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> The US is a "light theocracy". That's not remotely close to being true. The US has among the strongest separation of church and state laws of any nations and

> The US is a "light theocracy". That's not remotely close to being true. The US has among the strongest separation of church and state laws of any nations and they're well protected decade after decade. If the US were actually a light theocracy, the conservative majority Supreme Court would wreck the US promptly with crazy theocratic changes that would make Iran blush. It was the first nation in history to explicitly codify such a strict separation in its constitution as well. Those separation lines have, on average, been made stronger over time. You can dislike the Christian culture that exists in the US, certainly. It hasn't made any consequential inroads into state in two centuries, in fact the opposite is the case: Christianity (and religion more broadly) has been pushed back out of US life in numerous significant ways (and properly so; eg: gay marriage, abortion rights, making it illegal to discriminate based on religion, acceptance and ease of divorce, sunday alcohol sales & business activity, drug legalization laws, press dominance and positioning (the press is ~95% left-leaning now and very much not religious in nature)). That there have been occasional set-backs in things such as abortion rights, doesn't nullify the overall point. Religion has been losing political and cultural ground in the US for a long time and that's likely to continue. Religion used to dominate US life and heavily factor into US politics, as recently as the post war 1950s-1980s era, and that is no longer the case (the left for example is drastically less religious than it was just 40-50 years ago).

rat9988 5y ago
I'm not sure you disproved his point. You disproved it was a theocracy which no one has argued.
KyeRussell 5y ago
The fact that religion is losing ground doesn’t make the point any less true. I do not live in the US. Looking in from outside, it’s obvious that religion plays a material part in lawmaking, including maintaining a status quo that is increasingly untenable. Of course, you need to read between the lines. Even though it is becoming increasingly hard to do so, the US obviously relies on historical prestige to get away with saying one thing (“separation of church and state!” being drilled in to all kids as part of their Freedom Class) and doing another.
devmor 5y ago
The fact that the US has strong separation of church and state laws is what prevents us from being a true theocracy. It doesn't disprove my point whatsoever. The fact that the vast majority of politicians that get elected talk about doing what they do in the name of God more than shows that. Or try growing up in a small country town as one of the only families that don't attend church service. Until you've been suspended public school for "spreading Satanism" because you said church sounds boring, you haven't experienced the same America as the rest of us.
felipellrocha 5y ago
Laws don’t mean anything unless they’re enforced. You proved we’re not a hard democracy, but haven’t proven we’re not a soft democracy, per OP’s point.

rat9988 5y ago

I'm not sure you disproved his point. You disproved it was a theocracy which no one has argued.

KyeRussell 5y ago

The fact that religion is losing ground doesn’t make the point any less true. I do not live in the US. Looking in from outside, it’s obvious that religion plays a material part in lawmaking, including maintaining a status quo that is increasingly untenable. Of course, you need to read between the lines. Even though it is becoming increasingly hard to do so, the US obviously relies on historical prestige to get away with saying one thing (“separation of church and state!” being drilled in to all kids as part of their Freedom Class) and doing another.

devmor 5y ago

The fact that the US has strong separation of church and state laws is what prevents us from being a true theocracy. It doesn't disprove my point whatsoever. The fact that the vast majority of politicians that get elected talk about doing what they do in the name of God more than shows that. Or try growing up in a small country town as one of the only families that don't attend church service. Until you've been suspended public school for "spreading Satanism" because you said church sounds boring, you haven't experienced the same America as the rest of us.

felipellrocha 5y ago

Laws don’t mean anything unless they’re enforced. You proved we’re not a hard democracy, but haven’t proven we’re not a soft democracy, per OP’s point.