In 2006 Michelle Bachmann quoted Ephesians 5:22-24 which reads:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands (ESV).

She was questioned about this in last Thursday’s debate responding with a non answer. She was again pressed on it on CBS’s Face the Nation (you can find the video of the whole interview there).

Early in the interview Bachmann said that she’s the type who does “what they say and says what they mean.” Keep this in mind.

Nora O’Donnell played the clip from 2006 where Bachmann explained that she got her degree in tax law because her husband told her to. Her response was

“Tax law? I hate taxes,” she continued. “Why should I go into something like that? But the lord says, be submissive. Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.'”

The discussion after that was quite interesting:

Asked about the comment by CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell Sunday, Bachmann reaffirmed that to her, “submission means respect, mutual respect.”

“I respect my husband, he respects me,” she said. “We have been married 33 years, we have a great marriage…and respecting each other, listening to each other is what that means.”

O’Donnell asked Bachmann if she would use a different word in retrospect.

“You know, I guess it depends on what word people are used to, but respect is really what it means,” Bachmann replied.

“Do you think submissive means subservient?” O’Donnell asked.

“Not to us,” Bachmann said. “To us it means respect. We respect each other, we listen to each other, we love each other and that is what it means.”

So, if Bachmann thinks that she represents someone who does “what they say and says what they mean” then why wouldn’t she just say “mutual respect” if she means mutual respect.

Submission is a lot different from mutual respect (unless it’s voluntary, temporary, and in bed). Earning an advanced degree because you’re ordered to is not mutual respect, it is subservience.

Of course, if the Bible is the infallible word of God, then you can’t ignore what it says, your only option is to tweak the meaning to fit your needs. Christians are good at that, they’ve been doing it since the damn thing was written.