The bonding or grounding issue is tying all the grounds together so you cannot have a voltage difference between different devices. You cannot rely on a ground rod driven into the earth at each device because the earthen ground may have a high resistance depending on the dampness and surface area of the ground rod or plate itself. Everything should be tied together with a copper ground wire. It's interesting in densely populated areas to take an AC voltmeter and stick one of the probes into the ground and the other some distance away like 100' or so. Not unusual to read several volts. Another interesting exercise is to take a clamp-on ampmeter and measure the currents in the ground wire on any power pole that has a transformer on it. You'll read something. In a perfectly load balanced electrical system you should see nothing. I've babbled enough.

Hope this explains it better. We'll keep modifying the original post as we find the need to clarify or change things.
Al