When Michele Bachmann was studying law at Oral Roberts University, she became particularly close to one of her professors, John Eidsmoe--to the point she considers him her mentor. Well, a little peek into what this guy thinks is, to put it mildly, freaking scary.
In its recent profile of Bachmann, Eidsmoe recently told The New Yorker that he doesn't know any way in which the Mad Minnesotan's views diverge from the prevailing current of thought at ORU. Just what is that current?
Eidsmoe explained to me how the Coburn School of Law, in the years that Bachmann was there, wove Christianity into the legal curriculum. “Say we’re talking in criminal law, and we get to the subject of the insanity defense,” he said. “Well, Biblically speaking, is there such a thing as insanity and is it a defense for a crime? We might look back to King David when he’s captured by the Philistines and he starts frothing at the mouth, playing crazy and so on.” When Biblical law conflicted with American law, Eidsmoe said, O.R.U. students were generally taught that “the first thing you should try to do is work through legal means and political means to get it changed.”
If that doesn't unnerve you enough, consider that during Bachmann's time, the ORU law review frequently published articles by leading Reconstructionist R. J. Rushdoony. According to Religion Dispatches, Eidsmoe himself is a card-carrying Reconstructionist who believes lower-level officials have the duty to "interpose" between the people and leaders who step out of line.
PFAW's Brian Tashman had a chance to read one of Eidsmoe's books, God & Caesar. Written in 1984, it argues that this nation faces "moral decay" for not embracing the kind of strict Old Testament law that most Reconstructionists want. He also quotes Rushdoony in calling for man to "exercise dominion in the name of God."
Eidsmoe has taken stances that, by comparison, make Bachmann look sane. For instance, in 2005 he spoke at the national convention of the neo-Confederate Council of Conservative Citizens. And in 2010, he appeared at a rally commemorating the anniversary of Alabama seceding from the Union, and argued that John Calhoun and Jefferson Davis knew the Constitution better than Lincoln. When a group of Wisconsin teabaggers got wind of the latter appearance, they disinvited him from a meeting later that year. When you're too extreme for the tea party, yet somehow still have a job at ORU, that says a lot about ORU's character. It also says a lot about Bachmann, who thus far has refuses to disown him.