Does Virginia's Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell consider the story of Adam and Eve a historical event that actually happened? Based on the evidence I’ve seen, the answer is clearly yes. And if so, what does this say not only about his beliefs on "family issues" like women’s rights and gay rights, but about the basis for how he views reality and will run Virginia if elected governor? Will he govern based on rationality and empirical, scientifically based fact – or myth?
And no, I’m not talking just about his Master’s thesis here. I’m talking about his statements as recently as August.
The following exchange is from TPM, after McDonnell’s post-thesis-explosion damage control conference call with reporters August 31st:
I asked McDonnell about sections from the thesis in which he said civil government does not have the authority to redefine family relationships that originated before civil government itself, in the Garden of Eden, and also that government is constrained by the limited powers given to it by God. Does he believe that civil laws contradicting the Bible are not legitimate?
‘No,’ he said. ‘Again, this was a 20-year-old paper that informed a lot (sic) by the readings that I had done at the time. I do believe -- again, based on my Catholic teaching, that the institution of the family goes back to the dawn of time. I think most people within the Christian faith, that's sort of an accepted understanding from the Garden of Eden. So I do believe that as my personal belief. But I have demonstrated from my 18 years in political office, that there is a distinction between one's personal views and what's permissible in the law.’
As far as I can tell, McDonnell is reaffirming here that he personally believes that the institution of the family was formed, literally, in the Garden of Eden.
Also consider his now famous interview from 2006 with Pat Robertson,his mentor, on the 700 Club, where he says, in regard to the Defense of Marriage Act (at around 2:20) –
From the Garden of Eden to 2006, we believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, but because of some social trends out there and some court decisions, Pat, as you know, marriage is under attack, and so the General Assembly’s passed two years in a row this initiative to put it on the ballot...
Again, McDonnell refers to the story of Adam and Eve as a historical event that can be placed in time: "from the Garden of Eden to 2006". And again, he is tracing the origin of the traditional family from that (apparently real to him) place and time.
This of course brings us to that thesis which Backwards Bob is so skillful at dismissing as outdated and irrelevant. But the fact is that his belief in the reality of Eden is expressed with clear consistency from 1989 to 2006 to 2009. As he puts it on page 13 of the thesis:
The family as an institution existed antecedent to civil government, and hence is not subject to being defined by it. It is in the Law of Nature of the created order that the Creator instituted marriage and family in Eden, where He ordained that "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Family arises out of this divinely-created covenant of marriage between a man and woman, the terms of which can neither be originally set nor subsequently altered by the parties or the state.
So why does it matter if McDonnell believes the whole tale, from the rib to the snake to the apple and on? To be sure, our elected officials, like the rest of us, are free to choose their religious beliefs, many of which derive from myth.
But in modern society, we expect those who conduct our complex public affairs to base their approach to such matters on rationality, logic and reason, hopefully informed by a healthy dose of history, science and other disciplines. As far as I can tell from my reading of American history, we have had few leaders who based their actions on literal understandings of Biblical or other myths. Yes, many have learned great lessons from the rich teachings of the Bible, but by taking it as deep allegory, not historical fact.
If Bob McDonnell takes the Eden story, along with presumably the rest of the Bible, as fact, what decisions will that lead him to make in terms of educating our children on evolution and other scientific issues? How does it affect how he perceives and deals with a wide range of issues, from equal rights to national security to climate change? And what does it say about how he views those of us who aren’t evangelical Christians, with whom he does even share a basic understanding of the facts of history?
This is not a trivial matter – it is the core of the argument of the 93-page document that Bob McDonnell spent years working on, the blueprint of his political career, and a belief he has repeated over the years. Reporters and voters need to get to the bottom of these beliefs and their implications -- before it is really too late.