into imprisonment or murder, and the voting process is corrupted so that the state need not bother satisfying voters. As R.J. Rushdoony explained in Politics of Guilt and Pity, any freedom that may exist in a democracy is temporary:

The freedom of the individual in a democracy is only a transitional freedom, existing briefly as the source of law moves from God to the state. It is impossible for the individual to maintain his liberty very long in a democracy, because power is delegated to the state, to the general will of the democratic mass as it expresses itself in the state. A fundamental axiom of political life is this, that power allies itself with power . A power group is not interested in charity; it is not in existence to subsidize weak and struggling groups who need but cannot give help. Unless firmly restrained, power always grasps for more power, and hence it allies itself with other powers, and a struggle for power between cooperating yet competing power groups follows. Thus, as a democracy develops the powers of the state, and the powers of big business, big finance, big labor, criminal syndicates, big pressure groups, powerful minority groups, all now unchecked by the higher law of God, these powers all prosper at the expense of the individual.

As Rushdoony goes on to say, the power grab extends past the borders of the individual state or region. Multinational unions are created in a search for more power. "This leads," he writes, "either to irresponsible warfare as a result of meddling in foreign affairs, or to irresponsible alliances."

Christians must stand against the aggrandizement of the state, wherever it appears. This means protesting not only where Christians are prevented from assembling for worship, or where a Christian family's educational choices are limited by the state, but at any point at which the state has overstepped its bounds. Our evangelism must challenge the idolatry of statism as it would any pagan image-worship.1

Timothy Terrell teaches economics at a small liberal arts college in South Carolina. In addition, he is director of the Center for Biblical Law and Economics, on the Internet at http://www.christ-college.edu/html/cble/. Dr. Terrell can be contacted at terrelltd@wofford.edu.

Endnote

1. This article first appeared at http://www.chalcedon.edu/articles/0303/030326terrell.shtml on the Chalcedon Foundation website and is used by permission.

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