The Michele Bachmann juggernaut is showing no signs of subsiding as the Minnesota congresswoman is racing neck and neck with Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential frontrunner despite her far-right views on homosexuality and other social issues.
Bachmann courted the Christian vote in Iowa recently, according to NBC, attending a church service during which the pastor called homosexuality "immoral" and "unnatural." The pastor also showed the congregation a video featuring a man who claims to have been cured of his homosexuality after having a conversation with God.
"I am so happy God has given me natural affection for a woman," Adam Hood said during the video, adding that his wife is nine months pregnant. "We need to have compassion for people that are bound by that sin. And it is a sin. Call a spade a spade."
That type of talk puts Bachmann firmly out of step with the majority of Americans, including many moderate Republicans who support same-sex marriage in a country that’s growing increasingly accepting of homosexuality.
Nonetheless Bachmann, whose husband reportedly runs a counselling clinic that claims to "de-gay" its clients, isn’t shy about waging an apparent culture war, mixing religion with politics as she relentlessly romances Christian pastors and other religious voters in advance of the so-called Iowa Straw Poll today.
Late last week, the Bachmann campaign endorsed more than 100 state pastors and religious leaders.
"Michele has a long track record of standing firm on and fighting for conservative issues on the local, state and national level," Pastor Brad Sherman said in a release from the campaign.
"She has been in the battle for decades and has shown that her core values are non-negotiable in political storms. She has earned her claim to having a ’titanium spine’ on the issues we care most about."
Another pastor added: "Michele has fearlessly taken a stand for life and traditional marriage, while championing fiscally conservative legislation."
Similarly, fellow GOP candidate Rick Sanctorum, a Catholic, said, "It's sad that these questions are asked because of ignorance of what the Bible teaches."
Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, cited the verse's source, Ephesians 5, to clarify that biblical theology demanding submission and love between husbands and wives relates to marriage, not the workplace.
Land told ABC News that while the wife is called to subject herself to her husband, "there is a good many more things a husband is required to do than the wife is required to do."
In Ephesians chapter 5 verse 23, husbands are described as the "head of the wife" and are called in verse 25 to "love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her."
Land explained that the husband is called to be the head of the house and give himself in sacrificial service to his wife.
Given that both men and women are called to give of themselves in marriage, Nance lamented that the male presidential candidates were not asked the same or a similar question.
Earlier this month, women expressed similar concern for the unfair treatment of female politicians when Newsweek magazine featured a wild-eyed Bachmann with the words "Queen of Rage."
Miss America 2011, Teresa Scanlan, the latest of several female figures to denounce the portrayal, accused Newsweek on national television of being sexist for portraying Bachmann differently than it does other male politicians.
"Whenever they've had a male on their cover, even if they don't agree with them as far as policy goes, they portray them in a serious light; they take them seriously and they portray them in a positive light," she asserted.
Neither Bachmann nor former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin were given the same respect in their cover pictures, said Scanlan.
Palin was pictured on a 2009 Newsweek cover posing in a tight red shirt and bicycle shorts. Palin told Facebook fans that the picture was taken for Runner's World magazine and said its appearance on Newsweek was "out of context."
Scanlan said of Newsweek, "They simply try to degrade women and make fun of them and portray them in a negative light, and I think that shows extreme sexism."
She also criticized American culture for not taking sexism allegations seriously.
Bloggers, political pundits and even liberal group National Organization for Women also criticized the latest cover.
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