Carter's Law and Political Discussion

Joe Carter over at the Evangelical Outpost has formulated a law of arguement similar to Godwin's Law. Carter's Law of Political Rhetoric is:

As the number of religious conservatives expressing an opinion on a moral or political issue increases, the probability that someone on the political left will invoke the term “theocracy” approaches one.

Jow gives as examples Kevin Phillips' new book American Theocracy and Harper Magazine's piece on "The Christian Right's War on America".

I've noticed how many people have decided that President Bush's evangelical faith has ushered in a sort of theocracy in America. These are usually the same people who blissfully ignore Bill Clinton's and Jimmy Carter's evangelical faith -- evangelicalism is a pretty big tent, after all. What it comes down to, it seems, is that if you agree with someone's theology, it isn't a theocracy. When you disagree, it's a theocracy that threatens the very fabric of our Constitution.

The only Christians I know who are seeking a theocracy are the Christian Reconstructionists -- and they're a thankfully small group. I've mentioned them before. The rest of us know that only Christ can effect real, permanent change. While we will work for social change, we recognize that there's really only one way for that to happen.

Posted by Warren Kelly at April 17, 2006 12:21 PM | TrackBack