I'm a Christian and a Tea Partier.  Obviously I want to overthrow America's constitutional government and replace it with an oppressive theocracy.

Or so the progressive left tells me.

I encounter this accusation often, as wild-eyed MSNBC anchors shout it toward their cameras, increasingly silly columnists write it in the New York Times, and my own acquaintances say it in our political conversations.  I don't know if these people actually believe their rhetoric or if they're simply trying to scare others away from all things Tea Party and religious.  I suspect that it's a combination of both.  Regardless, I can't help but chuckle at the irony my friends on the left are simply too partisan (devout?) to notice.

The Tea Party is a small-government movement that supports freedom of religion, not the establishment of one.  I -- and many Christians like me -- believe in the maximum freedom possible under the minimum government required to protect us and our property.  This type of system bears no resemblance to a theocracy, which is based on strict and specific religious code.  It is God's -- not government's -- role to teach us right and wrong and our role to live by His standards.  This is best done in a free society without government intervention wherever possible.

Now -- what type of system does the left support, especially those most vocal against the supposed theocratic Tea Partiers?

Massive, centralized command-and-control, of course.

In a town hall meeting in 2010, Representative Pete Stark (D-CA) said that the federal government "can do most anything in this country."  In other words, it is Almighty.

This basic view of government -- that it should wield unlimited power over every aspect of its citizens' lives -- is the opposite of the Founders' intention for We the People to largely self-govern as free individuals.  But the left brazenly advances the Almighty version instead, wanting and expecting government to address all societal ills (both real and imagined), acting as America's Provider, Comforter, Father, Hope, Foundation, Great Physician, Owner of All Things, Judge, One and Only Savior, and Ruler, who is the Beginning of All Wisdom and Worthy of All Praise.

Does anything strike you about that list of attributes?  Might they be used to describe someone else -- such as the actual Almighty?

So while the Tea Party advances small-government principles, wanting to leave citizens free to make their own decisions and reap the benefits or suffer the consequences accordingly, the left pursues a system of big-government command and control.  They then turn around and accuse the small-government Christian Tea Partiers of attempting to impose a theocracy in America, when it is the left's plan that is often indistinguishable from theocratic rule.

Furthermore, though many of them are secularists, they serve their plan with a religious fervor that surpasses that of Pat Robertson.  They are 100% faithful to their big-government doctrine and committed to silencing all heretics -- pointing their fingers at their political opposition, condemning them as evil.  In my latest book, Saving America, I call these fanatical statists "Big-Government Disciples" and argue that they are erecting a kind of secular theocracy in which government is god, ascribing to it all the attributes listed above that typically are used to describe the True God.

So what happens if the Big-Government Disciples ultimately get their way?  What does it mean for the rest of society if the government succeeds in a taking over of every aspect of our lives and fully controlling, for example, the distribution of health care and energy (a goal that is dangerously close to being met)?

Easy: we become their servants.

Freedom of choice, thought, and expression will vanish completely.  We will all be forced to worship at the altar of their secular theocracy, serving it in the manner it commands -- or suffer its wrath.  The only people this benefits are the elitists who hold the reins of power, making the rules for the rest of us (which they themselves will never follow).

If the Tea Partiers get our small-government way, though, the opposite will result.  All Americans will be free to live their lives according to their consciences, worshiping whomever (or whatever) they want, including no one or nothing.  Americans will not be forced to obey someone else's earthly commands, except those that protect the unalienable rights of others.

So, as a Christian Tea Partier, I stand committed to restoring the constitutional small-government system that will re-liberate my fellow Americans and protect them from those who actually want to overthrow our constitutional government and replace it with an oppressive theocracy.  May freedom-lovers everywhere unite to defeat the Big-Government Disciples and dismantle their secular theocracy before they grow powerful enough to execute a Judgment Day on us all.

Jonathan Wakefield is a Tea Party leader and the author of Saving America: A Christian Perspective of the Tea Party Movement. Visit his website teapartyforchristians.com.