Pence Imposes Bornagain on the Us
With President Donald Trump engulfed by scandal, the odds that Vice President Mike Pence will succeed him grow stronger every solar day. Pious where the president is profane and calm where he is chaotic, Pence is Trump's temperamental opposite, which many find reassuring. Yet, his record suggests his presidency would be more divisive — on policy grounds — than the one America endures today.
During 30 years in public life, Pence established that he holds controversial views that he is willing to turn into policy. He is anti-scientific discipline when it comes to evolution just he has left the impression with many that, against all medical evidence, he believes homosexuality is a disorder and can be cured. He tried to legalize discrimination confronting gay people in Indiana and wants a nationwide ban on elective abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or to save a woman's life.
Pence'due south views are inspired by the conservative Christianity that is the fundamental element of his political personality. "I'm a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that club," he says. However he as well considers questions about his blend of faith and politics out of bounds. Recently Pence told interviewers who asked him to react to our new biography of him, "Whatsoever time I'm criticized for my belief in Jesus Christ. I simply breathe a prayer of praise." Past hiding behind his faith in this way, he tries to do good from it without talking about it.
Religion is Pence's political calling card
Nosotros have never criticized Pence for his "belief in Jesus Christ" and our thorough research suggests no ane e'er has. However, nosotros do believe that since Pence makes his religion his political calling card, it must be examined. Eager for part simply unwilling to speak frankly, Pence offers merely vagaries well-nigh how faith fits into his politics. Nosotros made more than than a dozen attempts to ask him for consummate answers, to no avail, and our list has kept growing. Here are some questions we'd pose:
►The Bible says, "Practise not repay evil with evil or insult with insult." How do y'all reconcile your bourgeois Christian morality with the president's tape of offensive statements about women, political opponents, immigrants and others?
►Yous said you were "offended" when the "Admission Hollywood" tape was revealed but have said nothing most the president's extramarital sexual relationships and the payments he fabricated to continue them hugger-mugger. What is your opinion of his sexual morality?
►The Catholic group Priests for Life said in a lawsuit that some types of contraception are abortion-inducing (a phrase Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh quoted at his confirmation hearing) Practise y'all concord?
►Given the place of the Jewish people in the Bible, do you concur that there were "very fine people" among the white nationalists last year in Charlottesville, Virginia, who chanted "Jews volition non supercede us?"
►You in one case advocated federal funding for institutions that help people "alter their sexual behavior," interpreted past many every bit conversion therapy to plow gay people heterosexual. Do y'all withal believe this is legitimate and should be funded? Do yous think people are born gay?
►Rev. Ralph Drollinger, who leads Trump cabinet Bible study sessions that you take attended, says "the major God-given responsibility, the state's main calling, is to moralize a fallen globe through the use of strength." Is this view consistent with your reading of the Bible and your sense of duty every bit a public official?.
►As Indiana governor, you declared that any religiously-based ban on travelers entering the U.S would be "offensive and unconstitutional." More than than a dozen Bible passages call on believers to embrace the stranger. Why do y'all now support Trump's ban that, while it doesn't specifically cite religion, affects mostly majority-Muslim countries? What inverse your listen?
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►Many Christian leaders whom y'all admire, including Franklin Graham, take condemned the administration's separation of asylum-seeking parents and children at the U.S. border with Mexico. Do you agree with this policy?
►Amongst the conservative Christian leaders who attended a recent White House dinner in their accolade was Robert Jeffress, who also appeared with you at the opening of the U.Southward. embassy in Jerusalem. He has preached that Jews are going to hell and both Islam and Mormonism are "heresy from the pit of hell." Do you lot agree?
►You lot take advocated educational activity the Bible story of creation in public schools. Exercise you believe that authorities-funded schools should be offering instruction based on religious views?
►Do you lot follow the Bible's teaching on the subordination of women in the family, citing scripture that says, "the husband is the head of the married woman fifty-fifty every bit Christ is the head of the church." Is this true in your family unit?
►Many bourgeois Christians believe the prophecy of Armageddon, which predicts the end of humanity as nosotros know it, is well-nigh to be fulfilled. Would this prophecy play whatsoever role in your thinking if you go commander in main?
Our questions are prompted not by Pence's faith but by his position at the brink of the presidency, and past the mysteries surrounding his beliefs. No other national political figure has crossed the traditional purlieus between religion and policy in quite the way that Pence has, and this makes both necessary topics for give-and-take. This far he has used a balmy, anti-Trump manner to signal that everything will be all correct if he assumes the presidency. This isn't plenty to justify his request for our faith in him.
Michael D'Antonio and Peter Eisner are co-authors of the new book The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence. Follow Eisner on Twitter: @PeterEisner
Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/09/13/mike-pence-christian-first-how-govern-president-donald-trump-column/1259832002/
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