c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) In “Wealth and Democracy,” maverick political and economic thinker Kevin Phillips urged readers to consider how “plutocracy” _ from the Greek, meaning rule by the rich _ is a fitting characterization of our nation’s governance. His point was that money has become the driving force of government in the United States.

Three years later, in his 12th book, Phillips examines another powerful political motivator: religion.

This time, the richly experienced analyst approaches the subject with no irony. He bluntly calls this one “American Theocracy” and fills more than 400 pages with a blistering vision of the decline of the separation of church and state.

Theocracy means government by divine authority. Phillips argues that radical religious beliefs have penetrated the course of a nation whose founders intended its government to remain separate from whatever theology citizens embraced _ or not.

The theocrats, whom he describes as fundamentalist Protestants, Mormons, some Catholics and the most conservative Jews, find common ground in acceptance of their respective scripture as never-erring documents.

Many of these Christians also believe, Phillips says, that God has singled out and blessed an America situated on the brink of the end times.

The fallout of such views, so intensely asserted in so powerful a nation, can be profoundly undemocratic: An “enlightened” few dictate God’s authority on endless social, political, even scientific matters. This worldview also dismisses the sovereignty of other nations and environmental concerns. No worries about global warming if the universe has only a few years left.

To make his case, Phillips piles on details, with 2,000 years of historical analysis, recent polling results, references to a range of other scholars and U.S. Census data sliced and diced 10 ways to Sunday.

“By this point,” he writes, “the reader may feel baptized by statistical and denominational total immersion.”

Perseverance pays off in reading this challenging tome. It shows how the rising influence of religious fundamentalism, much of it growing from the old Confederate states, affects three key American practices: its gluttonous oil abuse, its electoral politics and its overreliance on debt.

Does that seem a lot to cover? It surely is. Maybe too much. As Phillips works his way through the rise and descent of Spain, Holland and Britain as world powers, he strains to connect his precedents across six centuries before he pauses to plunk down for a long trek through, say, the Mormon Church as a regional theocratic force.

Readers who stay the course will be rewarded with a new and compelling way to read between the lines of persistent conflicts in the daily news. Phillips’ thesis illuminates the fights between biologists and intelligent-design advocates, pro- and anti-abortion forces, America and the Middle Eastern Islamic lands (under which so much oil lies) and environmentalists and corporate capitalists.

“American Theocracy” doesn’t equivocate. It is a burning indictment of our political times, perhaps sometimes unfairly so. Phillips, a former Republican and onetime principal political strategist for Richard Nixon, insists that the place where he cut his political teeth has become “the first American religious party.”

Readers who can weather a dense journey will find lightning flashes of insight in “American Theocracy.”

MO PH END BENTAYOU

(Frank Bentayou covers religion and ethics for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. He can be contacted at books(at)plaind.com.)