Nineteen Butler County faith leaders and 16 other clergy from outside the county sent a letter "of concern" to the Commissioners of Butler County, the Sheriff's Office, and the general public to speak about how two of their congregation members were detained at Butler County Jail (with one of the two later deported).

In only one sentence throughout the entire seven-paragraph letter do they raise any "concern" about how detainees are being treated. The rest of the letter is spent sympathizing with fascism, imperialism, and colonialism.

Theocracy — the fusion of religious authority and political power — has resurfaced as a potent force in American public life. Though the First Amendment famously calls for a separation of church and state, today's Christian nationalist movement presses ever harder against that barrier, seeking to remake U.S. democracy in the image of a "divinely ordained" and "morally correct" republic. These theocratic impulses threaten both our democratic institutions and the possibility of a unified working class struggle. In order to better understand theocracy, it is necessary to first understand its history. And to resist it, we must organize for a secular and socialist future.