Theocratic America

So I've got this idea in my head about setting a story in an alternate America that resembles some of our modern culture, but in which America is a theocracy.

Obviously to get something like this to even happen it would require a pre-1900 POD.

My vague idea has the alt-colonies setting up a theocratic union after breaking away from an England that has gone through a secular, anti-monarchist revolution. In the weakened state, England can't prevent the colonies from rebelling (essentially, the colonies reject the anti-theism of the "new England".

My ultimate goal would be to have this theocracy stretch from the Atlantic to the Rockies. On the West Coast, a separate state would exist that is in some ways the antithesis of the theocracy....a secular state that allows for religious freedom and is a safe haven for those in the theocracy who tire of persecution.

This is just kind of a rough sketch of what I've got rolling around in my head. The story itself would take place in California, and the main character would be the son of the theocracy's ambassador to that region, and would basically be about him reassessing all that he's been raised to believe now that he's outside the cacoon that the theocracy has essentially created around most of it's citizens.

I realize that this isn't the most believable kind of POD/timeline, but it fits the needs of the story I'm wanting to write, better than keeping the setting really vague (I dislike stories like that for the most part).

So, any thoughts or suggestions?
 

MAlexMatt

Banned
This would be...difficult. When America was religious enough to seriously consider theocracy (Like several New England states more or less were), it was too religiously diverse to establish one on a national stage. When these differences were unimportant enough for one to be established nationally, a theocracy wasn't a serious possibility.
 
Oh it totally agree that it would not be an easy thing to pull off.
The changes would have to come in the early days of colonization. Plus, I do see a lot of religious refugeses fleeing to America from England after its revolution.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Obviously to get something like this to even happen it would require a pre-1900 POD.

Part of me wonders whether a post-1900 POD might actually be more likely to achieve such a thing. Perhaps some sort of populist pseudofascist movement combined with religious extremism during the Great Depression.
 

Jasen777

Donor
Part of me wonders whether a post-1900 POD might actually be more likely to achieve such a thing. Perhaps some sort of populist pseudofascist movement combined with religious extremism during the Great Depression.

That seems like the best chance to me as well. The Great Depressionwould have to be much worse.
 
Part of me wonders whether a post-1900 POD might actually be more likely to achieve such a thing. Perhaps some sort of populist pseudofascist movement combined with religious extremism during the Great Depression.

It's possible, but would it result in an independent California at that point? And my idea that I'm flirting around with would be having some sort of Church of North America who's head would have some sort of senior role in the government, with real authority, at least through the early 1900s.....this would be unlikely in the event of a religious-fascist movement out of the Great Depression.
 
Sometimes with Americas that are funhouse images of modern America, its best not to worry about your POD too much. Realism isn't really the point anyway.
 
Sometimes with Americas that are funhouse images of modern America, its best not to worry about your POD too much. Realism isn't really the point anyway.

True, and in the end I may. But I tend to dislike books/stories that are set in what is obviously an AH but essentially ignore their setting and focus entirely on the story. I don't want to drown the story in background details, but I like details to be there.
 
So I've got this idea in my head about setting a story in an alternate America that resembles some of our modern culture, but in which America is a theocracy.

Obviously to get something like this to even happen it would require a pre-1900 POD.

My vague idea has the alt-colonies setting up a theocratic union after breaking away from an England that has gone through a secular, anti-monarchist revolution. In the weakened state, England can't prevent the colonies from rebelling (essentially, the colonies reject the anti-theism of the "new England".

My ultimate goal would be to have this theocracy stretch from the Atlantic to the Rockies. On the West Coast, a separate state would exist that is in some ways the antithesis of the theocracy....a secular state that allows for religious freedom and is a safe haven for those in the theocracy who tire of persecution.

This is just kind of a rough sketch of what I've got rolling around in my head. The story itself would take place in California, and the main character would be the son of the theocracy's ambassador to that region, and would basically be about him reassessing all that he's been raised to believe now that he's outside the cacoon that the theocracy has essentially created around most of it's citizens.

I realize that this isn't the most believable kind of POD/timeline, but it fits the needs of the story I'm wanting to write, better than keeping the setting really vague (I dislike stories like that for the most part).

So, any thoughts or suggestions?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid's_Tale

The basic premise is that the US Congress is assasinated by terrorists, as the the President and the Cabinet. A group of exteme conservative military officers takes charge and renames the nation the Republic of Gilliad, banning women from having jobs, holding property and even reading.

The country collapses into civil war with Detroit under siege by government forces.
 
What about states about Ontariao size, each state is ruled by a fifferent religion that is semi-autonomous, they meet in Leberty City--some city in the middle of nowhere in Knasas or around there, built jut ofor the capitol.
 
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