Mike Pence: The Mainstream Media Must Stop 'Attacks on Christian Education'

Vice President Mike Pence & his wife Karen Pence

by Tyler O'Neil: In an audio recording provided to PJ Media before airing on "Washington Watch," Vice President Mike Pence condemned the mainstream media's decision to turn his wife's employment at a Christian school into a major scandal. Media outlets, activists, and even elected leaders condemned Karen Pence's Christian school for its "anti-LGBT" stance, which merely follows the sexual morality laid out in the Bible.

"Are you concerned about this effort to marginalize people of faith that’s going on in our culture right now?" Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins asked Pence in the recording for FRC's radio show "Washington Watch."

Pence said the attacks did not surprise him, but he did condemn the media for stigmatizing Christian education.

"Karen and I have been in and around public life for almost two decades, and so to be honest with you we’re used to the criticism," the vice president said. "But the attacks on Christian education by the mainstream media have got to stop."

"We cherish the freedom of religion in this country. This administration stands four-square for the freedom of religion of people of all faiths, and to see the mainstream media criticize my wife because she’s choosing to return to the classroom of an elementary Christian school is wrong," Pence declared.

"Again, the attacks on Christian education must end," he repeated.

News that Karen Pence would return to teaching art at Immanuel Christian School dropped on Tuesday. A HuffPost reporter unearthed the school's covenant with teachers, holding them to the Bible's sexual morality — sex is only permissible inside a marriage between one man and one woman for life.

Various media outlets reported that Pence's school "bans gay and transgender students." Accounts blasted the school as "anti-LGBT."

Liberal activists with large followings tweeted messages like "F**k those homophobes!" and "Totally insane." A journalist called Karen Pence "a terrible human being," and another liberal activist said the vice president's wife was "unfit to even be around kids." He even suggested that any parent who allowed his or her kids to be taught by Karen Pence should lose his or her parental rights entirely.

Mike Pence is an extremist bigot. Karen Pence is an extremist bigot. She's unfit to even be around kids, let alone teach them. Anyone willing to allow their kid to be taught by a dangerous monster like Karen Pence is unfit to be a parent. Ask me how I really feel.

— Palmer Report (@PalmerReport) January 16, 2019

"Civil rights" groups like the ACLU and Human Rights Campaign attacked Karen Pence as if her decision to teach at a Christian school meant "disavowing LGBTQ youth" and telling people with same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria they are second-class citizens.

Each of these media outlets, activists, and organizations seemed utterly blind to the fact that for 2,000 years, almost every single Christian denomination has followed the Bible's clear sexual ethic. Even today, hundreds of millions if not billions of Christians around the world believe homosexual activity is sinful and that transgender identity is false to the way God created human beings as male and female.

Immanuel Christian School and other schools like it are merely exercising their religious freedom. Furthermore, the school does not "ban" people who experience same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria, and it has one moral standard that is high and difficult for "straight" people to abide by, as well. This is a matter of living by the Bible's precepts.

Vice President Pence was right to address religious freedom on this issue. Many of the news outlets that breathlessly reported his wife's employment also frequently put "religious freedom" in scare-quotes, suggesting that freedom of conscience is really a smokescreen for bigotry. LGBT activists are pushing to have public accommodations law prevent any Christian school or business from following Christian morality and refusing to participate in or support what the Bible considers immoral.

The vitriol spewed at Karen Pence only underscores how important it is to defend religious freedom in the public square, and to make it plain that Christianity is not a smokescreen for bigotry. Sadly, it seems so many people have no understanding of the Bible and no experience with evangelical Christians to show them what Christians really believe and why Karen Pence's teaching is no scandal.
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Tyler O'Neil is Assistant Editor of PJ Media, He is a conservative fundraiser and commentator and has written for numerous publications.

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