In a sit-down interview with Axios on Ash Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence told investigative journalist Mike Allen that he was upset to hear about The View’s callous remarks about his faith on their show earlier this week.
“I actually heard that ABC has a program, that compared my Christianity to mental illness. And I’d like to laugh about it but I really can’t,” he began.
Pence was referring to the Tuesday episode of ABC's The View, where the liberal hosts mocked the VP for his faith. Host Joy Behar joked that Pence talking to God was akin to a “mental illness,” and fellow host Sunny Hostin claimed he had a “dangerous” faith.
During a Q&A at the Axios forum February 14, Pence told the audience that the network’s tolerance for this kind of religious bigotry was “just wrong:”
Mike, I’m a believer. Like tens of millions of Americans today will have ash on their foreheads, to mark the beginning of Lent, overwhelming majority of Americans cherish their faith. And we all have different types of faith in this country. But I have to tell you. To have ABC, maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness, is just wrong. And it's an insult not to me, but to the vast majority of American people who like me, cherish their faith.
“I mean, my Christianity is the most important thing in my life...My faith sustains me in all that I do,” Pence admitted.
He went on to describe how he starts every day by reading the Bible and praying with his wife. Calling himself a “typical” American, he ripped ABC again for allowing such anti-Christian, “religious intolerance” to take place. “I call them out on that,” Pence charged:
I’m not unusual, I think I’m a very typical American...It demonstrates how out-of-touch some in the mainstream media are, with the faith and values of the American people. That you could have a major network like ABC permit a forum for invective against religion, like that. I call them out on that. Not because of what was said about me, but its just simply wrong, for ABC, to have a television program, that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.
“We’re better than that. Our country’s better than that. And you’re better than that,” he said pointing to Allen.
Pence admitted he couldn’t stand by while such offensive comments were made on a mainstream television network. “I’d like to be light about it but I really can’t. Not for my sake but for the tens of millions of Americans who cherish their faith. I can’t be silent,” he stated.
C-Span tweeted out video of the VP's comments against ABC:
.@VP Pence: "To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compare Christianity to mental illness is just wrong." https://t.co/UBQTcRFGL9 pic.twitter.com/FYHr9eIXoK
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 14, 2018
ABC has a long history of religious bigotry against Christians, as MRC President Brent Bozell noted in his open letter to the network, here.
