Description


This article is from the Conservatism FAQ, by Jim Kalb kalb@aya.yale.edu with numerous contributions by others.

Why are conservatives such theocrats?

They aren't, in any sense that doesn't turn most pre-60s Western
states into theocracies. "Theocracy" normally means a state (an
Islamic republic would be an example) in which civil law and
authorities are formally subject to religious law and authorities.
There have been very few such states in the West, and conservatives
aren't interested in breaking new ground on the matter. They do tend
to recognize that government is based in the end on accepted
understandings of what man and the world are, and that strict
secularism, which insists that all social and moral order must be
based on human desire and choice, lacks the resources to sustain free government or even rationality. They therefore find it quite in order
for government to follow accepted religious understandings in
appropriate cases.