Zionism vs Dominionism

August 10, 2014

Both Eric Cantor and Michele Bachmann have extreme religious views.  In Cantor’s Zionism  God expressly desires a piece of land in Middle East be ruled and occupied by Jews.  Bachmann’s  Dominionism asserts that Christians should play a special role in the American Republic.  However, the major news outlets have treated their religous beliefs very differently.  While it is open season on Bachmann, Cantor’s Zionism is off limits.  In a bizarre marriage of extremism, Zionism and Dominionism are joined at the hip; one never speaking a word against the other.  But which one is truly dangerous for America?

Michele Bachmann


Recent American history has for the most part avoided deep discussions regarding the “validity” of personal religious beliefs in politics.  This is no longer the case and a can of worms has been opened by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Newsweek and Rolling Stone that will have implications for all the political forces in Washington, not just the Christian right.


The New Yorker of years gone by could have summed up Michele Bachman’s religious beliefs with a terse sentence describing how God spoke to her and told her to become a tax attorney for the IRS: enough said.  The remaining 8,450 words could have been spent on William James or the origins of Lutheran communities in Texas.

The bottom line on both pieces is that Michele Bachmann is dangerous because she actually believes in her religion, and that will not do for Mr. Remnick and Mr. Wenner; they would much prefer she became a Unitarian.  Both are convinced that we cannot actually have people really believing this stuff running for president.

The New York Times editor, Bill Keller, jumped on the bandwagon with his editorial:  “I care a lot if a candidate is going to be a Trojan horse for a sect that believes it has divine instructions on how we should be governed..”

Newsweek/The Daily Beast was not to be outdone with their double whammy Newsweek cover of the crazed Bachmann and  Michelle Goldberg’s article explaining how Bachman and Texas governor Perry are dominionists and dangers to the Republic.  “..the GOP is now poised to nominate someone who will mount an all-out assault on (the separation of church and state). We need to take their beliefs seriously, because they certainly do.”  According to Goldberg these overtly Christian candidates are on the fringe because they believe a country that is 90% Christian should be governed by Christians and be culturally biased toward Christianity.

It’s clear that our mass media is not thrilled about Michele Bachman’s religion.  But to what extent is Michele Bachmann’s  religion really dangerous?  Has it started any wars or cost the taxpayer anything?  Is it guiding our foreign policy or alienating the United States from large swaths of the world?

Keller from the The New York Times opens the floodgates for asking tough questions about our political leadership’s religious beliefs:


Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor is not running for President but he is the House Majority Leader and third most powerful person in the House of Representatives.  In a recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cantor’s office made the following statement:  “Eric stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the Administration and what has been, up until this point, one party rule in Washington.” The official statement goes on to say that “that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.”

This statement is remarkably dangerous, and possibly treasonous.  Mr. Cantor is basically telling the world that his office will serve as a check on the President on behalf of Israel.  The second part of the statement is ludicrous.  How is the United States reliant on Israel for its security?  It’s a perfect example of how endlessly repeating a piece of rhetoric somehow makes it true.

Is Mr. Cantor convinced that the United State’s strategic geopolitical interests are intertwined with Isreal’s because of his religious beliefs or did he come to that conclusion through sound strategic thinking?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a tough chat with Netanyahu following Joe Biden’s humiliation in Israel, when, unbeknownst to him, the Israelis announced new settlements in Jerusalem during his visit.  Later, the administration made a statement that said the “relationship” between the United States and Israel depended on the pace of negotiations with the Palestinians.  An infuriated Senator Chuck Schumer, the third ranking Democrat in the Senate, made this statement.

“That is terrible,” Schumer said today. “That is the dagger because the relationship is much deeper than the disagreements on negotiations, and most Americans—Democrat, Republican, Jew, non-Jew–would feel that. So I called up Rahm Emanuel and I called up the White House and I said, ‘If you don’t retract that statement you are going to hear me publicly blast you on this,'” Schumer said.

Mr. Schumer is willing to take the side of Israel over the Presidential administration of his own party because of his allegiance to Israel.  What is the relationship with Israel doing for the United States?  Is Mr. Schumer’s  support of Israel directly related to his religious beliefs and the religious beliefs of many of his constituents?

AIPAC is sending 20% of Congress to Israel this summer.  According the The Washington Post

“A record 81 House members, about a fifth of the chamber, are spending a week in Israel this month, courtesy of a foundation set up by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby.”

Considering Congress’s brilliant performance this summer with the debt limit, do they have nothing better to do then spend 10 days being lobbied by the Israeli government?  Are they there because Israel supplies us with oil or because of someone’s religious beliefs?

Michele Goldberg of Newsweek/The Daily Beast said we must take Michele Bachmann’s and Governor Perry’s “beliefs seriously, because they certainly do”.  But will Perry and Bachmann get us into a regional war because of their beliefs?

The Arab Spring has invigorated the democratic aspirations of all peoples of the Middle East and its logical last act will be the West Bank and Gaza.  Egpyt’s religious  fundamentalism is no longer under the firm hand of the American supported Mubarak.  Syria’s Assad is desperately holding on to power against the Sunni majority and is certainly capable of making a diversionary attack on Israel to maintain his control.  Finally, when the millions of disenfranchised Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan rise up, Israel could very well face a a battle on several fronts.  Should the United States commit itself to a multi-front war against practically the entire Middle East because of Eric Cantor’s and Chuck Schumer’s religion?

This September the United Nations will be voting on whether it should recognize Palestinian statehood.  This measure will pass the general assembly by an overwhelming majority but it will  be vetoed by the The United States in the Security Council, enraging Muslims across the world and causing lasting anti-Americanism.  Geo-politically it’s  a losing position, yet the United States will sacrifice it’s own well being for that of Israel.  This is a clear example of how religion effects politics, yet Mr. Remnick, Mr. Wenner, Ms. Goldberg and The New York Times will not question the religious beliefs of Mr. Cantor and Mr. Schumer.

September 11 and Iraq

During the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks little will be heard on why we were attacked.  Were we attacked because of Michele Bachmann’s religion?

Robert Frisk of The Independent addresses this directly.



The war in Iraq was part of an agenda created by neo-conservatives in the 1990’s.  The neo-conservatives  aligned themselves with Israel for religious reasons, and they used the events of 9/11 to promote their agenda for a new Middle East. There is no escaping that the neo-conservative agenda was forged in large part do to religious beliefs, beliefs that eventually led to hundreds of thousands of dead civilians, thousands of dead soldiers and millions of refugees, many of whom where Christian.

American support for Israel has no strategic logic, only a religious one.   This begs the question, which religion is the true danger to the United States?

Matt Taibbi writes that “Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions.”  He may be correct, but  is she dangerous?  Mr. Cantor believes that a family in Miami Beach that can demonstrate its Jewishness has every right to pickup and relocate to a settlement in the West Bank  while a Palestinian who was born there, whose parents and grandparents where born there must remain in a refugee camp because he is a member of the wrong religion.  This is abhorrent to any American yet Mr. Cantor and Mr. Schumer insist we must support “the relationship”.

Is Michele Bachmann’s Religion a Danger to America?

It most certainly is.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth

One only has to imagine the founder of said religion on a return visit.  A thirty-three year old carpenter in the days before power tools with a visceral dislike for money changers could make quite a scene on the Goldman Sach’s trading desk.


Would he be hobnobbing at the Council on Foreign Relations and taking AIPAC junkets to Israel or would he be with the disenfranchised in Palestinian refugee camps?


Would he be brainstorming with the neo-cons to dream up new wars or would he be standing with those that say enough already?


Would he be in Davos or Jackson Hole conspiring to make billions for bankers and the mega-rich or would he be comforting those out of jobs, out of homes and out of luck?

Mr. Remnick and Mr. Wenner are right to fear Michele Bachman’s religion, because if by some miracle the country actually heard and followed its message, quite of few of our current cultural, political and economic leaders would find themselves in the wrong side of history.

Is Michele Bachmann Authentic?

The founder of Mrs. Bachmann’s religion was never one to beat around the bush.  A wealthy, well dressed scribe wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus would have none of him.



The fox is cunning- all men have cunning and to get as far as Mrs. Bachmann has in politics, we can safely assume that the fox can rest in her.  The birds of the air are pride and she, like all people, certainly has her share of it.  The question is, does the spirit have a place to reside in her as well and this can only be answered by Mrs. Bachmann and the founder of her religion.

The more important question is whether we as a nation have left room for the founder of Michele Bachmann’s religion to rest his head.  Mr. Remnick, Mr. Wenner, The New York Times and many others think he has too much room.

We should be so lucky.


The is article was edited by Jim Horky

Posted by Robert Bonomo

Labels: AIPAC, Dominionism, Eric Cantor, Michele Bachmann, religion, Zionism


  1. AnonymousSeptember 13, 2011 at 10:19 PMReply
  2. I am an evangelical Christian (born-again, Bible believing), but Bachmann’s dispensational eschatology (mindless zionism, pro-jewishness) is repellant and recent in the Protestant church (100yrs. or so). In spite of her supposed seriousness vis-a vis Christianity she is not above answering direct questions (especially ones that impinge on her religious world-view) like a slippery political hack.
  3. RealityZoneSeptember 16, 2011 at 11:37 AMReply
  4. I cross posted this over to my blog.
    If you do not approve, please let me know and I will take it down.
  5. AnonymousOctober 25, 2011 at 5:42 PMReply
  6. Clever but incredibly biased. Both are so pro Israel I can see either nuking Iran and bringing on WW3 as “God’s Will” . And to use Christ’s words to defend dominionism is intellectually insulting. To ignore the danger of a government policy dominated by ANY religious philosophy is to ignore the whole purpose of separation of Church and State.
  7. Robert BonomoOctober 25, 2011 at 5:58 PMReply
  8. I am not defending dominionism nor Bachmann, I hope I made this clear: for example, “could have summed up Michele Bachman’s religious beliefs with a terse sentence describing how God spoke to her and told her to become a tax attorney for the IRS: enough said”.

    Why is it intellectually insulting to use Christ’s words to point out how un-Christian we are? How many dominionists support Israel, the rich, the War in Iraq and the occupation of Palestine? Is that Christian? My point is that the Dominionists, Christian Zionists and the like are far from Christian.

    People are afraid to use Christ’s words because they are branded as fundamentalists, not ready for intellectual prime time. Your comments makes my point. So who can quote the Sermon on the Mount? Only Palin and Bachmann? Sad, very sad indeed.

  9. Ross TaylorJanuary 25, 2013 at 3:14 AMReply
    Alabama Land Surveyor

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