In our 21st century way of thinking, theocracies *should* scare the sh** out of you. The only examples we have of them in recent times are absolutely brutal in their treatment of their citizens and have terrible records on human rights. If they have been benign at times, it has only been because the minions of the theocrats became lax, and the moment the citizens started enjoying satellite TV or the Internet too much, the oppression stick is brought back out.
However, looking back over our history, particularly in the West but also elsewhere, religion and government were intertwined at all levels. Secularism is a relatively recent development in our history, and even now religion and religious organizations have a substantial influence on our laws and how our governments behave. Over the long haul (now we're looking over many hundreds of years), religious revivals have taken place in Europe, North America, Asia, and elsewhere, not once but many times. To say that in the 56th-57th century that a religious revival would not take place somewhere and that by then we would have long since put away those traditions and shelved our faith as something that only primitive peoples hang on to flies in the face of everything we know about the long history of humanity--faith and organized religion don't go away, they evolve, and every so often someone introduces a new idea about them into the mix.
FYI: CoE was written such that you could see the Terrans as good guys, as bad guys, or as some mix that may be a bit of both. Also, if you look at the map of the Solomani Rim, what you have in the Terran Republic is a world that is recovering very nicely, surrounded by some high population worlds that are going to take many years to rebuild, and a whole lot of other systems that were essentially cemetery worlds. Indeed, the map of the Republic at first glance makes Terra look unstoppable. When you look closer, you see that Terra has reach, but it ain't no Regency, and unlike the RC, it doesn't have TL 16 friends to help them out. As such, it's not the juggernaut you might think it is.
However, looking back over our history, particularly in the West but also elsewhere, religion and government were intertwined at all levels. Secularism is a relatively recent development in our history, and even now religion and religious organizations have a substantial influence on our laws and how our governments behave. Over the long haul (now we're looking over many hundreds of years), religious revivals have taken place in Europe, North America, Asia, and elsewhere, not once but many times. To say that in the 56th-57th century that a religious revival would not take place somewhere and that by then we would have long since put away those traditions and shelved our faith as something that only primitive peoples hang on to flies in the face of everything we know about the long history of humanity--faith and organized religion don't go away, they evolve, and every so often someone introduces a new idea about them into the mix.
FYI: CoE was written such that you could see the Terrans as good guys, as bad guys, or as some mix that may be a bit of both. Also, if you look at the map of the Solomani Rim, what you have in the Terran Republic is a world that is recovering very nicely, surrounded by some high population worlds that are going to take many years to rebuild, and a whole lot of other systems that were essentially cemetery worlds. Indeed, the map of the Republic at first glance makes Terra look unstoppable. When you look closer, you see that Terra has reach, but it ain't no Regency, and unlike the RC, it doesn't have TL 16 friends to help them out. As such, it's not the juggernaut you might think it is.