Marcus Bachmann: A world of makebelief

Marcus Bachmann claims that he has a PhD in psychology and counseling. Neither claim is true. He bought a degree online from Union College in CIncinnati, OH--a school he never physically attended, and it does not award a PhD in psychology. At most, Bachmann would have purchased a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies.

Union College has a PsycD in psychology, but in 2004, the US Department of Education wrote to the school (a combination of many schools going broke) that the PhD in psychology was bogus and would not be recognized. The curriculum was considered weak, the teachers poorly trained and unqualified, and long distance learning does provide necessary library resources or peer review for a dissertation.

The US Department of Education's 2004 condemnation was passed on to the school’s “graduates”. Bachmann elected to ignore the letter.

Marcus Bachmann is not registered with any of the three boards that certify mental health practitioners and professions in the state of Minnesota (nor is his wife, Michele, who "took" a degree in law from Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University in OK and sold to Pat Robertson's Regent University where 60% of the class failed to pass the bar). The Minnesota Board of Psychology and the Board of Marriage and Family Therapy confirmed to POLITICO that Marcus Bachmann is not licensed with either organization and thus not recognized as a practicing psychologist in the state of Minnesota. A search of the Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy license database returns no result as Bachmann is not mentioned. (Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58291_Page2.html#ixzz1RRNvTtE3.) More telling is that Marcus Bachmann has no recognized publications (not even in unprofessional journals) and is ignored by all leading journals recognized by the American Psychiatric Association and American Psychological Association.

Trisha Stark, of the Minnesota Psychological Association told POLITCO that the title “clinical therapist” is not hardly ever employed in professional circles, although finds coinage among those who self-style themelves as "therapists". Marcus Bachmann is able to operate his clinic which serves more as a prayer center and a self-help gathering of those confused about their sexual orientation or have been involuntarily separated from their families and colleagues because of state rules regarding mental health practice. They have turned to Bachmann in desperations as the state of Minnesota is one of the only states in which any self-style "therapist" can practice mental health without a license, Yet, those who do, tend ot end up with many of their patients committing suicide, becoming catatonic or vegetative, while others, like Bachmann, attempt heterosexuality in an effort to suppress the natural inclination that is genetic and normal. It is not surprising that telephoning Bachmann's "clinic" that all who answer refuse to comment on Bachmann's education (except to say he earned a degree at Union) or his professional publications or experiences (Read: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58291_Page2.html#ixzz1RRO95tN8)

Bachmann's rants against homosexuality, complete with limp wristed attempts to use his hands as a gun to execute gays who refuse to "convert to the Lord" and accept "the natural order of things" has brought a large outcry from heterosexual psychologists and psychiatrists as well as educators in both fields. In 2006, City Pages, a Minneapolis alternative weekly, reported on a 2005 presentation that Mr. Bachmann delivered at the Grace Church in Eden Prairie titled “The Truth About the Homosexual Agenda,” the word "agenda" being the keystone to all antigay and anti-LGBT denunciations. During his rampling presentation when he invoked god, misreadings of the Bible (Sodom was not destory because the "people of the city" (including women) wanted to "know" (register in time of war) the messengers (which is what "angels" means in correct Hebrew), but the fact in Genesis 19:33 ff, that Lot committed with his two daughters in the hills outside of Zoar and impregnated both. Even Ezekiel 16:49, when discussing "the sins of Sodom" says nothing about sex, and in fact the word "homosexual" does not appear anywhere in the Bible--it is not even invented until the late 19th century (the Bible uses "effeminate"). To "prove the power of prayer" Marcus then introduced three people as “former homosexuals” who were cured, although he offered no evidence that they were ever homosexual; by parading these individual to the audience he articuated that their being with him was "proof that sexual orientation is a choice". Homosexuality is not a choice—but it is natural (it occurs in all species on this planet) and normal (it happens under all circumstances) and is natures best form of birth control.

While Bachmann argues that he is practicing "Christian counseling", he admits to practicing “reparative therapy.” Reparative therapy is a method of converting homosexuals to heterosexuality often called “praying away the gay.” Even though Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus regularly condemn all government subsidies, the Bachmanns did accept $167,000 in federal Medicaid payments for this "reparative therapy." More than 70% of those "cured" have had "occasional flights" in gay bars.