There is a simple rule of thumb when it comes to spiritual matters. When an individual publicly proclaims her own spiritual righteousness, we can be sure she is not righteous. When an individual publicly proclaims her spiritual right-ness in the context of a national political campaign for the presidency in order to cement her political base with one wing of the American Christian movement, we can be sure that she is using her religion for personal gain. In a recent address to students at Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia, presidential contender Michelle Bachmann said, ""Even though I hadn't been a drinker, even though I never did drugs ... even though I hadn't been chasing around, it didn't matter. I was a sinner." She went on to say, "I radically abandoned myself to Jesus Christ." She went on to place a series of hard core right-wing ideological positions in the context of her radical abandonment of herself to Christ including opposition to abortion, opposition to "Obamacare," and unquestioning support of Israel. The evidently unstated assumption and assertion was that in abandoning herself to Christ she has become God's warrior or champion in the American political arena. Her religion, that is, validates her candidacy and, by extension, God does as well.
In the realm of the Spirit, if ya got it, ya don't flaunt it. That is basic, fundamental to spirituality across the major religions including most especially Christianity. We are painfully aware of Jesus' struggle against self-proclaimed righteousness in his own day. Religious establishment types in his day would stand in the temple in Jerusalem and loudly proclaim their righteousness in self-serving prayers (Matthew 6:5). Jesus criticized them for it. One cannot judge Bachmann's personal faith when she's not on the stump, but when she uses that faith as a political tool then the public use of it becomes fair game for analysis, and in that context it is clear that publicly she has not abandoned herself to Christ but to a religious ideology and the quest for power. In her public expression of her ideology, we hear little spirituality. She is, instead, bombastic, aggressive, and impressively self-righteous. The fact that she is trailing badly in the polls only seems to bring out these traits in her all the more clearly. Michelle Bachmann's public behavior is that of a person who is hungry for power and using religion as an avenue to gain power.
In the long history of the Christian faith, those who have radically given themselves to Christ display marks of a deep humility that is aware of how impossible it is for any person to radically abandon themselves to God. On their knees in prayer and meditation, they seek to give self over to God. Let me be clear. Any politician on the national public stage in our super-heated ideological age who claims to have given herself (or himself) to Christ is simply not to be trusted. The words do not reflect the reality especially when they are used to "gin up the base."
