Michele Bachmann to bring on board evangelical Iowa birther for 2012 presidential exploratory committee

Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is apparently forming a presidential exploratory committee for the 2012 elections.

CNN reports that the first pick for her political director is Iowa state senator Kent Sorenson, the author of birther bill SB 368 introduced into the Iowa legislature that would require birth certificates to be filed with affidavits for candidacy for presidential and vice presidential candidates."  Sorenson is popular with the evangelical community and a leading Tea Party figure.

For those unfamiliar with Bachmann's inability to keep church/state issues separate from her own political career, it is worth noting her connection to Coral Ridge Ministries, created by the late D. James Kennedy, who recently aired an episode of its series featuring Bachmann on "Obamacare."   Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones notes in her article "Does Bachmann Believe Congress Should Be Run by Christians?:

Coral Ministries is considered by many religious scholars to be affiliated with Christian Reconstructionists, who take the radical view that Jesus Christ will not return to earth until Christians have taken over all forms of government, among other things. (They are sometimes also referred to as "dominionists.") Kennedy devoted many of his broadcasts to the idea that the Founders were Christians who intended to establish a Christian Constitution, a staple of Reconstructionist dogma.

During a 2005 conference sponsored by Coral Ridge Ministries dedicated to "reclaiming America for Christ," Kennedy informed attendees that, "As the vice-regents of God, we are to bring His truth and His will to bear on every sphere of our world and our society. We are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government…our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors—in short, over every aspect and institution of human society."

His rhetoric tracks with that of the Reconstructionist movement's intellectual father, Rousas John Rushdoony, who palled around with Kennedy and even appeared on Coral Ridge Ministries' broadcasts before he died in 2001. Rushdoony was a leading advocate of Christians entrenching themselves in politics to take over the world and helped launch the homeschooling movement as a way of grooming such holy warriors. He was also a Holocaust denier and a defender of slavery and segregation (apparently because slavery is OK in the Old Testament)…

None of this church-state mixing is new for Bachmann. Back in the early 1990s, she started a public charter school in Minnesota that later ran into trouble with authorities for trying to inject Christianity into the curriculum and for attempting to set up classes on Creationism. (Bachmann’s own children were mostly homeschooled.) When she first ran for Congress in 2006, she was literally introduced and endorsed from the pulpit by the leader of a Minnesota megachurch known for promoting Reconstructionism.

Bachmann's religious views haven't received much attention, perhaps because she has provided so much other fodder for reporters to chew over. But now that she's considering a presidential run, her decisions to headline religious events and broadcasts for organizations like Coral Ridge Ministries deserve far more scrutiny. After all, in a country where people of all religions rub shoulders at the voting booth, any candidate who thinks the government should be dominated by a single faith should raise as many eyebrows as one who thinks Social Security ought to be abolished.

Bachmann has also publicly said she has received messages and prophetic messages from God telling her who to marry and when to run for public office:

Dakota O'Leary

Dakota O'Leary is a freethinker, and often sassy, scholar of theology and literature. She got her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Theology from the State University of New York College at Buffalo, and her Master of Arts degree in Theology and Literature from Antioch University-Midwest. She is a contributing writer focusing on eschatology, biblical prophecy, and general religious news. Dakota is a co-host of the God Discussion radio show, offering insight to the news stories of the week. We like to call her "our in-house Biblical prophecy expert" as her articles on eschatology have received over 200,000 views on God Discussion.

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  • Rev Trask

    Pardon me, but doesn`t Michelle Bachmann belong to a church that believes that the Pope is an "anti-Christ"? Yeah, that`ll really bring in independent and swing voters.

    Run, Michelle, Run! Help re-elect the President!

  • drachenboot

    Boy you sure hate Christians. You couldn't come up with anything fresher than reaching back to slander Dr. Rushdoony who has been dead for ten years and Dr. Kennedy who passed away in 2007? Rushdoony was not a holocaust denier (liberal media takes a single quote of his out-of-context to promote this lie), he was a renowned biblical scholar. People who attack his views attack God and the Bible.

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

      Questioning Rushdoony, Kennedy or others' views are not attacking God and the Bible. Theology is debated all the time; for instance, the views on literal Biblical interpretation of the creation story vs. the metaphorical interpretations. Although they have passed on, Rushdoony and Kennedy's influences are still felt today in terms of Christian reconstruction and Christian dominionist theologies … theologies that many mainstream Christians find troubling.

      Deborah

    • http://www.goddiscussion.com Dakota O'Leary

      I fully expected this kind of treatment, Deborah. When you report the news, and tell people where certain politicians come from and what the history of their beliefs are, those who support them will do everything in their power to obfuscate the truth. Rushdoony was so controversial even Jerry Falwell's group criticized him (http://reason.com/archives/1998/11/01/invitation-to-a-stoning). We certainly don't hate Christians. We report on theocrats running for office who want to impose dominionist Biblical law on the entire nation. If Drachenboot doesn't like what we have to say, that person's not liking it doesn't change the facts, or the truth.

      • http://www.goddiscussion.com admin

        You're exactly right, Dakota. You and I see a lot of 'shoot the messenger' rhetoric! :)

        Here's a classic that came in via the contact form from someone claiming to be a conservative atheist who ignores the fact that we carry both religious and free thought stories, and was furious that we reported Newt Gingrich's remarks that America will be overtaken by secular atheists and ruled by radical Islamists (two terms that are so contradictory that the statement makes no sense):

        I noticed your site claims to be pro-religious freedom but it's extremely deceiving. I don't particularly appreciate your stand on religion. As a conservative atheist, I'm quite offended by you pretensions and attacks on conservatives. I want my countrys values preserved which includes the values of our founders, the intentions for our nation and the preservation of our founding documents. I'm
        utterly ashamed there is a group such as yourself which makes a claim of religious freedom but couldn't be further from the fact. Your goal is to denounce our heritage and eliminate religious freedom. By the
        way, have you read ANY part of the Qur'an, know ANYTHING about Sharia Law? Do you know who Brigitte Gabriel is or Wafa Sultan? You vilify Mr. Gingrich for standing up against the MOST "imperialist" MOST dangerous religion. The ignorance of people such as yourself are creating the most problems in the world. It makes me sick to my stomach. Religious freedom my ass, you are anti-religion, hate America and bigoted. You're haters!