Democracy - Should Christians Support it?

As the latest Australian election dims into the distance and the electorate celebrate the end of a largely uninteresting and dirty campaign from both sides of politics, I reflected on an email received last week from a good friend who is a Muslim leader in Melbourne:

With their bag of dirty tricks, the Liberals have really upset me this time and I feel compelled to add my bit!

Jackie Kelly is saying this matter is all a big joke and is blown out of proportion! A joke! Someone in Liberal chain of command must have commissioned the design, authorised funds to print and directed the distribution of this 'unauthorised' pamphlet. Why would volunteers be directed to distribute the brochure, using up valuable time in the last days before the election, for a joke?

I've had a gut full Liberal lies, deceit, and disdain for justice. Lies about unsanctioned war in Iraq and WMDs, children overboard scandal, GST, AWB, treatment of refugees with indignity & the Pacific Solution, arrogant treatment of Aborigines, ramming through laws without effective judicial review, apathy about climate crisis and environment, contempt for worker's rights, peddling fear, sly deals on uranium, etc, etc. These sins must be dealt with!

When voting, I urge people to have justice, truth and a global view in mind. Don't vote Liberal! (or National or for Pauline and the like).

On the spur of the moment, without much thought, I shot off a reply in which I said:

Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuhu

The question is not whether Liberal or Labour are lying - they both are and I won't be voting for either - the question is whether God is being given glory or not. Ultimately that is the only question that is necessary in anybody's life.

As I see it there are no major parties which are glorifying God - Liberal, Labour, National, Green, Democrat, etc etc. The worst sin of Israel was to ask God for a King - thereby supplanting Him from His rightful place as King over them and replacing Him with a man. In many ways we do no better in propagating democracy around the world. Man empowering man to make decisions reserved for God.

We live in times reminiscent of the last days of the Judges of Israel where "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 17:6; 21:25 The democracy we promote is responsible for the indoctrination of humanism into our society. Don't just not vote Liberal - don't vote for any party that does not glorify God.

That was my gut instinct reaction to what was written but it started me thinking more and more about democracy and how it actually fits in with faith and God's plans.

Let me state 2 things up front:

1. I find nothing Biblical about democracy. That is not to say that it is anti-biblical, just that democracy itself is not found in the Bible. Monarchies, oligarchies, timarchies and theocracy are all found in the bible but not democracy.

2. As I wrote in my reply I will reiterate here - Israel's great sin was to ask God to replace himself with a man King. Man wanted to rule himself. Without getting into a debate about the separation of church and state I believe there are parallels here.

Looking specifically at the word democracy it has it's origins in the Greek word demokratia (δημοκρατία) which means 'rule by the people' (demos - people (many) and kratos – rule/power). Whilst many look to the Greek city-states in 5BC as the birthplace of direct democracy, forms of democracy date back to the Sumerian's (Mesopotamia) and ancient Indus valley civilisations where the panchayat model of democracy continue to operate today at a village level. So the word 'democracy' affirms the rule of man and the origins of democracy, which ever place you credit it to, are in an idolatrous culture.

The various forms of democracy as we know it today began evolving through the rise of democratic parliaments in England and Scotland in the early 13^th century. However it was the during the Renaissance that democracy came to be both the embodiment of and evangelist for humanism. Prior to the Renaissance religion had been the dominant force for over one thousand years. The humanist philosophers of the Renaissance era looked for secular principals on which to organise society and found democracy in the ancient Greek literature. Since this time democracy has been associated with the progression of human rights.

Let me pause here and reflect on what democracy was and has become. It was a form of rule developed by man apart from God to legitimise his authority over himself. It has developed to become the propagation tool of humanism through the rallying cry of human rights. Whilst I do not deny the need for and legitimacy of universal human rights, I do not believe the basis of those rights can be found in the minds of men. Above and beyond the rights of man are the rights of God. However man continues to do as he has done since the time of Adam and sets himself up as the authority on life, the universe and everything. Human rule is not wrong 'per se' but when human rule tries to extend into the authority of God it becomes idolatrous. Anything that is considered a higher authority than God is idolatrous.

Given the origins and current understanding of democracy, two questions are raised in my mind concerning Christians and our relation to democracy.

1. Should Christians be supporting the ideology and propagation of democracy?

2. Is there any place in modern church governance for democracy?

In regards to the former, I think most Christians in the west have been so acculturated by humanistic democracy that no thought is given to it's legitimacy. Since the beginning of the 20^th Century democracy has been seen as the desirable alternative to, at various stages facism, communism, monarchies, and more recently Islamic theocracy. An us or them mentality has arisen where the least worst option has become the accepted form of civilisation.

We certainly see evidence of the rise of humanistic philosophy within the Christian community. Faith has become about what God has done for me, rather than how God's undeserved grace towards me glorifies himself. Church has become about whether or not I felt touched by God or whether God spoke to me through the message, rather than simply coming together to celebrate his greatness and give him glory. It is no wonder then that we see democracy as being the means for everyone to have the freedom to say to God – bless me.

But is there a better alternative that we, immersed in our humanistic mindsets, have become blinded to?

With regards to the place of democracy within church governance we find the congregational model of polity is closest in form to democracy. This form of polity though is acknowledged even by it's proponents as not having it's roots in scripture. It was developed as a reaction against the corruption of the prevailing polity of the time – the episcopal polity. So even within Christendom the rise of democratic church governance did not come about through God's word. Rather it was a human invention.

Of the models of church governance found in the New Testament, none of them are democratic in ideology. However if you hold a cessationist position on the gifts of the Holy Spirit then you will by very definition deny the model of church governance put forth in scripture and seek to replace it with one of mans own design.

I have only scratched the philosophical and theological surface here and another day will delve deeper into this.