Back in time, rulers ruled with iron rods. By good fortune, some turned out good; bad fortune, some tyrants. We see theocratic good rulers bless their nations, but all in all, because of the complexities in human hearts, theocracy turns ugly with a political color sometime or the other.
Ashoka, was a great spiritual king, the story of a cruel and ruthless king who converted to Buddhism after the terrible War of Kalinga where he witnessed the horrors and inhumanity of war. He thereafter established a reign of virtue, goodness and tolerance.
It is a good for a world leader to be spiritual, pray and seek the good for his/her nation. Such a good king, one great king was King David who prayed a lot, compassionate, very spiritual, forgiving and brought Israel up in those days. But he struggled with theocracy and his spiritual life. He did fail sometimes. Yes, there was a lot of war those days which was their mode of protecting themselves; but this was never the original way of God. It came through a fallen system. King David was never given the chance to build the temple of God because he had a lot of blood on his hands.
The Jews thought Jesus had come to build a political kingdom and overthrow the Romans, but this was not so. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, My people would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now My kingdom is from another place.” Christianity was never meant to create a kingdom on Earth, but call people to the Kingdom of Heaven, eternal values had to keep them, not earthly ones for earthly values bind us to the mud and keep us petty, vengeful, and violent.
The Nazis too, have the same ideology, tried the ethnic cleaning of the Jews in Germany, birthed by Hitler proclaiming Germanic races as superior and Christian superiority. Now, the new rise of white supremacy again hits the world in terror waves again today. Realize, all this is pure evil.
Zionism mixed with Christianity is a political movement today. Before, the Arabs and the people from Judah lived together in peace, side by side. People see in the natural realm and fight for lands, not realizing the setting is also in the spiritual realm.. Leaders politicizing spiritual events is costing lives of precious people. Jesus said, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” He also told Peter to put down his sword, and He healed the soldier’s ear struck by Peter’s sword on the very night of His betrayal. If we cannot understand the heart of God, we lost everything!
Today, the Hindutva ideology in India is the same, coming in the form, endorsed by radicalized Hindu political leaders in India, some of them openly declaring ridding India of Muslims and Christians to establish their Hindu Rashtra. It is a militant movement wrapped in religion and politics, which brings on the violent colors of its movement today. Trying to suppress other people of different religions and even of different Hindu castes is the danger of this Hindutva ideology. In the end, India will be destroyed if the nation is torn apart by pens of deceit. The ethnicity, religions, and groups of India are too vast to be controlled into one religion.
We know the horror of the ISIS which killed thousands mercilessly and remember, it all started with a religious misplaced ideology of a group of fanatics. There are peaceful Muslims who believe the Twelfth Imam will come as ordained and they do not believe in violence….However, the wrong teaching by certain religious leaders brought in the violent wing on the other side. . The twelfth and final Imam is Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed by the Twelvers to be currently alive, and hidden in the Major Occultation until he returns to bring justice to the world. It is believed by Twelver Shia and Alevi Muslims that the Twelve Imams have been foretold in the Hadith of the Twelve Successors. In order to purge the world system and hasten his arrival, the kafirs are to be killed. Thus, the blowing up of innocent kafirs anywhere, started in greater intensity over the years silently endorsed by fanatical religious leaders.
Atheism is a form of belief that has also got mixed up in politics. In history, atheists slaughtered millions to wipe out religion: Stalin’s regime killed over 20 million Lenin regime killed 200,000 Mao Zedong slaughtered 55 million All because they hated religion There is aways a catch-22 situation in everything.
Dangers of Politicized Religious Leaders: 1. They think they are infallible. They proclaim they are the voice of God, but every human is fallible. As it is written: Jeremiah 17:9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? How can we trust a human who proclaims they are from God and can do anything in the name of their religion? Ambition and greed takes over and pollutes his/her heart. We see that easily today and in history. The Roman Catholic church dabbled with politics big-time in the early days resulting in the violent inquisitions over Europe and different parts of the world. Over 50, million Christians were killed, known as Protestants.
At the time when Rome was at the pinnacle of wickedness, a monk from the Roman Catholic Church called Savonarola, Florence, Italy, 1496-1498, rose up to help the people. The horrors of Rome and of the Roman Catholic Church gripped Savonarola to shock. It was through the help of Savonarola that the people were taught of a democratic government to overthrow the wicked tyrannical rule of the present government.
Later, the French Revolution was a revolt against the autocratic rule of pleasure-loving monarchs and also the Catholic Church, which ruled through a form of theocratic government, influenced by the Pope and his Bishops . The “common” people, the average citizen finally rose in revolt violently against the monarchic rule. No ruler, no matter how powerful can control the people forever because the Creator’s design has always given humans free will, free choice and this is an embedded natural right of the created! When we fight against the natural laws of nature, chaos escalates.
Give people their freedom and all will be well. Control them with strings and they will revolt one day. Cruelty, indifference to the poor, inequality, poverty, big gap between the rich and poor, enlightenment philosophy stirred this revolution explosively. It was a very violent revolution. Execution by guillotine began with the execution of the king in January 1793.
A total of 2,639 people were guillotined in Paris, most of them over nine months between autumn 1793 and summer 1794. Many more people (up to 50,000) were shot, or died of sickness in the prison. They overthrew the authority of the monarchy and the Catholic Rule through the Papacy, which became politicized. While the French Revolution did not lead immediately to a true democracy in France, it did help to bring about more democracy in France and in the world in general. …Liberty, fraternity, and equality was birthed through this revolution.” Today, we get much of our democratic ideas from that. However, it is terrible that this was birthed in a violence, but it only happened because a mono-theocratic government oppressed the people.
2. Religious groups legally radicalize their claims and in that get the license to do anything.They get their way of owning the courts. The courts feel obligated to sway in favor of them in lieu of their “power with God” and the “good” they will do for everyone. Perhaps, some are even bought. There is a superstition among people in authority that if they stand up against the religious leader, something bad will happen to them. The courts in those countries are silent. Once the courts are bought, justice is denied. Justice denied will cause the rise of a new generation of terrorists, leaders, remember this!
3. In religious rules, people are initially silent because of fear because the intimidation is far greater. Fear of the governments, the courts, prison, murder, and rights snatched away. But this silence finally bursts forth like a dam. If a country is silenced and suppressed for long, one day, the dam will break open and the damage will be cathartic. See nations that rose after the iron curtain was lifted. The iron curtain cannot remain closed forever. Thus, the reaction will outweigh the theocratic rule and suppression of that season.
So a political leader can be spiritual but a spiritual leader can never be political. The religious leader is more deceived because in believing he is the voice of God, he never takes correction. If we belong to God, we will value lives and not murder in cold blood, advocate war or killing endlessly.
Rita
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