Michele Bachmann

Meet The Religious Right Extremists Behind The Pro-Bachmann Super PAC

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 8/18/2011 11:37 am

A secretive ‘Super PAC’ tied to an Ohio political operative is planning to aid congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign after working to defeat South Carolina congressman John Spratt in the last midterm election. Chris Cillizza writes that “Citizens for a Working America, as the group is known, will be chaired by former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Ed Brookover, a longtime political consultant and adviser to Bachmann, will be involved as will conservative lawyer and economist Marc Nuttle.”

Ken Blackwell’s ties to the Religious Right are well known, but Nuttle’s activism has flown below the radar.

Blackwell was Ohio’s Secretary of State from 2002-2006 whom after leaving office, unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2006 and chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2009. He is now a senior fellow with the ultraconservative Family Research Council, a senior fellow with the far-right American Civil Rights Union, and a board member the pro-corporate Club for Growth. Columbus-based televangelist Rod Parsley vigorously backed his failed gubernatorial campaign and Religious Right activists endorsed his abortive bid for RNC chair. His staunchly anti-gay views will serve him well in the Bachmann camp, as Blackwell once compared gay people with arsonists and kleptomaniacs and same-sex couples with farm animals.

Nuttle is a Republican adviser and economist with deep ties to an extreme movement within the Religious Right composed of advocates of Seven Mountains Dominionism. Nuttle is in fact Chairman of The Oak Initiative, a far-right organization dedicated to promoting the Seven Mountains ideology. The group claims in its mission statement, “The Oak Institute is being developed to raise up effective leaders for all of the dominant areas of influence in the culture, including: government, business, education, arts and entertainment, family services, media, and the church,” otherwise known as the Seven Mountains of society that Dominionists think should be controlled by fundamentalist Christians.

The Oak Initiative’s president Rick Joyner, the founder of MorningStar Ministries, has claimed that God is planning to destroy California and that God used Hurricane Katrina to punish America for tolerating homosexuality. The Oak Initiative’s board is filled with leading proponents of Seven Mountains Dominionism, including Jerry Boykin, Janet Porter, Lance Wallnau and self-proclaimed prophet Cindy Jacobs. Lou Sheldon, the head of the Traditional Values Coalition who described LGBT activism as “the very face of evil,” is also a board member.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council (Blackwell’s boss) and 2000 GOP presidential candidate Alan Keyes addressed the Oak Initiative’s 2011 Summit alongside Nuttle, where Perkins called gays and lesbians “hateful” people who are “pawns” of Satan and Keyes urged Congress to impeach President Obama before he seizes power with the help of foreign countries. At the Summit, Boykin said that Obama is creating his own Brownshirt army to usher in Marxism and Joyner suggested that a secretive cabal crashed the economy to help Obama win the presidential election.

Nuttle spoke to Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries on how to “apply proper biblical principles to the marketplace and the workforce” and that God “has a plan and a solution for this current world crisis we find ourselves in.” Nuttle said that people “don’t have to figure” out all the economic solutions, “all you have to do is be obedient” to God. He also claimed that the United States is the only country with a government subservient to God: “Every other government in the world is some sort of government authority, it’s a dictatorship, or Islam where government is God, or where the dictator is God, or the Constitution is God, over the constituents.” Nuttle argued that “the fight is against the 30% [of politicians] who don’t care” about the decline of the economy, “because then there’s more room for government. Government’s what they want, socialism is the goal.” He ended his speech by saying, “lock your shields with each other against the enemy.” 

Earlier this year he addressed Liberty University’s Awakening 2011, the Religious Right political event hosted by Mat Staver of the LU-affiliate Liberty Counsel. Nuttle also appeared on God Knows with Jacobs, where he shared with the 'Prophet' his plan to solve the nation’s debt troubles.

As heads of the pro-Bachmann Super PAC, Blackwell and Nuttle will surely help Bachmann link her far-right economic views with her deep-seated social conservative activism.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 8/17/2011 5:51 pm
  • I don't see how anything Liberty University says here in any way changes the fact that the school is one of the leading recipients of federal aid in the form of student loans.

  • FRC reports that Michele Bachmann has been confirmed as a speaker at the next Values Voter Summit.

  • I almost want to see Michele Bachmann become president just to watch her try and fulfill her promise to get gasoline under $2 a gallon.

  • Finally, the fact that one of Bachmann's staffers was arrested for terrorism in Uganda seems like it might be a big deal.

  • Liberty Counsel says schools ought to be able to block websites for gay organizations because they are just trying to "force school to be purveyors of their immorality."

  • Finally, it seems that members of the band Sugarland were saved from the Indiana State Fair stage collapse tragedy by their prayer circle.

Fischer: Bachmann Can Run For President Because Her Husband Gave Her Permission

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 8/17/2011 1:54 pm

You have to wonder why Bryan Fischer is writing posts defending the fact that Michele Bachmann is running for president when he has already stated that God has put men in charge of everything and doesn't want women as leaders. 

But he is so that he can explain that marriage is not a democracy and God intended men always have the last say on everything.  And so if Michele Bachmann is running for president, it is only because her husband has given her permission to do so ... and, by doing so, she is really submitting to her husband's will: 

She demonstrates her reverence for Christ by not challenging her husband’s leadership in their home but by supporting him and working with him to help him succeed in shaping and directing the life of their marriage and family.

How does a husband submit himself to his wife? Husbands are told to “love your wives, as Christ love the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25). That is, he submits himself to his wife, not by giving up his headship, but by refusing to use it simply as an excuse to get his own way, or as a cloak for his own selfishness. He submits himself to his wife by making a determination to use the authority God has given him in his home to give his wife and children what they need rather than to get what he wants. He exercises his headship by laying down his life, laying down his self-centered interests, in order to do what is best for his wife.

Marriage is not and can never be a democracy. Somebody has to have the tie-breaking vote when the poll reveals a one-to-one tie. In a Christian marriage, the husband is the tie breaker. The way it is designed to work is that a wife willingly defers to her husband on those rare occasions when they cannot agree on a course of action, and the husband makes the decision that his conscience tells him is best, not for himself, but for her, their marriage, and their home.

If a husband believes before God that the best decision in a given situation is different than the one his wife prefers, he does not order her to follow him, he asks her to. He asks her to defer to him and follow his lead. The decision is then up to her. He’s not forcing her to do anything. He leaves the issue squarely where it belongs, between her and her God.

Now back to the Bachmanns. Ms. Bachmann’s husband Marcus urged her to run for the White House, and enthusiastically and without reserve supports her in her campaign. Bottom line: Horror of horrors to our leftwing friends, Michele Bachmann is in fact submitting to her husband by running for president.

A few weeks back, Fischer mentioned on his radio program that he had actually lost two preaching positions in his career for talking a Biblical stance on the role of women in the church and at home. 

I cannot imagine why. 

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 8/15/2011 5:42 pm
  • Following a poor showing in Iowa, Tim Pawlenty dropped out of the presidential race.

  • Apparently, the fact that he had back surgery is somehow going to help Rick Perry attack healthcare reform ... or something.

  • Richard Viguerie hasn't liked any GOP candidate for a long time, but he likes Rick Perry.

  • WorldNetDaily, on the other hand, does not like Perry.

  • Barry Hankins, author of "Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America," does not approve of the portrait of Schaeffer constructed by Ryan Lizza's in his profile of Michele Bachmann.

  • Finally, Gary Bauer says that "the media’s war on faith — their continued attempts to force Christianity into the closet — is very dangerous for our republic."

The Ames Straw Poll Victors: From Robertson To Bachmann

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 8/15/2011 3:23 pm

Following Michele Bachmann’s triumph in the Ames Straw Poll, she was immediately crowned the frontrunner in the Iowa Caucus. While winning the Ames Straw Poll does not guarantee a victory at the Iowa Caucus (just ask Mitt Romney), it does show the strength of a candidate’s campaign operation and popular support. But most importantly, victory at Ames does not make a candidate a mainstream political figure. As Tim Murphy writes today in Mother Jones and consistently chronicled on RWW, Bachmann throughout her entire political career has seen herself and acted as an ultraconservative, Religious Right fanatic, and her victory at Ames makes her no more mainstream or less radical.

For example, Pat Robertson won the 1987 Ames Straw Poll, topping both George Bush and Bob Dole, who went on to win the Iowa Caucus. But defeating the Vice President and the Senate Republican Leader did not make Robertson a mainstream politician, in the same way Bachmann is still a right-wing extremist even after her straw poll victory. Their victories in Ames show the endurance and growth of the Religious Right base of the Republican Party.

Need a reminder of how out of the mainstream Robertson is? Just today on The 700 Club, for instance, Robertson explained how he performed an exorcism on a girl and “cast this demon out of her” before she tried to kill her mother:

So if Pat Robertson can win in Ames, is it any surprise that Michele Bachmann could too?

Bachmann Wasn't The First GOP Candidate To Be Asked About "Submission"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 8/15/2011 1:09 pm

During last week's Republican presidential debate, Michele Bachmann was asked by Washington Examiner’s Byron York about her past statement that she ended up studying tax law even though she "hates taxes" and never had a desire for it" but did so because wives "are to be submissive to your husband" and so she "was going to be faithful to what I felt God was calling me to do through my husband."

In her response and since, Bachmann has been trying to claim that being "submissive" merely means that she and her husband "respect each other," which is nonsense, as Sarah Posner explained today in Salon.

And now the Religious Right is rallying around Bachmann, attacking the question as unfair and inappropriate:

Penny Nance, president of the conservative group Concerned Women for America, expressed her dismay at the question in a statement: "Byron York's question to Michele Bachmann about her relationship with her husband was incredibly inappropriate and downright ignorant.”

...

Given that both men and women are called to give of themselves in marriage, Nance lamented that the male presidential candidates were not asked the same or a similar question.

Ummm ... does Nance not remember when Mike Huckabee was asked by Carl Cameron about the 1998 ad he signed stating that a "wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband" during a Republican debate in South Carolina in 2008 where Huckabee delivered a more eloquent but equally Bachmann-like response:

CAMERON: Governor Huckabee, to change the subject a little bit and focus a moment on electability.

Back in 1998, you were one of about 100 people who affirmed, in a full-page ad in the "New York Times," the Southern Baptist Convention's declaration that, quote, "A wife us to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband."

Women voters in both parties harshly criticized that. Is that position politically viable in the general election of 2008, sir?

HUCKABEE: You know, it's interesting, everybody says religion is off limits, except we always can ask me the religious questions. So let me try to do my best to answer it.

(APPLAUSE) And since -- if we're really going to have a religious service, I'd really feel more comfortable if I could pass the plates, because our campaign could use the money tonight, Carl.

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

We'll just go all the way.

First of all, if anybody knows my wife, I don't think they for one minute think that she's going to just sit by and let me do whatever I want to. That would be an absolute total misunderstanding of Janet Huckabee.

The whole context of that passage -- and, by the way, it really was spoken to believers, to Christian believers. I'm not the least bit ashamed of my faith or the doctrines of it. I don't try to impose that as a governor and I wouldn't impose it as a president.

But I certainly am going to practice it unashamedly, whether I'm a president or whether I'm not a president. But the point...

(APPLAUSE)

... the point, and it comes from a passage of scripture in the New Testament Book of Ephesians is that as wives submit themselves to the husbands, the husbands also submit themselves, and it's not a matter of one being somehow superior over the other. It's both mutually showing their affection and submission as unto the Lord.

So with all due respect, it has nothing to do with presidency. I just wanted to clear up that little doctrinal quirk there so that there's nobody who misunderstands that it's really about doing what a marriage ought to do and that's marriage is not a 50/50 deal, where each partner gives 50 percent.

Biblically, marriage is 100/100 deal. Each partner gives 100 percent of their devotion to the other and that's why marriage is an important institution, because it teaches us how to love.

Staver: Under Obama, The US Is "One Of The World's Immoral Leaders"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 8/15/2011 11:15 am

On today's episode of "Faith and Freedom Radio," Mat Staver and Matt Barber spent all of their time railing against the fact that the United States had reportedly withheld $350 million in aid to the country of Malawi due to efforts in that country to outlaw homosexuality.

Like the Family Research Council before them, Barber and Staver were outraged that the United States would be using economic extortion to impose its own immorality on a sovereign nation like Malawi which simply seeks to uphold God's laws by imprisoning gays:

Barber: What we need is to return to your moral grounding and moral roots in this nation. Until we do that, the moral and the economic are definitely combined and our nation is going to continue to sink, we're going to continue to lose our status in the world as the world leader. And frankly, when we are holding out nations hostage to a radical, sexually-immoral agenda, I don't know that we necessarily are in a position - at least the government as its stands right now under this administration - are in a position to claim to be the world's moral leaders.

Staver: We're not the world's moral leader under this administration; we're one of the world's immoral leaders ... What the administration is doing is just putting its own immoral views into its funding, trying to get other nations to come around and do the same thing. And they're literally trying to create and extend this immorality globally.

Barber: The Obama administration is saying that sexual perversion is a human right.

Staver: More than sixty countries have laws criminalizing homosexuality and virtually every country in the world has laws that criminalize pedophilia and child incest. Malawi was doing what it was doing in its own best interest and America should not be trying to make that country act in an immoral way.

I think that maybe we should point out that, earlier this year, Michele Bachmann personally tapped Staver to come to Washington to teach her Tea Party on the Constitution.

Imagine If Janet Porter Ran For President

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 8/15/2011 10:09 am

Perhaps one of the most alarming realizations about Michele Bachmann is that even if she hand never a member of Congress and a Republican presidential contender, we would probably still be writing about her here on Right Wing Watch because she is, at heart, a hardcore Religious Right activist.

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones has a new profile of Bachmann which, I feel, perfectly demonstrates that point: 

There was one issue that seemed to consume Bachmann. The slow creep of the gay rights movement was, in her words, an "earthquake issue," with the potential to shake the foundation of society itself: the family. Taking a page from Schaeffer, who vilified the "rampant sexuality" and moral relativism of the Romans, Bachmann saw the gay rights movement as a secular ideology that posed a direct challenge to traditional marriages.

As she'd done before with the Profile of Learning, Bachmann embraced her role as a messenger. When EdWatch, as the Maple River Education Coalition was later known, invited her to deliver a speech at its 2004 convention, she unleashed a masterful presentation, mixing slides with self-deprecating humor, that hammered home the same urgent message that has since become familiar to a national audience: The forces working against you are bigger than you think.

Bachmann ripped into pop culture, telling her audience about a dangerous show she'd discovered called Sex and the City. ("It's received critical acclaim," she said, "so that tells you, 'Don't watch it.'") She warned that The Lion King soundtrack was potentially toxic to small children because it was written by Elton John, a gay man. She urged her audience to pray for Melissa Etheridge, suggesting that the lesbian songwriter's breast cancer diagnosis might be a wake-up call for her to turn away from her sinful lifestyle. To Bachmann, homosexuals had even usurped the English language. "It's part of Satan, I think, to say that this is 'gay,'" she said. "It's anything but gay."

The Bachmanns worked as a tag team. In 2005, they both participated in the Minnesota Pastors' Summit, a conference sponsored by the Minnesota Family Council that was designed to train religious leaders for the culture wars. Michele led a session on a state gay marriage amendment; Marcus, in a rare moment of public activism, moderated a talk called "The Truth of the Homosexual Lifestyle."

Imagine if Sally Kern or Janet Porter were not only running for president but winning the Iowa Straw Poll and being treated like a front-runner and you start to get an idea of just how truly amazing/terrifying this development is.

Tim Pawlenty's Short-Lived Post-Straw Poll Bravado

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Sunday, 8/14/2011 1:26 pm

On Sunday, after a disappointing defeat in Iowa's Ames Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty withdrew from the presidential race, saying that "the audience, so to speak, wanted something different." What Iowa Republicans want, at least according to the straw poll results, is Michele Bachmann, who many pundits agreed had bested Pawlenty in a harsh exchange at last week's GOP debate. Just hours before he dropped out of the race, Pawlenty's campaign emailed supporters with a claim that he was eager to continue the fight, a fundraising pitch, a new video title "The American Comeback Begins," and a bravado that seems to have lasted about 12 hours:

Hello Friends -

I want to congratulate Congresswoman Bachmann on her victory in today's straw poll. I'm also very proud of the work my campaign has done, and I appreciate their hard work. As I've said all along, we needed to show progress to do well, and we did just that. This is a long process to restore America -- we are just beginning, and I'm eager for the campaign.

I'm encouraged by our progress, and I'm so thankful for the thousands of Iowans who showed their support for my candidacy by voting for me in Ames. Don't miss my remarks at the straw poll earlier today including our latest video. 
 
We are now moving onto the next phase of our campaign. Over the coming weeks we will be visiting New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida while continuing to grow our already strong ground game in Iowa.
 
Mary and I will never forget your continued support, words of encouragement, and friendship. But we need YOUR help to take the message that resonated in Iowa to the rest of the country. Can I count on you for a special “Victory Contribution” of $25, $50, $100 or even $250, to commemorate our strong showing in Ames?
 
We’ve completed an important first step on the road to the Republican nomination and, ultimately, the White House.  We can’t do it alone, and I need your support to continue the journey.
 
Sincerely,


Tim Pawlenty

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 8/12/2011 5:10 pm

Unearthing Right-Wing Treasure

Submitted by Peter Montgomery on Friday, 8/12/2011 2:48 pm

People For the American Way is preparing to move its headquarters to another location in Washington, D.C. , after more than 20 years in the same space. That has meant a monumental effort to sort through decades of accumulated paper and figure out what to do with video recordings in more formats than you could imagine – and endless save-or-toss decisions.

Fortunately, earlier this year PFAW’s huge library of primary source materials on the Religious Right political movement was transferred to the University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements, where it will be more accessible to scholars and journalists. But even still, preparing for the move has meant weeks of memory-triggering moments while plowing through file cabinets and finding hidden stashes of materials.
 
Among the random bits of right-wingalia I stumbled across:
  • a letter from Jerry Falwell urging his supporters to call Congress and oppose sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa in order to prevent a Communist takeover (an  accompanying 16-page “Fundamentalist Journal – Special Report” included a Falwell interview with the foreign minister saying that the West “has been doing the work of Moscow.”);
  • a 1990 Christian Coalition leadership manual that includes the assertion that the relationship between employers and employees should be based on Bible verses telling slaves to obey their masters, no matter how harsh;
  • a 1982 PFAW report on the Religious Right’s efforts to use the Texas textbook process to foist their ideology on American students nationwide (sound familiar?);
  • books and campaign plans for the takeover of America by once-obscure Christian Reconstructionist figures who are now in the news thanks to the frightening ascension of followers like Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann;
  • candidate questionnaires from Religious Right groups in the 1980s demanding to know whether politicians would support across-the-board tax cuts, a reminder that the Religious Right has been pushing Tea Party economics for a long time;
  • a lavishly produced press kit for the 2006 opening of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, where a disturbing number of Americans have flocked to be mis-educated about biology, geology, and history; and
  • in honor of Rick Perry’s recent prayer rally in Houston, a 1985 campaign flyer from the "Straight Slate" of candidates for Mayor and City Council, warning that Houston “has become the Southwest capital for homosexuality and pornography” and insisting that “We must not allow Houston to become another San Francisco!” (Current Houston Mayor Annise Parker, who was sworn in last year, is a lesbian who parents three children with her partner.)
It’s also been a reminder that the Religious Right has been declared dead more often than Freddy Krueger, usually by someone who is focusing on one organization in disarray or one election defeat for conservatives. But as our current political climate makes clear, the Religious Right and its political and economic allies have built a massive infrastructure of national and state-level think tanks, legal and political organizations, radio and TV networks, universities and law schools, and elected officials they have helped put into office at all levels of government.  They aren’t going anywhere. And neither are we – well, just a few blocks across town.

Does Bryan Fischer Think Only Men Should Be Involved In Politics?

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Friday, 8/12/2011 1:22 pm

Bryan Fischer offers up his thoughts on last night's Republican debate by commenting that the heated exchanges between Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann were unfortunate because Pawlenty "took a swing at a girl" while Bachmann, if she chooses to fight back, only "hardens a little bit of her soul and sacrifices a little bit of her femininity." 

And that, says Fischer, is "one of the reasons to question whether it’s a good idea for women to get involved in the rough and tumble of politics":

Pawlenty was hurt by the exchange, because he took a swing at a girl. No matter how much progress we think we’ve made on gender equality, there is still something deep inside us that says men should use their strength to protect women, not attack them, and Pawlenty put on the full-court press last night.

But Ms. Bachmann chose to get into the ring, and can’t complain if punches are thrown, nor should anyone complain on her behalf. That’s one of the reasons to question whether it’s a good idea for women to get involved in the rough and tumble of politics. I hate to see a woman attacked like Bachmann was last night, but she made herself vulnerable to it by throwing her hat into the ring.

What has been done to Sarah Palin and what is being done to Michele Bachmann - the grotesque beating they have taken from the hostiles on the left (I’m not talking about Pawlenty here) - is a travesty and a shameful embarrassment to any culture which claims to have an enlightened view of the treatment of women.

But this is what conservative women who enter politics are choosing to accept. It is not right, but it is inevitable, since too many on the left are consumed with bitterness and hatred toward conservatives in general and conservative women in particular. They are enslaved to a driving, brooding passion to destroy, and the more attractive the conservative woman is, the more it feeds their blood lust. As captives to this dark, driving vitriol, they can’t help themselves. It will take the power of God to set them free from their own bondage to this mindless anger and rage. This means that a woman must count the cost, as Jesus taught, before jumping into the fray.

Part of the problem here is that when a women mixes it up in the political arena, and gets punched, she must punch back. The danger to the woman here is that every time she punches back, which she must do, she hardens a little bit of her soul and sacrifices a little bit of her femininity. I’m not sure that’s a good trade. But each woman needs to make that choice for herself. No one else can or should make that decision for her.

Bachmann's Mentor Wants To Bring 'Ex-Gay' Reparative Therapy To The Military

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 8/12/2011 12:10 pm

Earlier this summer the group Truth Wins Out exposed Marcus and Michele Bachmann for practicing ‘ex-gay’ reparative therapy, the disreputable therapy that attempts to make gays and lesbians become straight, at their counseling clinic. Bachmann’s mentor John Eidsmoe was not only a proponent of reparative therapy but also wanted it used by the military. Eidsmoe writes in Gays & Guns that “one cannot help wondering why homosexuals would persist in a life-style that is in fact a ‘death-style’” (p. 79), and urges the military to adopt a policy to use reparative therapy to change the sexual orientation of gay and lesbian servicemembers. If the transformation is unsuccessful, they will be discharged:

Since considerable evidence indicates that a large percentage of homosexuals can convert or revert to heterosexuality, especially if they strongly desire to do so, they should if possible be given that opportunity. The armed forces could establish a program similar to the Limited Privileged Communication program which the Air Force operated for drug abusers during the 1970s. The individual could report to an internal department overseeing social actions, acknowledge his homosexuality, and have his admission treated with complete confidentiality. He coudl then be given a program of therapy to convert or revert to heterosexuality. if, upon completion of the program, a military psychologist or psychiatrist certifies that he has been cured of homosexuality and is unlikely to revert to homosexuality in the future, and if the member himself affirms that he has no intention of engaging in future homosexual behavior, he may be retained in the armed forces and his past homosexuality and treatment would be kept confidential. If a cure cannot be effected, he would be honorably discharged.

…

One of the most encouraging elements of this rather sober study is the abundant evidence that homosexuals can change, particularly if they are motivated to do so. It is my hope that the hard data presented in this study will persuade homosexuals to seek help and escape from a life-style that is in fact a death-style (ps. 116-117).

Bachmann's Mentor Says If Gays Join The Military They Will Molest Children

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Friday, 8/12/2011 10:21 am

In 1993 Michele Bachmann’s mentor John Eidsmoe wrote the book Gays & Guns: The Case Against Homosexuals In The Military to combat President Clinton’s efforts to repeal the ban on gays and lesbians in the military. In the face of resistance, Clinton ultimately compromised to conjure up the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, which was recently repealed. Eidsmoe, who claimed in God & Caesar that “homosexuality invites the judgment of God upon all of society,” relies heavily on the discredited work of anti-gay researcher Paul Cameron to back his claim that gays and lesbians should be banned from military service.

According to Eidsmoe, gays and lesbians will turn the military into a “cesspool of immorality and a haven for the promiscuous,” and as a result “few will proudly wear the uniform” (p. 70-71). Eidsmoe says that once gays and lesbians are allowed into the military, then why not admit murderers or child molesters? “While it is true that many homosexuals have served with honor and some have even been decorated for valor, the same could be said for alcoholics, drug addicts, and pedophiles. This does not mean such persons belong in the armed forces.” He explains:

The fact that homosexual persists does not mean the ban is unenforceable or should be repealed. The same reasoning could be applied to other problems: Murder is against the law, but people still commit murder; therefore, the ban on murder is unenforceable and should be repealed. Theft is against the law, but people still commit theft; therefore, the ban on theft is unenforceable and stealing should be made legal. Child abuse is against the law, but people still abuse children; therefore, the ban against child abuse is unenforceable and should be repealed (p. 49).

In fact, one of Eidsmoe’s key arguments against admission of gays and lesbians into the military is that they will molest the children of their fellow soldiers:

It is reasonable to assume that crime of various types would increase if homosexuals are allowed into the military. It is also reasonable to assume more child molestation would take place on military outposts. At present most military families regard base housing as a relatively safe place to raise their children. If homosexuals are allowed into the military, base housing may no longer be perceived as safe for children. If the morale of military families collapses, the moral of the armed forces as a whole will likewise be devastated (p. 88).

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 8/11/2011 5:57 pm

Bachmann's Mentor Says Women Must Submit To Their Husbands

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 8/11/2011 5:25 pm

Michele Bachmann told an audience in 2006 that she followed her husband’s education path because, “The Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.” Her mentor John Eidsmoe makes a similar case throughout God & Caesar, his book on how Christians should engage in politics and government.

For Eidsmoe, the role of a woman is chiefly second class to her husband: “God’s Word gives women respect and respectability which they had never enjoyed in any other culture, and we must do what we can to preserve biblical standards. But it establishes the man as the head of the house” (p. 125). He writes:

Humans cannot function without leadership, at least not when they must live and work together. And the basic unit of authority in human society is the family. The husband is the head of the wife (1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23), and children are to obey their parents (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:2).

Husbands are to instruct their wives in things of the Lord (1 Corinthians 14:35), and parents are to instruct their children (ps. 115-116).

He goes on to condemn the rise of feminism and criticize feminist scholars, saying that they “violate the normal order” God put in place: “I personally believe there would be no women’s liberation movement today, were it not for the weakness of men. But that is the exception, not the rule. The normal order of God’s institution in the family with the husband and father as its head” (p. 126).

Eidsmoe especially attacks feminists for what he believes is their disrespectful attitudes towards housewives, lamenting that husbands now have to deal with wives who want to have careers of their own:

Many had planned all their lives to become housewives and mothers, believing such a calling would bring meaning and fulfillment to their lives. Now they are told by the feminists that it is ‘demeaning’ and ‘unfulfilling’ to be a housewife, and they don’t know what to believe. They are frustrated as housewives and feel guilty for not being ‘more,’ but don’t feel any inclination for anything else. And the husband, who planned all this life to be a traditional husband and father and thought he was marrying a traditional wife, feels threatened, insecure, and resentful about these changes in his wife. If the wife goes to work, he may resent sharing housework; that wasn’t what he bargained for when he entered the marriage (p. 124).

Bachmann's Mentor Warns Of Public Education "Brainwashing"

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 8/11/2011 2:31 pm

Michele Bachmann regularly speaks about her work in Minnesota to advance homeschooling and charter schools, and she even co-founded a Christian-themed charter school that helped launch her political career. According to the New York Times, “state and local school officials warned the school that it was at risk of losing its charter” for running afoul of code, and Bachmann ultimately had her “children enrolled in private Christian schools.”

Her mentor John Eidsmoe in God & Caesar details the case against public schools that may have influenced Bachmann’s early activism in education issues. Eidsmoe discusses the supposed dangers of the public education system throughout God & Caesar, saying, “The power to educate is the power to control though and shape personality. The power to educate is the power to brainwash.” He even said that America’s stalwart public school system is reminiscent of Nazi Germany, warning “exclusive state control of education is a blueprint for tyranny” (p. 143).

Eidsmoe laments that instead of promoting Christianity, public schools endorse “secular humanism.” He writes that ever since public schools embraced secular humanism, children have been “brainwashed” into supporting evolution, sex education, and moral relativism instead of creationism and conservative Christian teachings.

He calls on Christians to “voice our objections when we see government funds or government facilities being used to promote humanism” (p. 139), since he believes that secular humanism was created by the devil: “When Lucifer rebelled against God, he declared, ‘I will be like the Most High’ (Isaiah 14:14). And, having fallen from heaven, he seduced Eve with the same temptation: ‘Ye shall be as gods’ (Genesis 3:5). The modern humanists offer man the same promise” (p. 132).

Eidsmoe explains the reasons why Christians should challenge the public school system:

As we have seen, Scripture gives parents the right and duty to educate their children. Traditionally, parents have fulfilled this duty with help from the church or synagogue. Within the last century and a half, however, the state has gradually usurped this function. As long as the public schools taught nominally Christian values to their children, many Christians did not object to the state taking over education. Within the past few decades, however, and particularly within the past few years, more and more parents have become concerned that the public schools may be teaching values to their children that place them at odds with their parents.

…

The Christian parent who believes in special creation may find his children brainwashed by evolutionists. The parent may believe that the source of values is God and his revealed Word, but the child may learn from his teacher that values are relative and that we must discover them for ourselves. The parent may believe that sex is to be confined to marriage, but the school health teacher may teach that premarital sex is okay “if you really care about each other.”

Yes, parents can combat much of this by carefully instructing their children at home, and they should be careful to do so. But why should parents have to support a school system that teaches alien values or compete with the state for their children’s allegiance, perhaps for their children’s very souls? (p. 123)

Bachmann's Mentor Says Gay Rights Will Doom America

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 8/11/2011 10:30 am

Michele Bachmann’s zealous opposition to gay rights helped launch her career in local politics and made her a darling of social conservatives, and reading God & Caesar by her mentor John Eidsmoe sheds some light on her views. Eidsmoe’s God & Caesar serves to encourage Christians to enter politics in order to introduce and impose biblical law. As Frederick Clarkson writes in Political Research Associate’s Public Eye that Reconstructions want to shape not just the state but all of society, as “Reconstructionists believe that there are three main areas of governance: family government, church government, and civil government” that need to abide by “God’s law.” Similarly, Eidsmoe thinks that the family, the church, and the government are the three divine institutions that must follow biblical precepts.

But the family, like the church and government, Eidsmoe explains is under attack by secular humanism. He points to welfare, tax policies, divorce law, “women’s liberation,” “kid’s liberation,” and “gay liberation” as the principal dangers to the stability of the family.

Eidsmoe explains that “gay liberation” may be the most pernicious “attack upon the family” because it not only tears families apart but can doom all of society. He attacks gays and lesbians for destroying families by “coming out” and warns that “the more widespread homosexuality becomes, the greater the likelihood that homosexuals will recruit our children into homosexuality, voluntarily or involuntarily.” Eidsmoe concludes that “homosexuality invites the judgment of God upon all of society” and America may face the same fatal judgment as Sodom and Gomorrah if gays and lesbians gain equal rights and affirmation:

Few sins are denounced in Scripture as strongly as homosexuality.

…

Homosexuality is not only a moral issue, but a political one, and it is largely the gay liberation advocates who have made it so. They have pushed, at the federal and state level and in counties and cities across the nation, for special laws recognizing them as a minority group and giving them special protection against discrimination. They have asked for the right to teach our children in public schools, at our expense. They have demanded that our public schools teach our children that homosexuality is an acceptable life-style. But homosexuality is not simply an individual matter; it affects society as a whole. It influences the entire moral strength and moral fibre of society. Furthermore, the more widespread homosexuality becomes, the greater the likelihood that homosexuals will recruit our children into homosexuality, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Homosexuality also constitutes an attack upon the family. Not only is homosexuality by nature contrary to the very purposes and functions of the family; in addition, as homosexuality comes ‘out of the closet’ and is openly practiced and advocated in society, it tears families apart. Parents and children are alienated from one another when a child announces that he is homosexual; marriages are torn apart at the seams when a spouse announces that he has become ‘gay.’ Parents are fearful of public schools, media, and other community agencies that teach their children that homosexuality is an acceptable life-style, or a ‘swinger’ life-style, or any of the other alternatives advocated today, the traditional family declines in influence and number in society.

And homosexuality invites the judgment of God upon all of society. The great sin that brought destruction by fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality (Genesis 19:5, 8). It is a mistake to suggest that the decision to become a homosexual affects no one but oneself. (ps. 126-127).

Bachmann's Mentor Calls On Christian Leaders To Bring Biblical Law To America Or Face God's Judgment

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 8/11/2011 10:08 am

Congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann has touted Oral Roberts University law professor John Eidsmoe as her mentor and guide, bolstering her already impeccable credentials with Religious Right voters. Profiles by writers such as Ryan Lizza and Michelle Goldberg offered further insight into how Eidsmoe shaped Bachmann’s thinking, and highlighted some of Eidsmoe’s more controversial views, such as his commitment to biblical government and belief that the abolition of slavery was devastating for African Americans. In an interview with Lizza, Eidsmoe said that he thinks Bachmann mirrors the political views he outlined, and Bachmann told an Iowa pastor conference that Eidsmoe was “one of the professors who had a great influence on me” who is “absolutely brilliant.”

In 1984 Eidsmoe wrote God & Caesar, which is essentially a manual to why and how Christians should work in politics and government. Eidsmoe dedicated the book to his children, “in the hope that their generation will more fully implement biblical norms and standards.” In the book, Eidsmoe finds that the biblical view and the conservative agenda virtually always coincide, while the liberal position represents the rejection of God and godly principles. No matter the issue, economic, social, family, law, and foreign policy, Eidsmoe finds that conservatives are always on the right side of the Bible while liberals are on the side of godlessness.

As Julie Ingersoll writes in Religion Dispatches, Eidsmoe is a proponent of Christian Reconstructionism, a philosophy designed by R. J. Rushdoony that wants America governed  according to Biblical law.

Eidsmoe frequently promotes Rushdoony in God & Caesar and his dominionist teachings about the role of “God’s Word” in the political field:

God’s Word has a lot to say about government, about crime and punishment, about abortion, about national defense, about war and peace, about the many political issues that face us daily. Paul declared that he had ‘not shunned to declare unto all the counsel of God’ (Acts 20:27). The fundamentalist who refuses to preach or consider what God’s Word has to say about politics is not declaring the whole counsel of God and has a serious gap in his ministry. R. J. Rushdoony put it well when he said,

Man must exercise dominion in the name of God, and in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness…. The world, moreover, cannot be surrendered to Satan. It is God’s world and must be brought under God’s law politically, economically, and in every other way possible. The Enlightenment, by its savage and long-standing attack on Biblical faith, has brought about a long retreat of Christianity from a full-orbed faith to a king of last-ditch battle centering around the doctrines of salvation and of the infallible Scripture. The time has come for a full-scale offensive, and it has indeed begun, to bring every area of thought into captivity to Christ, to establish the whole counsel of God and every implication of His infallible word. (p. 56)

Eidsmoe believes that God brings people into the political arena and then uses them to enforce his will. He cites right-wing activist Phyllis Schlafly as one such leader that God used to defeat the Equal Rights Amendment, and Texas activists Mel and Norma Gabler to “analyze and critique textbooks and expose humanist, anti-Christian, immoral, or anti-American content. I’m sure the Gablers never dreamed God would use them like that” (p. 60).

He goes on to say that America is facing “political and economic decline” as a result of “moral decay” and God’s judgment because of the government’s failure to embrace biblical law. Eidsmoe argues that unless Christians that follow his Reconstructionist positions enter politics, God will judge America in the same way he judged Judah before exiling the Jews to Babylon:

We should add that this political and economic decline is a natural and logical consequence, but it is also a supernatural consequence. It is the result of God’s judgment (Leviticus 26:14-29).

I believe the political and economic decline that grips America today is the result of moral decay. I believe God is calling upon believers today to lead the spiritual awakening that can overcome that moral lapse. That’s how believers can truly be the salt of the earth, preserving their nation from divine judgment.

After decrying the sin of Judah, their oppression and robbery, their vexation of the poor and needy and the sojourner, God declared in Ezekiel 22:30, ‘And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it.’

God is looking for believers today to ‘stand in the gap,’ to assert themselves in the political arena and transform America’s political institutions.

But I omitted the last four words of that verse: ‘…but I found none.’ The Lord continued in the next verse, ‘Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God.’

God’s judgment indeed came upon Judah: seventy years of exile in Babylon.

That was true of Judah. I pray it won’t be true of America. Will you do your part, as others have done theirs? (p. 68)

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 8/10/2011 5:48 pm
  • Matt Barber is not happy with Ann Coulter for joining GOProud's Advisory Council.

  • Speaking of GOProud, the groups is not happy about being tossed-out of CPAC.

  • PBS takes a look at Francis Schaeffer and his work, which had a big influence on Michele Bachmann.

  • Albert Mohler says the the biggest problem with marriage equality "is not that homosexuality will be normalized and accepted, but that homosexuals will not come to know of their own need for Christ and the forgiveness of their sins."

  • Finally, it seems that Focus on the Family is still angry about the American Family Association being labled a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Maybe they should watch this.
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Michele Bachmann Top Posts

Bachmann: 'God Is Going to Answer Our Prayers' and Repeal Obamacare
On his radio program today, James Dobson interviewed Rep. Michele Bachmann about the IRS scandal and his contention that his organization's application was delayed because he had been critical of President Obama. Near the end of the discussion, Dobson attempted to connect the issue to the implementation of health care reform, worrying that IRS bureaucrats would have access to everyone's health records and start denying people access to care based on political positions. Bachmann replied that concerns such as this were exactly why it is so important to repeal Obamacare, which will... MORE >

Michele Bachmann Posts Archive

Michele Bachmann's Smear of Huma Abedin: From Fringe Conspiracy to the Halls of Congress
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 07/20/2012, 1:15pm
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s much-maligned witch hunt against Muslim-Americans working in the Obama administration, including top State Department official Huma Abedin, is the outgrowth of a festering conspiracy theory that has been gaining traction in right-wing circles, where Obama is viewed as an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood if not a secret Muslim himself. One of the main perpetrators is Frank Gaffney, whose Center for Security Policy is cited by Bachmann in her letter to the inspector general [pdf]. Gaffney is a birther have resulted in him being driven out of even conservative... MORE >
Tea Party Nation Defends Bachmann's Anti-Muslim Witch Hunt
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Thursday 07/19/2012, 1:45pm
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s witch hunt against Muslim-Americans working in government, specifically Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin, has been denounced by not only Democrats like Keith Ellison but also top Republicans such as John McCain, John Boehner, Marco Rubio, Scott Brown and even her former campaign manager. But at least Bachmann still has support from Tea Party Nation head Judson Phillips, who said in an email to members today that “John McCain needs to sit down and shut up.” Phillips also claimed while “Islam is our enemy”... MORE >
Bachmann Says Obama 'Spit at the Constitution'; Warns the Muslim Brotherhood 'Penetrated' Government
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 06/22/2012, 1:15pm
Michele Bachmann took her propensity for promoting conspiracy theories to another level this week while speaking with the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios, after warning of not just a media plot to use “flattery” to sway the Supreme Court decision on health care reform but also new claims about the Obama administration and the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood. She told Rios that Obama undercut the Magna Carta and “spit at the Constitution and at the will of the American people” with his move to block the deportation of some younger undocumented... MORE >
Michele Bachmann Exposes Media Plot to Swing Justice Kennedy's Vote on Health Care Reform
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 06/22/2012, 11:30am
While most readers found the recent Time Magazine profile of Justice Anthony Kennedy to be an innocuous piece about the justice who has emerged as a deciding vote on some of the more divisive Supreme Court decisions, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) sees a surreptitious effort by the media to convince Kennedy to uphold the health care reform law. While speaking to Sandy Rios of the American Family Association earlier this week, Bachmann warned that if Kennedy is “succumbing to flattery in the media” then “he could potentially be persuaded to go the way of the left,” as... MORE >
Bachmann says the 'Lord had Called Me' to Run for President to criticize Obamacare
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Friday 05/04/2012, 2:05pm
Michele Bachmann yesterday sat down with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, two days before delivering the commencement address at Regent University (formerly CBN University), where she reiterated her claim that God called her to run for president. Bachmann, who ended her campaign following a sixth place finish in the Iowa Caucus with just 5% of the vote, told Brody that her purpose in the race was to drive the push to repeal the health care reform law, and also agreed with Brody’s analysis that she ran an “impeccable” and “mistake-free campaign.... MORE >
Pat Robertson and Michele Bachmann warn about Media Whitewash on Terrorism
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Monday 04/16/2012, 3:30pm
Erick Stackelbeck, the sports reported turned terrorism analyst for the Christian Broadcasting Netowrk, hosted a segment on the 700 Club today looking into how “political correctness takes over in mainstream reporting on Islamic terrorism.” Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) told Stackelbeck that “our media is refusing to tell the story” about Islamic extremists because the media “come from a decidedly leftist worldview and a secular—almost an anti-secular in a way—because they’ve embraced such a radical worldview and they impose that filter through... MORE >
CPAC: What Bachmann Learned While Running for President
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 02/09/2012, 2:01pm
Michele Bachmann kicked off her speech to CPAC by relating the three things she learned while running for president: where John Wayne was born; the day Elvis Presley was born, and the importance of remembering the third thing in your list MORE >
‘Historian’ Barton Cites Michele Bachmann, Gets Her Made-Up Facts Wrong
SUBMITTED BY: Miranda Blue, Monday 01/09/2012, 5:08pm
Lest we need any more proof that David Barton is not a real historian, or even someone with a vague grasp of current affairs, in the latest installment of WallBuilders Live he cites the research of well-known fact fabricator Michele Bachmann – and gets her fabricated facts wrong. Discussing with co-host Rick Green the relationship between increasing secularism and the economic collapse, Barton pulls out one heck of a Bachmann whopper. Citing Bachmann as his source, Barton asserts that before the Bush administration’s financial industry bailouts and the Obama administration’s... MORE >