This is an open-comment theology blog where I will post various theological musings, mostly in sermon or essay form, for others to read and comment on. If what I say here interests you, you may want to check out some of my books. Feel free to criticize, to critique, to comment, but keep comments to the point and respectful. Many of these posts have been published elsewhere, but I wanted them collected and made available to a wider audience.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Off-Topic: Egypt's Revolutions
I'm wary of stepping into politics on this blog, but this should be theoretical enough to keep things centered. The recent upheavals in Egypt reveal an important political turuth: democracy is not enough. The Founding Fathers of the United States were not unambiguous champions of democracy. They feared a "tyranny of the majority". That is why they set up a FEDERAL system. They checked majority rule with localized semi-autonomy. They also set up a CONSTITUTIONAL system that restricted the power of the democratically elected government. This constitution must have a LIMITING function, defining more what CANNOT be done than what MUST be done. The Egyptian constitution did not limit the power of the government, but buoyed it by codifying constitutionally the interests of the party elected into power in the moment. The constitution should've been written before any one party had been elected in, not after the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood. Freedom is harder than most people think. An unambiguous loyalty to democratic principles, at the expense of all other political concerns, is short sighted and counterproductive. Egyptians were right to resist Islamist hegemony, and the momentary instability is a risk worth taking, compared to the evils of a possible Islamist oligarch.
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