Representative Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) pushed her tendency to over-the-top outlandish allegations to new heights when she attacked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin for what Bachmann alleges are ties to radical Islam and the Islamic Brotherhood. The queen of cuckoo doubled down July 19, leveling the same conspiracy charges at a fellow member of Congress.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn) is the only Muslim member of Congress, and easy pickings for low-brow attacks from ignorant people. Ellison is a Congressman from the same state as her, but Bachmann had no problem alleging that he is a member of a vast conspiracy to infiltrate the U.S. government and bring Sharia Law.
Her fear and loathing of anyone not of her faith is in sharp contrast to the tenets of the Universal Life Church (ULC), which speak to the respect and understanding of all faiths, or even an atheist view. Persons who get ordained and become a pastor through the Universal Life Church are from all walks of life and faiths.
To “get ordained” within the belief system of Bachmann, one must show allegiance to her world view, no matter how twisted it becomes. What Bachmann and her followers don’t recognize in themselves are that they exhibit the very same extremist personas that they claim to be fighting against. They rail against Sharia Law, yet demand the Ten Commandments be placed in courtrooms and revered as law.
The ULC is criticized by many from more fundamentalist religious thinking as lacking because it is inclusive. That is the strongest point the church has to offer. Religion has been a part of the human experience since we became cognizant, but that doesn’t mean one, or any for that matter, are the sole bearers of truth. The Universal Life Church says all faiths are as valid as the next, and so is non-belief.
To become a pastor in the ULC means to have a wide-open view of spirituality. Great evil has been done throughout history by persons claiming to be doing so in the name of their God. To say that all faiths are equally valid recognizes the human spiritual search and experience without morphing that acknowledgement into an us against them battle with epic proportions.
The fundamentalist believes all other of the hundreds of religious faiths are wrong, only theirs is correct. It’s amazing they don’t recognize the folly of that line of thinking. In fact, most religious doctrine is derived from myth. That doesn’t discount the possibility of spiritual experience, but demonstrates the logical conclusion that all faths deserve equal respect.
Adhering to one religious dogma as perfect and all others inferior provides fertile ground for bigotry and hate to grow, as has occurred with Michelle Bachmann. Choosing to become a pastor and get ordained with the Universal Life Church shows a turning away from the faith of exclusion and to a world that truly includes everyone. Instead of us vs. them, our existence on the spiritual level becomes just us.