Are Michele Bachmann's Views About 'Christian Submission' Even More Extreme Than She's Letting On?
The people, churches and groups that shaped Bachmann's thinking are far more anti-woman than most Americans fully comprehend.
http://www.alternet.org/story/15203...ion'_even_more_extreme_than_she's_letting_on/
Michele Bachmann told a barefaced lie the other day. She was asked in the Republican candidates' debate with the other Republican contenders, âAs president, would you be submissive to your husband?"
Bachmann answered: âMarcus and I will be married for 33 years this September 10th. Iâm in love with him. Iâm so proud of him. And both he and I â what submission means to us, if thatâs what your question is, it means respect. I respect my husband. Heâs a wonderful, godly man, and a great father. And he respects me as his wife.â
She either lied, has changed her mind, or she says one thing to a national audiance and another to her hard-right evangelical followers.
Here's what she said in answer to the same question in 2006: âThe Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.â
As Jill Lawrence noted:
Back in October 2006, recounting her life journey to an audience at the Living Word Christian Center, Bachmann talked about âreceiving Jesusâ at 16, studying hard, meeting her future husband at college, and earning a law degree. âMy husband said âNow you need to go and get a post-doctorate degree in tax law.â Tax law! I hate taxesâwhy should I go and do something like that?â she told the audience. âBut the Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.â Bachmann said she never had taken a tax course, ânever had a desire for it,â but âI was going to be faithful to what I felt God was calling me to do through my husband.â Later, when the opportunity to run for Congress arose, âmy husband said, âYou need to do this,â and I wasnât so sure.â She became sure two days later, after praying and fasting with her husband.
The real story here is that Bachmann understands just how extreme her part of the evangelical movement is. She also understands that a certain amount of godly lying will be needed to mask that. She understood that the question she was asked the other day was about a biblical teaching that is misogynistic to the core and advocates total submission of a wife to a husband. It is teaching she's signed on to long ago.
The people, churches and groups that shaped Bachmann's thinking are far more anti-woman than most Americans fully comprehend.
There is a background to this.
The issue of wifely submission is at the heart of the entire anti-feminist agenda that shaped Bachmann. I should know. As I describe in my book Sex, Mom and God, the current crop of religious right leaders -- including Michele Bachamnn -- got their ideas and inspiration from my familyâs work, books and film series. As the New Yorker correctly noted about my late father and the movies I directed when I was his nepotistic sidekick:
[Bachmann and her husband] experienced a life-altering event: they watched a series of films by the evangelist and theologian Francis Schaeffer called âHow Should We Then Live?â Schaeffer, who ran a mission in the Swiss Alps known as LâAbri (âthe shelterâ), opposed liberal trends in theology. One of the most influential evangelical thinkers of the nineteen-seventies and early eighties, he has been credited with getting a generation of Christians involved in politics.
Continued..
http://www.alternet.org/story/15203...ion'_even_more_extreme_than_she's_letting_on/
The people, churches and groups that shaped Bachmann's thinking are far more anti-woman than most Americans fully comprehend.
http://www.alternet.org/story/15203...ion'_even_more_extreme_than_she's_letting_on/
Michele Bachmann told a barefaced lie the other day. She was asked in the Republican candidates' debate with the other Republican contenders, âAs president, would you be submissive to your husband?"
Bachmann answered: âMarcus and I will be married for 33 years this September 10th. Iâm in love with him. Iâm so proud of him. And both he and I â what submission means to us, if thatâs what your question is, it means respect. I respect my husband. Heâs a wonderful, godly man, and a great father. And he respects me as his wife.â
She either lied, has changed her mind, or she says one thing to a national audiance and another to her hard-right evangelical followers.
Here's what she said in answer to the same question in 2006: âThe Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.â
As Jill Lawrence noted:
Back in October 2006, recounting her life journey to an audience at the Living Word Christian Center, Bachmann talked about âreceiving Jesusâ at 16, studying hard, meeting her future husband at college, and earning a law degree. âMy husband said âNow you need to go and get a post-doctorate degree in tax law.â Tax law! I hate taxesâwhy should I go and do something like that?â she told the audience. âBut the Lord says be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.â Bachmann said she never had taken a tax course, ânever had a desire for it,â but âI was going to be faithful to what I felt God was calling me to do through my husband.â Later, when the opportunity to run for Congress arose, âmy husband said, âYou need to do this,â and I wasnât so sure.â She became sure two days later, after praying and fasting with her husband.
The real story here is that Bachmann understands just how extreme her part of the evangelical movement is. She also understands that a certain amount of godly lying will be needed to mask that. She understood that the question she was asked the other day was about a biblical teaching that is misogynistic to the core and advocates total submission of a wife to a husband. It is teaching she's signed on to long ago.
The people, churches and groups that shaped Bachmann's thinking are far more anti-woman than most Americans fully comprehend.
There is a background to this.
The issue of wifely submission is at the heart of the entire anti-feminist agenda that shaped Bachmann. I should know. As I describe in my book Sex, Mom and God, the current crop of religious right leaders -- including Michele Bachamnn -- got their ideas and inspiration from my familyâs work, books and film series. As the New Yorker correctly noted about my late father and the movies I directed when I was his nepotistic sidekick:
[Bachmann and her husband] experienced a life-altering event: they watched a series of films by the evangelist and theologian Francis Schaeffer called âHow Should We Then Live?â Schaeffer, who ran a mission in the Swiss Alps known as LâAbri (âthe shelterâ), opposed liberal trends in theology. One of the most influential evangelical thinkers of the nineteen-seventies and early eighties, he has been credited with getting a generation of Christians involved in politics.
Continued..
http://www.alternet.org/story/15203...ion'_even_more_extreme_than_she's_letting_on/
