Christocrat (Christian + -ocrat)
The term “Christocrat” (Christian + -ocrat) has been used in Texas since at least 1994 and was popularized by the September 2006 profile of David Barton in Texas Monthly titled “King of the Christocrats.” Christocrats believe that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and that this should be reflected in public school textbooks, in the legislatures and in the courts.
Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) is said to have had this 1798 statement at his eulogy: “I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe all power … will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.”
An 1802 newspaper recorded a preacher who exclaimed: “I am no Democrat, I am no Aristocrat, but I am a CHRISTOCRAT.” It is not known if this preacher, if Benjamin Rush, or if someone else first used “Christocrat.” The term had been used sparing throughout American history until its revived use in the 1990s.
Urban Dictionary
Christocrat
a supporter of a Christian theocratic government
Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ted Haggard, and other assholes are bunch of Christocrats.
by RottingintheMidwest Mar 2, 2009
Wikipedia: Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Rush (December 24, 1745 – April 19, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States. Rush lived in the state of Pennsylvania and was a physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and a devout Christian, as well as the founder of Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Rush was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and attended the Continental Congress. He was also a staunch opponent of Gen. George Washington and worked tirelessly to have him removed as the Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army. Later in life, he became a professor of medical theory and clinical practice at the University of Pennsylvania. Despite having a wide influence on the development of American government, he is not as widely known as many of his American contemporaries. Rush was also an early opponent of slavery and capital punishment.
Despite his great contributions to early American society, Rush may be more famous today as the man who, in 1812, helped reconcile the friendship of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams by encouraging the two former Presidents to resume writing to each other.
21 August 1802, The Spectator (New York, NY), pg. 3:
As a preacher of the Gospel was lately exhibiting his oraoried powers in Washington City, he exclaimed, “I am no Democrat, I am no Aristocrat, but I am a CHRISTOCRAT.”
Google Books
An eulogium upon Benjamin Rush, M.D. professor of the institutes and practice of medicine and of clinical practice in the University of Pennsylvania. Who departed this life April 19, 1813, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Written at the request of the Medical Society of South Carolina, and delivered before them and others, in the Circular Church of Charleston, on the 10th of June, 1813, and pub. at their request.
By David Ramsay; Benjamin Rush
Philadelphia, PA: Bradford and Inskeep
New York, NY: Inskeep and Bradford
1813
Pg. 103:
In the year 1798 he thus expressed himself, in a letter to him who now addresses you: “I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe all power, whether hereditary or elective, will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.”
18 September 1994, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Religious right maps strategy Speakers assail `liberal’ media”:
Instead, he said, voters should look at candidates’ positions and consider themselves “Christocrats.”
Salon.com
Friday, Feb 13, 2004 19:02 EST
“A deficit of decency”
Following is the full text of remarks prepared for delivery on the Senate floor by Zell Miller, D-Ga. The remarks originally appeared on Miller’s Web site on Feb. 12.
(...)
By the way, Benjamin Rush was once asked a question that has long interested this Senator from Georgia in particular. Dr. Rush was asked, are you a democrat or an aristocrat? And the good doctor answered, “I am neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe He, alone, who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him.” That reply of Benjamin Rush is just as true today in the year of our Lord 2004 as it was in the year of our Lord 1776.
Access My Library
King of the Christocrats.(David Barton)
(Texas Monthly| September 01, 2006 | Blakeslee, Nate
Google Books
The Baptizing of America:
The religious right’s plan for the rest of us
By Arnold James Rudin
New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press
2006
Pg. 9:
In this book, I will use the term Christocrats to describe both the leaders and their followers who are committed to converting America into a Christocracy. I will also employ Christian conservatives to denote those individuals who are sympathetic to the Christocratic goal but are not actively involved in the campaign to baptize America.
Interesting, the word Christocrat is not new in American history. It was probably first used by Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813), a prominent Philadelphia physician and one of the fifty-six signators of the Declaration of Independence. Rush was a close friend and strong supporter of Thomas Jefferson. As a faithful Chistian, Rush used the term in a positive way declaring: “I have been alternatively called an Aristocrat and a Democrat. I am neither. I am a Christocrat.”
Pg. 10:
Despite Rush’s initial positive use of Christocrat, it has in recent years been used as a pejorative term to describe Christian zealots who are actively working to change American into a legally mandated faith-based nation, and that is how I will use Rush’s unique eighteenth-century term in this book.
Google Books
The Religious Right:
A reference handbook
3rd edition
By Glenn H. Utter and John Woodrow Storey
Millerton, NY: Grey House Pub.
2007.
Pg. 114:
Despite Parsley’s claim to be neither a Democrat nor a Republican, but a “Christocrat,” he tends to support political positions more favorable to the Republican agenda.
The Foundation Forum
FFQF: Benjamin Rush, ‘Christocrat’
Posted by: Hercules Mulligan on Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Founding Father Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence and “father of American education” (until about 100 years ago) brings things in perspective.
I have been alternately called an aristocrat and a democrat. I am now neither. I am a Christocrat. I believe all power … will always fail of producing order and happiness in the hands of man. He alone who created and redeemed man is qualified to govern him. David Ramsey, An Eulogium Upon Benjamin Rush, M. D., 1813, p. 103
SOURCE: Benjamin Rush: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, by David Barton