From the People Who Brought You the Death and Destruction of the Salem Witchcraft Trials--Michele Bachmann

I just finished reading one of the most terrifying articles of all time. In the current issue of New Yorker magazine, writer Ryan Lizza’s “Leap of Faith” exposes Republican presidential frontrunner Michele Bachmann as a politician so ensconced in fundamentalist Christian ideology that you could expect an effort on her part to transform the U.S. into a theocracy.

This spring, she told a church audience in Iowa, “I went down to Oral Roberts University, and one of the professors that had a great influence on me was an Iowan named John Eidsmoe. He’s from Iowa, and he’s a wonderful man. He has theology degrees, he has law degrees, he’s absolutely brilliant. He taught me about so many aspects of our godly heritage.”

Okay, so who is John Eidsmoe? Eidsmoe was a professor at the O.W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University when Bachmann was a professor there. In 1987 he published a book entitled “Christianity and the Constitution” for which Bachmann was a research assistant. Lizza describes the book as a “brief for political activism.” To take a statement directly out of the article, “When Biblical law conflicted with American law, Eidsmoe said, O.R.U. students were generally taught that ‘the first thing you should try to do is work through legal means and political means to get it changed.’ “

As you can see from Bachmann’s quote about Eidsmoe in the second paragraph above, she still holds him in very high regard. And when Lizza asked Eidsmoe if he felt that Bachmann’s views on this topic were consistent with his own, he responded in the affirmative. Also according to Lizza, Bachmann “has long described her work for Eidsmoe as an important part of her résumé.” Interesting that she would put such a statement out there when, in fact, Eidsmoe was actually disunited to a Tea Party rally in April of 2010 as a result of something he said in Alabama earlier that year. “In Alabama last year,” Lizza wrote, “[Eidsmoe] addressed an event commemorating Secession Day and told an interviewer that it was the state’s ‘constitutional right to secede,’ and that ‘Jefferson Davis and John C. Calhoun understood the Constitution better than did Abraham Lincoln and Daniel Webster.’ ”

This is not even the scariest part of Bachmann’s background regarding how her views of government might have been shaped by her religious background and how her actions as a political leader quite possibly could be influenced in a belief that the U.S. government should be transformed into a Christian theocracy. We all know how well that went in New England in the 17^th century.

I would urge everyone to read the entire article for yourself, if you dare.

And I can’t resist closing with this tidbit of Bachmann hypocrisy. For someone who professes to hate big government, she has obtained significant income and benefits from government sources. Upon graduating from law school she went to work as an IRS attorney from which, her colleagues recalled, she spent most of her time out on maternity leave. She and her husband also took in dozens of foster children for which they received income. Bachmann also worked for a local charter school at public expense and then went on to elective politics that continues to pay her handsomely at this time. I’m not saying she’s not entitled to any of those jobs or benefits. I support paid maternity leave among other employee benefits. But shouldn’t she her actions and her criticism be somewhat consistent if she wants to convey a credible image?