Bachmann Staffer’s Ties To Uganda’s ‘Kill-Gays’ Bill
Jim Burroway has a good post exploring the troubling connection between GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann and Peter E. Waldron, a campaign staffer “responsible for her faith-based organizing both in Iowa and South Carolina.” Yesterday, the Atlantic reported on Waldron’s “arrest in Uganda in 2006 on charges of running illegal guns and ammunition,” but Borroway explores his deeper ties to the country’s infamous “kill gays” legislation and radical Christian theology:
1) ATTENDED SERVICES OF OF KILL-GAYS BILL ADVOCATE: A deeply religious born-again Christian, Waldron traveled to Uganda in 2004 to sell HIV-monitoring computer software to the government and preach on the weekends. There, he attended and was featured in the Church services of Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, “the prominent supporter of Uganda’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which calls for the death penalty for LGBT people under certain circumstances.”
2) NO ‘SECULAR-SPIRITUAL DIVISION’: This passage was lifted from a now-deleted document explaining the guiding theology of Waldron’s Cities of Faith Ministries. “For generations Christians have wrongly divided all the affairs of their lives into secular matters and spiritual matters. Many of those secular-spiritual divisions and classifications are artificial divisions and heretical in its origins based on humanist philosophy rather than the historic Biblical teachings of the Church.”
3) SOCIETY WILL COLLAPSE WITHOUT GOD: “A totalitarian form of governance arises when the Word of God is compromised, ignored or denied. A person will self-destruct from abuse of spirit, soul and body. A nation will collapse under a “hard” or “soft” form of dictatorship, abuse of public or elected office, and a general denial of human freedom – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – arises. The source of one’s belief system dictates the conduct whether it be personal or national. The same goes for the end result.”
4) CHRISTIAN DOMINATION: According to George Grant, a Christian Reconstructionist with whom Waldron co-wrote a book, “It is dominion we are after. World conquest. …If Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, as the Bible says, and if our commission is to bring the land into subjection to His Lordship, as the Bible says, then all our activities, all our witnessing, all our preaching, all our craftsmanship, all our stewardship, and all our political action will aim at nothing short of that sacred purpose.”
It’s impossible to know the degree to which Michele Bachmann agrees with these beliefs, but given her ongoing association with reactionary Christian thinkers and history of pandering to these groups in order to advance her political ambitions, it’s fairly possible and maybe even probable that she would associate herself with some of these statements.
Meanwhile, the the campaign is standing by Waldron. “Michele’s faith is an important part of her life and Peter did a tremendous job with our faith outreach in Iowa,” told Politico. “We are fortunate to have him on our team and look forward to having him expanding his efforts in several states.”
read it all.