“I don’t know anyone who’s more consistent in bringing his evangelical-Christian worldview to public policy.”īut what does Pence make of his own improbable rise to the vice presidency, and how does he reconcile his faith with serving a man like Trump? Over the past several months, I’ve spoken with dozens of people who have known the vice president throughout his life-from college fraternity brothers and longtime friends to trusted advisers and political foes. “Mike Pence is the 24-karat-gold model of what we want in an evangelical politician,” Richard Land, the president of the Southern Evangelical Seminary and one of Trump’s faith advisers, told me. Evangelical leaders across the country point to his record on abortion and religious freedom and liken him to a prophet restoring conservative Christianity to its rightful place at the center of American life. Meanwhile, Pence’s presence in the White House has been a boon for the religious right. When Trump needs someone to fly across the country to an NFL game so he can walk out in protest of national-anthem kneelers, Pence heads for Air Force Two. When Trump comes under fire for describing white nationalists as “ very fine people,” Pence is there to assure the world that he is actually a man of great decency. In Pence, Trump has found an obedient deputy whose willingness to suffer indignity and humiliation at the pleasure of the president appears boundless. So they placed their faith in Trump-and then, incredibly, he won. But after eight years of Barack Obama and a string of disorienting political defeats, conservative Christians were in retreat and out of options. The question of whether they should wed themselves to such a man was not without its theological considerations. Trump- gracer of Playboy covers, delighter of shock jocks, collector of mistresses-who descended from the mountaintop in the summer of 2016, GOP presidential nomination in hand, offering salvation to both Pence and the religious right. View Moreīecause God works in mysterious ways (or, at the very least, has a postmodern sense of humor), it was Donald J. In many ways, Pence was on the same doomed trajectory as the conservative-Christian movement he’d long championed-once a political force to be reckoned with, now a battered relic of the culture wars.Ĭheck out more from this issue and find your next story to read. Just a year earlier, he was an embattled small-state governor with underwater approval ratings, dismal reelection prospects, and a national reputation in tatters. The very fact that he is standing behind a lectern bearing the vice-presidential seal is, one could argue, a loaves-and-fishes-level miracle. It’s easy to see how Pence could put so much faith in the possibilities of divine intervention. “If His people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray,” he proclaims, “He’ll hear from heaven, and He’ll heal this land!” “It’s a good time to pray for America.” His voice rising in righteous fervor, the vice president promises an opening of the heavens. “We’ve come to a pivotal moment in the life of this country,” Pence soulfully intones. As he nears the end of his remarks, his happy-warrior buoyancy gives way to a more sober cadence.
In his folksy Midwestern drawl, he recites Republican aphorisms about “job creators” and regulatory “red tape,” and heralds the many supposed triumphs of Trump’s young presidency. I’ve got this.Īnd then, all at once, Pence is back on message. Let not your hearts be troubled, he seems to be saying. It’s almost as if, in that brief, barely perceptible moment, Pence is sending a message to those with ears to hear-that he recognizes the absurdity of his situation that he knows just what sort of man he’s working for that while things may look bad now, there is a grand purpose at work here, a plan that will manifest itself in due time.
He’ll be witnessing to evangelicals at a mega-church, or addressing conservative supporters at a rally, and when the moment comes for him to pass along the president’s well-wishes, the words are invariably accompanied by an amused little chuckle that prompts knowing laughter from the attendees. Watch Pence give enough speeches, and you’ll notice that this often happens when he’s in front of a friendly crowd. When the time comes, Pence takes the stage and greets the crowd with a booming “Hell ooooo, Indiana!” He says he has “just hung up the phone” with Donald Trump and that the president asked him to “say hello.” He delivers this message with a slight chuckle that has a certain, almost subversive quality to it.
MIKE PENCE ANTI GAY MEME FULL
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