Antichrist buzz brings Bachmann camp denials

10/31/2006

Michele Bachmann’s campaign says talk about her Lutheran synod’s linking the pope to the antichrist is just a hornet’s nest stirred up by the Patty Wetterling camp.

Pamela Miller,
Star Tribune
Last update: October 30, 2006 – 10:20 PM

The labyrinthine doctrine of a theologically conservative Lutheran denomination has wound its way into the Sixth District congressional campaign, a twist that has Republican Michele Bachmann’s campaign fuming and DFLer Patty Wetterling’s denying any role.

Liberal blogs are abuzz with claims that the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the parent of Bachmann’s church, holds that the pope is the antichrist.

“Good grief, that’s ridiculous,” said Bachmann spokeswoman Connie Slama.

The issue surfaced on the Internet last week at www. faithfuldemocrats.com, got a mention on Saturday’s Star Tribune opinion page and was the subject of a weekend debate question that WCCO-TV’s Pat Kessler put to Bachmann.

Kessler asked: “The Minneapolis-based Star Tribune reports ... that the church you belong to is affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod which, it says, regards the Roman Catholic pope as the antichrist. Is this true? Do you share the views of your church? And, why should any Catholic in the Sixth District vote for you if it is true?”

Bachmann replied, “That’s a false statement. ... It’s abhorrent, religious bigotry. I love Catholics, I’m a Christian, and my church does not believe that the pope is the antichrist. That’s absolutely false. ... I welcome and have as part of our family many Catholic members as well.”

Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said the archdiocese “tries to stay out of political stuff.” But Catholics United for the Common Good, an online group based in Massachusetts, demanded that Bachmann denounce any association of the pope with the antichrist.

In Christian theology, definitions of the antichrist range from a being who embodies evil to teachers of heretical doctrine. In the 1500s, the term was tossed back and forth between Protestant reformers, most prominently Martin Luther, and the Vatican.

The Rev. Jonathan Brohn, co-pastor at Bachmann’s church, Salem Lutheran in Stillwater, said the synod views the antichrist—or “antichrists,” as the Bible sometimes refers to—as “someone who stands in the place of Christ."Luther saw the office of the papacy as falling into this role because it stands between man and God and tries to take too much authority from God,” Brohn said. “The modern-day pope retains that authority but doesn’t use it much.”

The bottom line, he said, is another synod statement: “All people who believe that Jesus is their savior from sin are members of the holy Christian church, regardless of the nation, race, or church body to which they belong.”

The synod’s website (http://www.wels.net) includes this statement: “We thereby affirm that we identify this ‘antichrist’ with the papacy as it is known to us today. ... This neither means nor implies a blanket condemnation of all members of the Roman Catholic Church, for despite all the errors taught in that church, the Word of God is still heard there."The whole thing is just absurd,” said Slama, who said Bachmann was unavailable for comment but that her reply to Kessler should suffice. “The Wetterling camp has been shopping this one around for some time."Not true,” said Wetterling spokesman Corey Day. “The blogs are going heavy on this stuff, but we have nothing to do with it. We don’t want to make this campaign about religion.”