I wanted to write about the Tea Party because I believe that they are a threat to the stability of this nation. First off, I will never refer to them as teabaggers, crude sexual term and it delegitimizes the threat that they represent.

Now, I know that there are some good hard working patriotic people who are concerned about the debt in the Tea Party. But I do believe that they are being manipulated by the billionaire Koch Brothers and Grover Norquist of the anti-tax, anti-government Club for Growth. This is a man who said “I don’t want to kill government, I just want to shrink it to the size where I can drown it in a bathtub.”  Many republicans have signed a pledge to this man, whom I consider one of the most dangerous unelected men in the country.

The thing that really upsets me as a practicing Christian is that they cloak their dangerous economic and governing philosophy with a dangerous amount of Christian zealotry.

Both Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry have ties to an offshoot of Christianity called Christian Dominionists. They believe that in order for Christ to return, good Christian men and women have to take control of politics, or take back the nation for Christ if you will. The most extreme of these are Christian Reconstructionists, those that believe democracy is an anathema to God, and that America should be a theocracy. This would include the church running social services, the stoning of gays, and having punishment for people who commit adultery and even children who continue to disrespect their parents.

I am not saying that all Christians who are in the Tea Party support this theology. One of the men who sponsored Rick Perry’s prayer rally, the American Family Association’s spokesman Bryan Fischer, said that he wants to make homosexuality a crime and that all Muslims are stupid due to inbreeding and that they should all convert to Christianity or be deported. But this is just one of the guys who is supporting Rick Perry. Mike Bickle, founder of the dominionist International House of Prayer, claimed that Oprah was “the Harlot of Babylon” and said that Jesus appeared to him in a vision and that he was to be a General for Christ’s end time army. Another, John Benefiel, called the Statue of Liberty a demonic idol. I am not kidding folks, I wish I were.

I am a Christian who values the separation of church and state. I do think it would be good if people of faith would be in politics helping to look after the poor, speak out against injustice, and other things that Jesus did and His followers do as well. But, as a Christian, I have to say not these people! I hate to say it but these right-wing Pharisees almost made me an atheist 3 years ago  and Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann make George W Bush look like a lapsed Presbyterian. The voting record of Michelle Bachmann says it all.

Michelle Bachmann voted against modernizing the FDA to help prevent food outbreaks that sicken and kill. She voted against giving whistleblowers protection. These people risk their livelihoods to bring injustices to light. She voted against helping poor children get health insurance. She voted against giving health care to 9/11 first responders who are now getting diagnosed with cancer at an alarming rate. She voted against infant mortality programs, and she has the gall to call herself pro-life. Her voting record is anything but Christian; there is no love, mercy, or justice in her voting record.

Rick Perry isn’t much better. He may not like federal government regulation but he doesn’t like state regulation either. He deregulated the utilities of the State of TX. According to the associated press, utility prices skyrocketed 64 percent, and some Texans had to choose weather to pay their utility bill or groceries. He also fought insurance regulation, yet 25 percent of Texans have no insurance and one out of five children go uninsured, the highest in the nation. He eliminated 161,000 poor and disadvantaged children from the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Yet, thousands upon thousands of Christians are supporting a man whose policies hurt the poorest of the population to help the richest of the population.

Now if he were just a state’s rights person, I would understand, but he supports the defense of marriage act that would make it illegal for gay couples to marry from California to New York and all the states in between. They like big government when it comes to sexual morality and the bedrooms of America but not in business morality or the boardrooms of America.

And I am afraid that come next year, the economy will still be stalled and either Rep. Bachmann or Gov. Perry will ride a wave of hypocrisy, zealous misguided Christian fury, and “Anybody but Obama-ism” all the way to the White House.