Is Modern Theocracy Possible?

Note: See my follow-up post.

The title of this post needs some explanation, since modern theocracy is not only possible but actually exists in the state of Iran. My question is more: is modern theocracy possible in first world countries?

My suspicion is that many Neopagans would answer in the affirmative; my further suspicion is that this answer would be driven almost entirely by worries about right-wing judges overturning Roe v. Wade, thus reopening more restrictive legislation on abortion than has existed the past four decades.

There can be no doubt that the pro-life movement at present consists almost entirely of Christians, often backed by explicit theological justification ("all life is sacred"). In the meantime, however, I want to note that it seems a bit silly to say that the U.S. would become a theocracy if Christians succeeded in stacking SCOTUS and overturning Roe v. Wade. At worst, it would mean that a single political issue has been won for people who base their stand on religious convictions. Now that certainly raises the specter of theocracy for some, but Iran it is not. Furthermore, abortion laws would probably remain almost entirely unchanged except for a very few states, where the state Supreme Courts there would likely overthrow or curtail excessively strict laws.

Overall, however, could the U.S. become Iran? I would submit that while there are forces in U.S. politics that would certainly like to impose Christian values more strongly on the population at large, there are such strong impediments to this, even within the GOP, that it is not really within the realm of possibility. I would go so far as to say that a country run by a GOP president and Congress over several terms would not bring us any closer to a theocracy.

Why am I so confident here? The most important reason I have is that demographically the U.S. is becoming less Christian with each passing year. In twenty years, I predict that social conservatives will have even less influence than they do in the Republican party today, as this last bastion of Christendom, tottering at it already is, collapses for lack of foundations.

Social conservatism has no real future here in the U.S. The Republican and Democratic parties will continue to converge on social issues, even abortion (though that will be very late coming), until the primary issues are the ones we are seeing this election cycle: fiscal, foreign policy, and the scope of government.

I bring up this topic because I am disturbed by the way Neopagans, like leftists in general, really fly off the handle when it comes to the influence of Christians in the political marketplace. (In fact, leftists in general seem to fly off the handle on just about everything, but that's a rant for another day.)

While I believe that social libertarianism is the correct stance to take in a modern pluralist society, we are, after all, a republic, and if 100% of Americans decided that abortion was wrong tomorrow, and SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade, I don't think we would have a theocracy, any more than we had a theocracy in 1850 when the vast majority of Americans were Christian. But of course we are a democracy, we are not really a Christian state anymore, and there are such strong safeguards against a small minority imposing their will on religious issues that there really is no danger that the U.S. will become anything close to a second Iran.

I suppose my purpose here is to reassure my fellow Neopagans out there, to ask them to cool their jets a bit. You can relax! Secularism has won, even in the U.S.!