Pences know all about religious persecution

Vice President Mike Pence has been a strong voice in exposing Christian persecutions which are soaring worldwide.

In March, he issued an urgent call to assist the persecuted Church around the globe. Speaking at the “Help the Persecuted” summit in Washington, D.C., he said that “No people of faith face greater hostility or hatred than followers of Christ.”

Last month, Pence told Liberty University graduates that we live in a time when freedom of religion is under assault in America as well and that Christians need to be ready for persecution.

“Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs,” he said in his commencement address in Lynchburg, Virginia. “So as you go about your daily life, just be ready; because you’re going to be asked not just to tolerate things that violate your faith, you’re going to be asked to endorse them. You’re going to be asked to bow down to the idols of the popular culture.”

Pence said the president is standing strong for all the liberties we cherish, including freedom of speech and of religion, and that this administration also “stands without apology for the sanctity of human life.”

A week earlier, Pence delivered another address at Taylor University, a small Christian liberal arts school in rural Indiana. He said that throughout most of our American history, it’s been pretty easy to call yourself a Christian, but things are different now and it’s become acceptable, even fashionable, to malign traditional Christian beliefs.

Pence can speak from firsthand experience. Even before he took the stage, some Taylor University students walked out in protest. It was reported that these students and alumni were upset. One online post stated they were “physically shaking” and “personally attacked” by Pence’s invitation to speak.

Citing some recent history, Pence pointed out how President Barack Obama imposed his Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate against the Little Sisters of the Poor, merely because the nuns refused to provide a health plan that violated their deeply held religious beliefs.

Regarding Georgia’s controversial new fetal heartbeat bill, Pence pointed out that “a bevy of Hollywood liberals said they would boycott the entire state” because off the strong pro-life stance.

Pence also told how he and his wife, Karen, have been demonized by the mainstream media just because of their strong Christian beliefs. Before becoming first lady of Indiana in January 2013, Mrs. Pence spent 25 years teaching elementary school. After returning to teach art at an elementary Christian school earlier this year, the Pences were lambasted by the media and the secular left.

One major newspaper reporter actually started a new hashtag called “Expose Christian Schools,” inviting students to share their “horror stories” of Christian education.

After the news and opinion website blog HuffPost reported that Karen’s school abides by traditional Christian sexual morality, liberal media outlets and LGBT groups were outraged and slammed her for deciding to work at the school.

One liberal blogger, Bill Palmer, even suggested that Karen Pence’s decision to teach at the Christian school made her “unfit” even to “be around kids.”

Americans have become more divided than ever by anti-religious bigotry coming mostly from the far left against people of Christian faith. And no one recognizes that they have become a persecuted minority more than the Pences.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com