Another Reverend Wright Moment? Bachmann Officially Leaves Her Church

Is this Bachmann’s Reverend Wright Moment?  The leftist media will certainly make a lot more out of this than they did out of Obama leaving his church…

 

It’s been a busy week for Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign. After fielding questions about her husband’s clinic, now the 2012 contender is facing curiosity about her church affiliation. CNN has more:

…shortly before announcing her White House bid, [Bachmann] officially quit a church she’d belonged to for years.

Bachmann, a Minnesota congresswoman, and her husband, Marcus, withdrew their membership from Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, last month, according to church officials.

The Bachmanns had been members of the church for more than 10 years, according to Joel Hochmuth, director of communications for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod [WELS], the broader denominational body of which Bachmann’s former church is a member.

While some outlets are questioning why Bachmann and her husband separated from the church just six days before her campaign’s launch, Hochmuth confirmed that they had not been attending the congregation for at least two years.

Why does it matter, you ask? WELS has a relatively controversial take on the Catholic Church, which some believe was the catalyst behind Bachmann’s move to separate herself before she faced a highly-publicized, campaign-ravaging “Reverend Wright moment.” The Atlantic writes:

WELS is the most conservative of the major Lutheran church organizations, known for its strict adherence to the writings of Martin Luther, the German theologian who broke with the Catholic Church and launched the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. This includes endorsing Luther’s statements about the papacy. From the WELS “Doctrinal Statement on the Antichrist“:

Since Scripture teaches that the Antichrist would be revealed and gives the marks by which the Antichrist is to be recognized, and since this prophecy has been clearly fulfilled in the history and development of the Roman Papacy, it is Scripture which reveals that the Papacy is the Antichrist.

This, The Atlantic claims, may cause major barriers for the congresswoman as she seeks to secure the Republican ticket. This is not the first time, though, that this issue has arisen. The Los Angeles Times reports:

The matter has been tailing Bachmann for much of her political career. She was asked about the church’s statement in 2006, when she was running for Congress.

“It’s abhorrent, it’s religious bigotry,” Bachmann said then. “I love Catholics, I’m a Christian, and my church does not believe that the pope is the antichrist, that’s absolutely false.”

In another piece entitled, “Michele Bachmann’s Reverend Wright Moment,” New York Magazine’s DailyIntel blog takes an opportunity to exploit the situation for laughs — at Bachmann’s expense, of course:

The actual reasoning behind the “antichrist” language is a somewhat complicated theological argument involving lots of historical detail about the Protestant Reformation. We’d summarize it, but we’re waiting for the Michele Bachmann version, which will hopefully involve Martin Luther’s move to Iowa and his bravery fighting demons in the battle of Concord, New Hampshire.

It is entirely possible that Bachmann has, indeed, separated herself from the church because of its controversial statements on Catholicism. Perhaps she was previously unaware of WELS’s written stance and after discovering it in 2006, she may have begun to separate from the house of worship. Either way, her past words on the matter and her associated actions (leaving the church) are not necessarily contradictory.

Regardless of the reasoning for her departure, WELS’s written doctrine is going to provide plenty of fodder for individuals who oppose Bachmann, her policies and her faith.

Source:  The Blaze

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Walesa's Warning

Leaders: The champion of Polish freedom tells America it's no longer that shining city on a hill. As it slouches toward socialism, he warns, those yearning to breathe free in the world can no longer look to the U.S. for help.

They were the giants of their age. Together, President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II and a little known shipyard worker named Lech Walesa stood up to Soviet communism and brought freedom to the captive nations of Europe.

Last Friday, Walesa was in Chicago campaigning for a GOP gubernatorial candidate in the Illinois primary who happened to be Polish. Arguably the father of Polish democracy, Walesa knows a little bit about tyranny, socialism and the slippery path to both, and came to warn us about the path we've been on.

In a press conference, Walesa commented on an America that seemingly apologizes for everything these days, cajoles rather than confronts the thugs of the world and is embarked on a path to shackle beyond redemption the free economy that led the Free World to victory.

He no longer thinks we are the last best hope for mankind.

"The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it, militarily," the Polish leader said. "They also lead economically, but they're getting weak.

"But they don't lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we lost that hope."

Walesa led the Solidarity movement in Poland. He was in a sense a community organizer, but not in the mold of a Saul Alinsky. He sought to liberate his people, not control them.

The marches and protests that led to Polish freedom were a precursor to America's tea party movement that likewise seeks to throw off the chains of a command-and-control society and restore genuine economic and political freedom.

The Soviet empire had its commissars. Our government has its czars, and Walesa definitely feels the America that was his friend is moving in the wrong direction. He sees our quest for redistribution of income as not different from the Marxist credo — from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

In a video-taped interview, Walesa saw a hint of socialism creeping into America's domestic policies. He spoke of "the issue with the banks" and how "the government wastes all the money ... building a bureaucracy — just for itself."

Indeed, it seems the only growth sector in the U.S. is its government and the unions that exist not for the prosperity and freedom of their members, but for the power and influence of their leaders.

Poland had Lech Walesa. We have the SEIU's Andy Stern ,who says that if those who disagree with command-and-control government do not bow to the power of persuasion, they will bow to the persuasion of power.

It has been a long journey for Walesa from the Gdansk Lenin Shipyards to Chicago's Back of the Yards. He's the man who turned an illegal independent trade union into a force for freedom in communist Poland. He served as Poland's president from 1990 to 1995.

He has witnessed a lot of history and knows when people refuse to learn from it.

In Walesa's view, something needs to be done to restore America's strength and leadership. America, in his view, is too big to fail.

Lech Walesa – USA No Longer Has Leadership… America Was the Last Hope