If it walks like a duck....

At the new Faithful Democrats website, Randall Balmer has an excellent post which deserves your attention. Entitled "Theocracy", Balmer writes...

The thing I find most amusing about the leaders of the Religious Right these days is the way fly into an apoplectic fit anytime anyone mentions the word "theocracy."....

One has to wonder why a single word provokes such a dramatic response. Could it be that it strikes a nerve? Hmmm. The Religious Right passionately denies that it seeks a theocracy, of course, but my view of the matter is that it's appropriate to administer the duck test: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's almost certainly a duck.

The first step toward creating a theocracy is to eviscerate the First Amendment and to demolish the line of separation between church and state. And this, of course, brings our discussion full circle. If you seek to undermine the Baptist principles that have served this nation -- and the faith -- so well for more than two centuries, you begin by undermining the First Amendment.

Once you do that, you're well on your way to a theocracy.