As Charlie Pierce of Esquire says after gazing in awe at the latest stunt by U.S. Rep. Michele (“The Girl With the Faraway Eyes”) Bachmann: “I am going to miss her so.” Though something tells me her impending retirement from the House may not remove her from the national arena entirely.
I mean, won’t there always be a place for a conservative Christian politician who has the temerity to lecture Jews on how to be Good Jews?
It all started out so innocuously, with Bachmann talking to Tony Perkins on the radio and providing the standard premillenialist take on Israel’s role in the End Times (per Right Wing Watch‘s Brian Tashman):
Speaking with Family Research Council head Tony Perkins yesterday, Rep. Michele Bachmann warned that President Obama is “threatening Israel,” and by doing so is fulfilling biblical prophecies and bringing about the End Times. The Minnesota congresswoman told Perkins that Obama is pressuring Israel to “give up its land to terrorists” allied with Al Qaeda, which will lead to a “final war, destroying and reducing to rubble Israel.”
“That’s in the natural, I just believe that as believers in Jesus Christ who see the authority of scripture, I believe that the Lord and his strong right arm will have Israel’s back and will be her protector,” Bachmann said. “The question is, will we as the United States cooperate in standing with Israel and blessing Israel, or will we join those nations that come against her? We are definitely on the wrong side. It is jaw dropping, it is stunning, it’s breathtaking.”
This is pretty ho-hum stuff for people like Bachmann–even the hint that maybe Obama’s role in touching off Armageddon suggests we should look behind his ear for the Mark of the Beast. But she just can’t stop herself from laying out the rest of the eschatological implications:
The Jewish community gave him their votes, their support, their financial support and as recently as last week, forty-eight Jewish donors who are big contributors to the president wrote a letter to the Democrat [sic] senators in the US Senate to tell them to not advance sanctions against Iran. This is clearly against Israel’s best interest. What has been shocking has been seeing and observing Jewish organizations who it appears have made it their priority to support the political priority and the political ambitions of the president over the best interests of Israel. They sold out Israel.
Pierce sums up the message as: “So get with the program, Jewish people. We Christians need you on stage for the Finale.”
Jewish folk in the U.S. and in the Middle East who occasionally welcome the support of Christian Zionists like Bachmann as just part of what it takes to protect Israel really need to take a longer look at their reflection in those faraway eyes. Ain’t nothing there but fire and destruction.
