Yeah it’s not like the majority of people in the wealthiest and most powerful parts of the world (and a plurality elsewhere) literally worship the guy.
Not really, no. America is unique among wealthy and powerful countires, it’s the only theocracy on the “west”, and it’s almost the only one where christians are majority. Except Vatican maybe.
I mean first theocracy implies rule by the clergy, which isn’t the case in America even de facto. The only theocracies in the world are Iran and the Vatican. That aside, 66% of EU citizens are Christian. The “our Christian way of life is under attack” rhetoric isn’t in any way unique to America, and there’s merit to tackling that on theological ground. For true believers (admittedly rare in the West), this can actually get them to change their minds about things.
It’s not the case in the US de jure, because there are several christian denominations working together and against each other, so there is no one official clergy. However, de facto the US is ruled by and for Christians, every important decision, almost every elected official, a lot of the laws, all of the customs revolve around Christianity and exclusively Christianity-related. It’s impossible to overstate how it’s not like that in every other western country. The two closest examples I can think of is Polland and Ireland, two traditionally very Christian countries, and even then it’s not even close to the levels of jesusness US exhibits.
When a EU citizen answers that they’re christian on a poll, more often than not they’re doing it because their parents did and that’s the extend of their religiocity.
Even assuming that’s true (which it’s not; absolutely nothing about Wall Street is Christian), that’s not what theocracy is. Again, theocracy is rule by religious authorities; even religiously motivated decisions in the US are ultimately made by lay people with little to no input from actual Christian clergy. Put another way, de facto theocracy would be a church or group of churches acting as kingmakers and consistently steering policy. That’s not what’s going on; Christianity in US governance, when it appears (outside of Utah where the Mormon Church does wield significant political power), is a solidly bottom-up phenomenon that doesn’t go through or depend on particular religious leaders. Rule by and for Christians, assuming it’s the case in the US—which again it’s not; America is ruled by capital regardless of its religion—would be exactly what we’d expect since Christians make up a solid supermajority of the population of America. Calling America a theocracy would be like calling Singapore (or another competitive autocracy) a monarchy; it’s wrong in both kind and degree.
Yeah it’s not like the majority of people in the wealthiest and most powerful parts of the world (and a plurality elsewhere) literally worship the guy.
Not really, no. America is unique among wealthy and powerful countires, it’s the only theocracy on the “west”, and it’s almost the only one where christians are majority. Except Vatican maybe.
I mean first theocracy implies rule by the clergy, which isn’t the case in America even de facto. The only theocracies in the world are Iran and the Vatican. That aside, 66% of EU citizens are Christian. The “our Christian way of life is under attack” rhetoric isn’t in any way unique to America, and there’s merit to tackling that on theological ground. For true believers (admittedly rare in the West), this can actually get them to change their minds about things.
It’s not the case in the US de jure, because there are several christian denominations working together and against each other, so there is no one official clergy. However, de facto the US is ruled by and for Christians, every important decision, almost every elected official, a lot of the laws, all of the customs revolve around Christianity and exclusively Christianity-related. It’s impossible to overstate how it’s not like that in every other western country. The two closest examples I can think of is Polland and Ireland, two traditionally very Christian countries, and even then it’s not even close to the levels of jesusness US exhibits.
When a EU citizen answers that they’re christian on a poll, more often than not they’re doing it because their parents did and that’s the extend of their religiocity.
Even assuming that’s true (which it’s not; absolutely nothing about Wall Street is Christian), that’s not what theocracy is. Again, theocracy is rule by religious authorities; even religiously motivated decisions in the US are ultimately made by lay people with little to no input from actual Christian clergy. Put another way, de facto theocracy would be a church or group of churches acting as kingmakers and consistently steering policy. That’s not what’s going on; Christianity in US governance, when it appears (outside of Utah where the Mormon Church does wield significant political power), is a solidly bottom-up phenomenon that doesn’t go through or depend on particular religious leaders. Rule by and for Christians, assuming it’s the case in the US—which again it’s not; America is ruled by capital regardless of its religion—would be exactly what we’d expect since Christians make up a solid supermajority of the population of America. Calling America a theocracy would be like calling Singapore (or another competitive autocracy) a monarchy; it’s wrong in both kind and degree.