This is the third part of a four-part series of articles by Professor Janet Beihoffer of Metro State on an article written by Dr. Charles Baxter in the New York Times ten days ago. Part 1 and Part 2 can be viewed before reading this if you wish.

The author is a successful writer of novels and teaches creative writing. We have reviewed his talent at manipulating the meanings of words. However, there is another, classic leftist trait exhibited in his article - the omission of key facts.

If one goes to Dr. Baxter website, one will find a listing of his degrees, where he attained them, and his work history. Yet, he decided to focus only on Michele�s law degree from Oral Roberts University (yes, it is a conservative college) but chose to omit Michele Bachmann�s post graduate degree in tax law from William and Mary College in Virginia.

Why would Dr. Baxter ignore this critical fact? Perhaps Dr. Baxter agrees with most of academia and the mainstream media (MSM) that people don�t need religion. By refusing to write of Michele�s other educational achievements, Dr. Baxter insinuates that she is too religious for public office. It is unfortunate that academia and the MSM are sorely lacking representatives who practice religion on a regular basis, hence they cannot grasp why others do. Many professors often believe they are �enlightened�, �reasonable� people who have no need for religion. So does Dr. Baxter make a point of telling his readers (most likely the east coast crowd) that Michele Bachmann had an advanced degree from a very respected university? No, he says she �draws her support largely from evangelicals�. Does he disapprove of religion? Does he think a Christian faith is irrelevant?

There are a number of surveys covering belief in God, church attendance, etc. Let�s examine the following comparison between regular churchgoers and attendance at NFL games.

population age 20+ (2004) 210,000,000weekly attendance at church services:

Minimum weekly attendance at religious services: 42,000,000

Total religious service attendance over a 16 week NFL season: 672,000,000

Total NFL paid season attendance 2005: 21,800,000

The weekly church attendance is almost double the entire paid season NFL attendance.

A breakdown of the largest religious groups in the USA. It does not begin to show the plethora of churches within each subgroup.

Protestant 52%, Roman Catholic 24%, Mormon 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 1%, other 10%, none 10% (2002 est.) (Source.)

Why make these points? Today we hear so much that is negative about the Christian religion � especially from the MSM. For Dr. Baxter to write snide comments about Michele Bachmann�s Christianity, to ignore her education, to imply that religion is detriment when he appears to have no factual frame of reference is irresponsible journalism.

So, in addition to his word redefinitions, it seems that Dr. Baxter just cannot handle someone with a faith. However, if Dr. Baxter knew his American history, he would realize that in spite of all current attempts to ignore historical fact, our American Founders were a religious lot, especially by today�s standards. So, let�s get off the anti-religion soap box and look at today�s and tomorrow�s problems and propose solutions � which are exactly what Michele Bachmann is doing.