Sunday, May 30, 2010

Michele Bachmann Believes Helping Israel Brings Blessings From God, Quotes John Adams.

Andy Birkey wrote this article for The Minnesota Independent back in February, but I thought there was something of interest that I would like to share.  Michele Bachmann delivered a speech at a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Los Angeles, in which she stated that she believed any nation that helps Israel would avoid being cursed from God.
I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.
While I thought this statement was troubling, it was Bachmann said next which I found most interesting - she quoted a founding father, John Adams, from a not he had written to François Adriaan van der Kemp in 1809.

Bachmann read the note to her audience:
I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.
Bachmann points to a founding father and his faith, as mentioned in a letter, to support her argument that America should stand by Israel no matter what.  First I would like to mention that at that point in time, Israel was not even in existence, and the land was part of the Ottoman Empire until the early 20th century, so one could argue that Adams support would have only been for the people, not the country. 

The second point I wanted to make was the fact that Bachmann points to a letter from John Adams to support her claim that America should stand by Israel at all costs, but I am reminded of another letter from a founding father that the teabag right refuses to accept as proof of the founding father's intentions - a letter sent by Thomas Jeffferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1802.

In the Danbury Baptist letter, Thomas Jefferson penned the now famous "wall of separation" line that conservatives acknowledge as not being part of the constitution, and therefore inadmissible.  According to the likes of Glenn Beck, progressives are the ones who have tried to build such wall.

"Progressives have built up this wall of separation between church and state and it's nonsense. It is not what we were founded on. We were found on ten little safety tips that nobody can even put in any public building anymore or dare we utter them. Let's take down that fictional wall. It never existed. It was to protect the churches. Save the republic..." Beck had told his audience last year - those "ten little safety tips" Beck refers to are the Ten Commandments, not the Bill of Rights.  Sounds like Beck wants America to return to it's alleged religious roots.

Let's take a look at that letter Jefferson wrote:
To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen

The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.

Th Jefferson
Jan. 1. 1802.
Why is it that these teabaggers like to cherry pick their history to advance their agenda, especially when such facts can be easily obtained?  The hypocrisy amazes me...

4 comments:

  1. There is no Biblical basis for blessing Israel. In the context of Genesis 12, the promise was that those who blesses Abram would be blessed and those who cursed him would be cursed. So this blessing was for an individual, not a nation. Abram was still childless at the time.

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  2. I will have to say that I am not terribly familiar with the Bible apart from what I learned in CCD. I typically read into a story as I come across it.

    With Bachmann's comments, I found more of an issue that she quotes a letter from the founding fathers while conservatives like to discount other letters because they don't fit in nicely with their revisionist conservative narrative...

    Every teabagger believes they are some kind of historian and Christian scholar, but in reality, they distort the truth to fit their world view...

    Glenn Beck is a prime example because he distorts so many facts that can be easily checked with the internet...

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  3. Jefferson may have written that letter but in doing so does not mean it is part of the constitution. If that is all that's required to amendment the constitution then I'm afraid we are in deeper doo doo then we already are!

    Genesis 12. 3 does not mention Israel or nations. Mr Bachman quoted the footnotes put in the Schofield bible in 1967 by Zionists.

    Bachman is no Christian she is however a Christian Zionist which is an oxymoron. Zionism was a political movement. Also the belief of Christ needs to be addressed. Jews who are not Christian do not believe Jesus was the Messiah.

    Then one needs to research whether the modern day Jews are descendants of Christ. You'll find in writings that there are the Sephardi Jews and the Ashkenazi Jews. Also search and read the Thirteenth Tribe

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  4. I am not familiar with what the Schofield Bible is, but I will be sure to look it up...

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