God must be pretty busy since there seems to be no shortage of Republicans with whom God is discussing politics, even going so far as to tell them to run for elected office. Do Republicans have some sort of special calling plan with heaven, giving them a bulk discount? Maybe it's just that these Republicans have nothing substantive to offer, so all they can think of is to claim a divine endorsement.

Consider this speech from Republican Congressional Candidate Michele Bachmann:

God then called me to run for the United States Congress, and I thought “What in the world will that be for?” and my husband said “You need to do this,” and I wasn’t so sure, and we took 3 days and we fasted and we prayed and we said, “Lord. Is this what you want? Is this your will?” and after long about the afternoon of day two, he made that calling sure. And its been now 22 months that I’ve been running for United States Congress.

Who in their right mind would spend 2 years to run for a job that lasts 2 years? You’d have to be absolutely a fool to do that. You are now looking at a fool for Christ. This is a fool for Christ. And in the midst of him making this calling sure, what has occurred now in this particular race is that this Congressional seat out of 435 in the country has become… it has been one of the top five races in the country, and in the last week this has become one of the top three races in the country, and you may have seen how God has in his own will, and his own plan, has focused like a laser beam after this scandal that came up about a week or so ago. He has focused like a laser beam in his reasoning on this race.

The reason why this is one of the top three races is because this race will probably decide which way Congress goes this fall. We could talk more about what that means for this nation, what this means for defeating radical Islam, what this means for what the future of the family is going to be, what this is going to mean for the future of the freedom of religious expression.

Source: Minnesota Monitor [emphasis added]

If God calls you to run for elected office, it's difficult to avoid the implication that God must want you to actually hold that elected office. So, when a person claims that God has called them to be a candidate, then they are effectively implying that God actually wants them to win. If people are inclined to vote against this person, they are being told that they are contemplating defying the Will of God. Everyone is being told that their personal preferences don't matter — that God has already picked the right person for the job and that they should simply go along with it. This is, then, an implicit denial of popular sovereignty which is the foundation of a liberal democracy.

The above text, by the way, came from a speech which Michele Bachmann gave at Living Word Christian Center, a church in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. More than a speech, this looks like it was a big political rally. The pastor even acted like he was officially endorsing her:

Pastor Mac Hammond: Amen. Now be seated again for a moment please. I have somebody special I want to introduce you to tonight. State Senator Michele Bachmann is with us and I’m going to ask her to come in in just a moment, and of course many of you know Michele, know of her pursuit of the United States Senate seat vacated by Mark Kennedy or Congressional seat vacated by Mark Kennedy’s run for a United States Senate seat. Keeping all this straight gets to be challenging.

But ya know we can’t publicly endorse as a church and would not for any candidate but I can tell you personally that I’m going to vote for Michele Bachmann, because I’ve come to know her, what she stands for, and I want her to share her testimony with you tonight. Would you give her a warm welcome as she comes to share? Thank you Michele.

A pastor giving a sermon in a church is not allowed to endorse candidates for public office — that's a violation of the regulations governing their tax-exempt status. Hammond tries to get around this by saying that he cannot endorse her, but all of this words — as well as his invitation for her to give a campaign speech — scream out "I endorse this person, please vote for her!" The rules were changed recent to allow this — a pastor can say whom they are voting for and why — but it's basically a way of endorsing candidates without speaking the words "I endorse this person."

Hammond tries desperately to get around this:

I said important that we put men and women of God in office in our government. I don’t want any more letters about church and politics don’t mix. If that’s your opinion then you need to get saved, because the Bible makes clear that we are to have an effect on the world in which we live.

Hammond doesn't want to hear about how church and politics don't mix? It sounds here like Hammond is admitting that he was mixing church and politics — that he was indeed endorsing Michele Bachmann, but is also denying that this should be illegal. Anyone who disagrees with him can't be a real Christian, regardless of what they might claim, and needs to be saved. After all, when it comes to both politics and religion, God endorses Pastor Mac Hammond, right?

I wonder if the IRS is going to investigate this church to the same degree that it has been investigating the All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California. If you remember, that church is under investigation because the Rev. Ed Bacon gave an anti-war sermon on the eve of the 2004 presidential election. Surely that's not worse than what Mac Hammond did...

Kos points out that Michelle Bachmann's own church, the Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, is a fundamentalist church which teaches that Catholics follow Satan. This is from their doctrinal statement that was unanimously adopted in 1959:

Therefore on the basis of a renewed study of the pertinent Scriptures we reaffirm the statement of the Lutheran Confessions, that "the Pope is the very Antichrist" (cf. Section II), especially since he anathematizes the doctrine of the justification by faith alone and sets himself up as the infallible head of the Church...We thereby affirm that we identify this "Antichrist" with the Papacy as it is known to us today...

We reject the idea that the teaching that the Papacy is the Antichrist rests on a merely human interpretation of history or is an open question. We hold rather that this teaching rests on the revelation of God in Scripture which finds its fulfillment in history. The Holy Spirit reveals this fulfillment to the eyes of faith.

Michelle Bachmann is herself a fundamentalist — that's undeniable because her church requires "strict adherence" to its tenets, including this one. She is running for office in a district that is 30% Catholic. Do they know that she believes they are following the Antichrist? Does she think she can fairly and appropriately represent the interests of the followers of the Antichrist?

 

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