Tyler O'Neil at PJ Media reports that Vice President Mike Pence took aim at the "mainstream media" today and their reporting that his wife Karen Pence took a job teaching art at an elementary Christian school that -- horrors -- bars employees from engaging in "homosexual activity" and does not condone "transgender identity."
On the show Washington Watch with Tony Perkins, the host asked "are you concerned about this effort to marginalize people of faith" by reporters? 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.
The "moderate" take on this controversy comes today from Washington Post culture blogger Alyssa Rosenberg in an article titled "Karen Pence’s worldview horrifies me. Her return to work is still a feminist victory." It's a "ludicrous relic of a former age" that the wives of presidents and vice presidents can't hold jobs. (The Post especially likes liberal First Ladies given the task of reinventing the health care system, for example.)
I feel awful for students at Immanuel Christian who might grow up to gay or bisexual, and who might face expulsion and harassment as a result. And Pence’s choice to teach there reaffirms my deep opposition to the Pences' worldview and their efforts to make their values a reality.
Schools that "believe the Bible," as Perkins describes it, enforce "values I find abhorrent," writes Rosenberg. It's easy to put those two concepts together. The Bible....is abhorrent. That's the "mainstream" media consensus.
