The Middle East conflict reflects competing theocratic mindsets in Iran, Israel and the US, where religious conviction is being used to justify violence.

What is driving the current Middle East conflict, causing untold pain and destruction to those in the firing line and unprecedented global disruption to the rest of us? Is it possible that the contestants, Iran on one side and the USA/Israel on the other, sing from the same song sheet? Although polar opposite, their values appear driven by theocratic mindsets which not only permit, but honour violence as a tool of enforcement. Are they in fact competitors for theocratic dominance?

That Iran is a theocracy is not debatable. From its belief system, its citizens experience suppression of female rights, imposition of Sharia Law, and punishment of those who do not comply. It considers freedoms enjoyed in western culture to be a debasement of their understanding of what it means to be a child of God. In Iran there is no separation of religion and politics, indeed politics exists to enforce religious belief.

The constitution of most so-called Christian countries was formulated with a separation of politics and religion. In a Christian framework the role of faith is not to govern, or to seek preference, but to be the teacher’s teaching. In other words, the mission of Christians in any community is to be agents of Christ’s transformative love, grace and........

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