by Andrew Zuelke, Constitution Party of Wisconsin state chairman

After reading about Kentucky’s Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis refusing to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples, invoking her First Amendment rights, I read the usual absurd Internet postings “Separation of church and state” and “There go the Christians imposing their faith again.” But it was the online posting replies to presidential candidate Mike Huckabee speaking at a rally at her release from prison that I read this leftist rant: “Just more proof Huckabee and his ilk want to create a Christian theocracy.”

It reminded me of my 2014 campaign for Wisconsin state treasurer for the Constitution Party of Wisconsin (CPoW) and my participation in a candidate forum at Oshkosh’s City Cable 10 offices with another candidate. One of the moderators was Tony Palmeri, writer to a regional free paper. During the live forum, Palmeri told me he visited our party’s web site (www.constitutionpartyofwisconsin.com or cpowmilwaukeecounty.wordpress.com) and he asked me to explain our header: “We are a recognized political party in the state of Wisconsin, who proudly proclaims Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.”

He said between that and what he read in our “Who We Are” section that it sounded to him as though our party wanted a theocracy.

No matter what explanations I gave to prove that we Constitutionalists oppose theocratic rule, he continued challenging me, acting as though he “caught me” somehow. Remember, according to the left, when Christians express their faith in the public arena, we are “imposing our faith” and attempting to “establish a religion” in America. What this man saw as something horrible, openly proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Savior, CPoW members and candidates wear as a badge of honor. We don’t get embarrassed and try and silence our members when they talk about Jesus Christ like other parties do.

At the debate forum, there wasn’t enough time to fully expand on my and the Constitution Party’s opposition to theocracy, but now I can.

1) CPoW and the national Constitution Party supported a republican form of government from our very beginning as the U.S. Taxpayer’s Party. Our party literature, chairman’s letters, public speeches and our candidates support the original intent of the Founding Fathers including Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution which states, “The United States shall guarantee to every state in this Union a republican form of government.” Not a theocratic form of government, not a democracy but a republican government!

Part of being a Christian is having free will. Forcing people to convert to someone else’s faith under pain of death proves nothing. Give that person a choice and see if he comes to that faith willingly. God gives each of us the choice to worship Him and repent. I have always said faith is not real if it’s forced and that’s what a theocracy does, forces faith and worship.

Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.” Jesus didn’t say, “If you don’t open your door, I will enter in anyway and force My will on you.”

If we were trying to impose a theocracy, no references to God or Jesus would be anywhere on our web site or literature. We would hide our true intentions until we seized power. CPoW opposes religious tests for office. Theocrats support religious tests, don’t they?

2) Whose religion will be chosen as the official one? Lutheran, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist? The Christian faith has many different religious denominations and divisions within those (Lutherans have the Missouri, Wisconsin, ELCA Synods to name a few). How far could a theocracy get in America? No matter which denomination was declared the official Christian one, all the other denominations would oppose that denomination in favor of theirs.

To all the secular humanists who are screaming, “Separation of church and state!” anytime practicing Christians, especially ones in public life, invoke the name of Jesus Christ in public or dare to stand as lesser magistrates against ungodly, unconstitutional impositions on religious liberty, they have no clue how religious liberty has protected them. Yes, protected them! Are Muslims being forced to join a church? Are atheists being detained? Are Buddhists silenced? If we were a theocracy like under Henry the VIII and his Church of England or nations under Sharia Law today, these secular humanists would know it.

This brings me to the final insurmountable obstacle against a theocracy succeeding in America…

3) The American people will never stand for it! It’s easy to impose oppression and tyranny on a people who have never known anything else. Good luck trying to force theocratic rule on a people who grew up with a Bill of Rights, rule of law, and churches of numerous denominations peppered throughout the countryside.

First you would have to suppress all churches, mosques and synagogues and install government-sanctioned churches in their place. The real threat to American religious liberty is government intrusion into the churches, not the churches being anywhere near taking over the levers of government.

Let’s say the God-deniers and secularists are right and the Constitution Party is trying to impose a theocracy. Let’s say a future Constitution Party majority in the House and Senate and our party’s president declared a Christian theocracy and banned all expressions of faith outside of Christianity. Now no one can criticize the teachings of Christianity, using the name of God or Jesus Christ in vain would mean instant death and everyone is now required to attend church every Sunday. The American citizenry would righteously rise up with arms and cast our party’s elected leaders and officers in prison for treason as they should. Our party would be dismantled.

The secularist leftists will never stop trying to convince ignorant Americans that those whose faith in Jesus Christ extends from the churches and homes into their businesses and political life are the single greatest threat America faces and they must be driven from the public square. We Constitutionalists aren’t guaranteed victory if we stand against these ungodly forces. Our only guarantee in the fight for the Moral Order is defeat if we don’t fight back at all.

Andrew Zuelke is the State Chairman of the Constitution Party of Wisconsin and the Dodge/Fond du Lac CPoW Counties Chairman. The Constitution Party of Wisconsin is a totally pro-life, liberty and traditional marriage/values party whose goal is to get Godly constitutionally-minded people into office at the local, state and federal levels. CPoW officers and candidates will never compromise on either God’s word or the Constitution.

Constitution Party of Wisconsin
PO Box 070344
Milwaukee WI, 53207
www.constitutionpartyofwisconsin.com
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constitutionpartyofwisconsin [at] gmail [dot] com
608-561-7996