Michele Bachmann was born in Waterloo, Iowa. She described her religious/political upbringing as "Norwegian Lutheran Democrat."[1] Well, she's still Norwegian..
Bachmann's politics and religion are inextricably linked. In fact, she has been connected to a religious doctrine known as "Dominionism," the defining characteristic of which is the idea that the world should be politically, socially, and religiously dominated by Christianity and its principles.[2]
Up until the beginning of her campaign, Bachmann was a member of the Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota. She officially withdrew her membership in that institution in June of 2011.[3] Though she denies it, it is widely speculated that Bachmann distanced herself from her church for political reasons, much as Obama distanced himself from his longtime spiritual adviser Rev. Jeremiah Wright because of what were perceived as racist and "anti-American" remarks from the reverend.
The questions is: Why would Bachmann feel the need to distance herself from the church that she had been faithfully attending for years? Well, that's because the Salem Lutheran Church is old-school, complete with Biblical literalism and the idea that the end of days is near and will happen in Israel and–get this–they think the Pope is the antichrist.[4]
Well, thank goodness she dropped out of the presidential primaries because what we potentially could have had is a U.S. president who thinks war in the Middle East is a good thing because it's just one step closer to the return of Jesus, who will come and pluck up all the good Christians and take them to heaven while the rest suffer and die in a war-ravaged, torched, torturous Earth.
Throwing a tea party
Bachmann got into politics because of her religious/social views–as an anti-abortion activist.[5] In fact, she says that God told her to initially run for Congress.[6] Nothing has changed, except she seems to have adopted, probably out of duress, various views on things like the economy and the role of government in a society.
She's was a Tea Party favorite for her views on social issues (predictably anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, anti-immigration, etc.) and took on many of their other doctrines–like advocacy for small government. But she overcompensated.
She said once during a Republican primary debate:
I think you earned every dollar. You should get to keep every dollar that you earn. That's your money. That's not the government's money.[7]
She also said she could, if elected president, get gas prices down to $2 a gallon.[8] Weird. Is that possible? Well, I guess if there were government gas subsidies. But wait… you'd have to pay taxes to get government subsidies. Hmm…
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