10 Questions Bachmann’s Husband Must Answer About “Christian Counseling”

Marcus Bachmann, the husband of 2012 Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, operates a “Christian counseling” business, Bachmann and Associates, that reportedly includes so-called “reparative therapy,” or “ex-gay therapy” — counseling that attempts to force someone to become heterosexual. Bachmann and Associates receives tens of thousands of dollars from the State of Minnesota, and hundreds of thousands of dollars from federal government, including from MediCare.

(Michele and Marcus Bachmann reportedly also own a farm that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding. Mrs. Bachmann denies she and her husband are the recipients of any federal funding, despite the fact that the farm and counseling businesses are listed on her federal disclosure forms.)

Last year, The Minnesota Independent suggested that the arrangement Bachmann and Associates has with the state government may be unconstitutional, and reported, “All of the clinic’s counselors identify as Christians,” and that Marcus Bachmann told KKMS Radio, “We are distinctly a Christian counseling agency here in the Twin Cities.”

“We have 27 Christian counselors, Christ-centered, very strong in our understanding of who the Almighty Counselor is, and as we rely on God’s word and the Almighty Counselor, we have the opportunity to change people’s lives,” Marcus Bachmann also said, and added, “God heals people and if we give opportunity, if we are a willing vessel and we go according to what God’s word is, it works.”

A statement on the Bachmann and Associated web site attributed to Marcus Bachmann reads, “I believe my call is to minister to the needs of people in a practical, caring and sensitive way.”

Marcus Bachmann delivered a presentation in 2005 titled, “The Truth About the Homosexual Agenda,” which culminated in three people claiming Bachmann had “cured” their homosexuality.

Via Think Progress:

One of the people present for Dr. Bachmann’s talk almost had to leave the room because “there was so much bile.” Curt Prins, a marketing executive who identifies as gay, reported that Bachmann believed homosexuality was a “choice” rather than due to genetics:

The climax of the presentation was when, according to Prins, Bachmann brought up “three ex-gays, like part of a PowerPoint presentation.” The trio, two white men and a black woman, all testified that they had renounced their homosexuality. “One of them said, ‘If I was born gay, then I’ll have to be born again,’” Prins recalls. “The crowd went crazy.”

The Minnesota Independent article also stated that Marcus Bachmann “told Point of View Talk Radio that if a child confides in a parent that they might be gay, that parent should discourage the child from being gay. He also said because of public schools, the number of homosexuals in America is increasing.

“We have to understand that barbarians need to be educated, need to be disciplined,” Bachmann said. “And just because someone thinks [they’re gay] or feels it doesn’t mean we need to go down that road. That’s what is called the sinful nature.”

Given the problematic nature of Marcus Bachmann’s business and the derogatory, anti-gay, and religious nature of his business, coupled with the fact that Marcus Bachmann relies on state and federal funding, there are serious questions Marcus Bachmann must immediately answer. Here are ten, there most likely are others.

1. Who licenses your clinic? Are they capable of regulating so-called “ex-gay” practices?
2. Who regulates (supervises) your clinic?
3. How many federal dollars do your clinic and clients receive annually? How do you reconcile state and federal funds with your wife’s belief that that equates to Socialism?
4. Does spending federal funds this way violate the separation of church and state? How could it possibly not?
5. Who insures your clinic in the event that therapy fails, or that clients are harmed?
6. How many gay-to-straight conversion therapies succeeded vs. failed?
7. What is the exact nature of the “reparative” therapy your business performs? Is there physical contact involved? Are there medical techniques used?
8. How many patients suffered? Were any suicides successful, or attempted, or threatened? How many of your patients have died? Your website states you treat patients as young as five, and you have stated parents should discourage children from being gay. What is the earliest age you have “counseled” children in your “reparative” therapy work? What relapse rates are seen via your follow-up program?
9. You have stated Bachmann and Associates has “27 Christian counselors, Christ-centered, very strong in our understanding of who the Almighty Counselor is, and as we rely on God’s word and the Almighty Counselor.” How do you determine if a prospective counselor applying for work with Bachmann and Associates is Christian, and if you do, doesn’t that violate the law?
10. How do you reconcile your oath to “first do no harm,” with your statements that gays are “barbarians,” and that “barbarians need to be educated, need to be disciplined?”

Many thanks to The New Civil Rights Movement reader Ned Flaherty for providing the framework of the questions.