Michele Bachmann: Faith Healer for President?

Michele Bachmann seems like a very nice person; a kind person; an intelligent person; solid citizen; the type of person you might enjoy having as your next-door neighbor. I like her.

She has many admirable qualities, especially the fact that she raised five children of her own along with 23 foster children. That is the mark of a noble and generous human being in my mind. She is also a trained lawyer and was elected to the United States Congress, both of which are no small accomplishments.

Now Michele Bachmann is a Republican Party candidate for President, and the question for the nation is whether she is suitable to be Commander in Chief of the armed forces, leader of the executive branch of United States government, and ostensibly de facto leader of rest of the so-called free world.

I think she is not.

I fear that a potentially menacing and irrational form of fundamentalist evangelical religion trumps law, politics, kindness, intelligence, solid citizenship, and all the other beneficent human qualities in the heart and mind of Michele Bachmann.

She has described herself in her campaign in flattering terms as a small business owner and job creator before serving in congress as a Republican representative from the state of Minnesota. She’s been a business woman. That’s another good thing, I thought.

The fact that she didn’t readily reveal the exact nature of her small business seemed not so important to me, and was consequently overlooked until I learned only recently about where this nice lady is coming from.

According to CNN, her “job creating” business, which is still in operation with husband Marcus at the helm, is called Bachmann and Associates Inc., a Christian counseling service, billed as a “therapeutic clinic,” located in Lake Elmo MN, near the city of Minneapolis.

Among the many “clinic” and counselor specialties listed on the Bachmann web site are “Individual, Family, and Group Therapy” for “Men’s and Women’s Issues,” a polite euphemism for a course of Christian based “therapy” which aims at changing the sexual orientation of gay’s and lesbians.

Though the web site, for understandable reasons, says nothing about the sin of homosexuality, this “clinic” seriously engages in Christian “therapy” -- what might be called a form of gentle exorcism -- designed to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals with a little help from Jesus and the bible. Bachmann claims that parents of gay teenagers can turn to religion for help.

In a radio program interview, Dr. Marcus Bachmann, president and chief counselor at the “clinic” explained: "I think you clearly say [to the distraught parents of gay kids] what is the understanding of God's word on homosexuality… We have to understand barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined and just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn't mean we're supposed to go down that road."  Gays are “barbarians” in the mindset of Dr. Bachmann.

One former 17 year old “patient” of the Bachmann “clinic” told CNN that his mother referred him there to talk to a counselor about his homosexuality. "It was therapy that would help me change from being homosexual to straight,” said the boy. "If I did this… therapy program, God would perform a miracle and I could no longer be gay," he was told.

The “therapy” consisted of prayer, reading Bible passages, and mentoring with a purported ex-lesbian minister --.faith healing. The counselor actually told him that: "Not acting out on my same sex attractions and living a life of celibacy," would be best for him if the treatment didn’t work.

This kind of faith based “healing” and other forms of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation, has been repeatedly denounced by the American Psychological Association as unscientific and insufficiently supported by empirical evidence of efficacy.

Not surprisingly then, both the congresswoman and her husband have declined repeatedly to discuss their small business practices with the general public, except to say: "We're very proud of the business that we've created.” A sign on the “clinic” door says "no media."

As I noted earlier in a recent post, congresswoman Bachmann, along with other ultra right-wing Republican social conservatives in government, has displayed an almost pathological obsession with the sex lives of her constituents.

Michelle Bachmann is especially disdainful of homosexuality, abortion, and gratuitous sex between unmarried persons, having signed the Iowa Family Leader "Marriage Vow" pledge; and in 2004, she called for an amendment to her state constitution that would block gay marriages in other states from being recognized in Minnesota.

This nice lady wants to use her political power if elected president to amend the United States Constitution and the laws of this country to conform to her personal religious values. She favors government sponsored Christian religion and the teaching of biblical creationism in the nation’s public schools. She has no regard for any science which conflicts with her bible. Religion -- not reason and logic -- motivates her official as well as personal decisions.

I like Michelle Bachmann for several good reasons, however, a person whose primary business interest is faith healing is not suitable for the high office of President of the United States.