Democracy requires public speech, open debate of the issues. To bar the American public from an event with policy speeches by the leaders of the Republican and Democratic Parties might seem unthinkable at present. In Australia the practice seems uncontroversial. The Australian Christian Lobby, of course, denies seeking to impose theocracy. As the ACL web site currently states,

The vision of the ACL is to see Christian principles and ethics accepted and influencing the way we are governed, do business and relate to each other as a community.

There is no sense in this vision of our wishing to see Australia a theocracy, but merely wanting to reestablish the rightful influence of those who believe in our Christian heritage.

Despite that disavowal, the ACL functions as a political lobby, to promote Christian politicians of the proper sort. And politicians do not wield "influence." They wield power - the ability to craft and pass binding legislation that becomes the law of the land. So the Australian Christian Lobby's claim is hollow. The objective isn't "influence," it's power: political supremacy, dominion.

Now let's look at the United States.

In a January 2005 interview with the Washington Times concerning church/state separation President George W. Bush stated, "I don't see how you can be president, at least from my perspective, how you can be president without a relationship with the Lord." Bush's statement seemed to imply non-Christians were unfit to lead the nation.  

But it wasn't merely about words. There was policy bite as well. Over the course of his presidency George W. Bush's Faith Based Initiative provided hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars, for social services to Christian churches and nonprofits that could legally discriminate against non-Christians and did (in one notorious case the New York branch of the Salvation Army, which receives publicly funds, purged its gay, Jewish, and non-Christian employees.)

In the lead up to the 2008 US presidential election John McCain declared America was a "Christian nation." Right-wing pastor Rick Warren, who has stated his opposition to gay marriage and legalized abortion is "non-negotiable" and has publicly praised the dedication of the followers of Hitler, Lenin, and Mao, gave the opening prayer at President Obama's inauguration. During the campaign Obama and McCain participated in a debate hosted by Rick Warren's Saddleback Church.

The event was fully pubic, and it likely would have provoked a firestorm of controversy had the broadcast of the Saddleback Church debate been restricted to Christian churches. But, nonetheless, many American citizens who were atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, or moderate Christians no doubt felt excluded and the fact that Obama and McCain considered it acceptable, in the first place, to hold a major presidential debate in a heavily sectarian Christian church was in itself troubling.

The deeper problem goes beyond these examples, the Saddleback Church debate or the Australian Christian Lobby's Monday event, or even the general privileging of evangelical Christianity seen in the American examples above. The deeper problem is the lack of push back, the lack of public outrage. Pandering and tacit endorsement of sectarian forms of Christianity are the early stages in the creep towards theocratic or theonomic Christian nationalism and can seem more or less harmless in the early stages. But Monday's Australian Christian Lobby event provides a hint of where that process may lead - to outright discrimination and the gradually stripping of citizenship right from non-Christians and even from the "wrong" sorts of Christians as well.

Caveat Emptor.

[note: Australian Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd was just unseated by Julia Gillard, who will now lead the part but has indicated she will pursue the same policies as Rudd]