As part of her Art Therapy: Healing with a Heart initiative, Second Lady Karen Pence started working part-time with Northern Virginia’s Immanuel Christian School. Of course, this “generated controversy” because the school promoted Christian values such as traditional marriage. And during Wednesday’s edition of CBS Evening News, the network apparently tried to shame Mrs. Pence for sticking with her values.
“Vice President Mike Pence’s wife, Karen, has returned to teaching at a Christian school in Virginia where gay students and gay teachers are not welcome,” anchor Jeff Glor announced with a disapproving tone.
As he began his report, correspondent Chip Reid seemed to be in dismay by the school’s stance on homosexuality:
Second Lady Karen Pence's decision to teach art part-time at Immanuel Christian School in northern Virginia has generated controversy. That's because the private elementary school's website says it may “refuse admission” or “discontinue enrollment of a student” if a “parent or guardian” violates a “biblical lifestyle”. Prohibited behavior includes “participating in, supporting, or condoning … homosexual activity.” Likewise, employees, including teachers, can be fired for engaging in “homosexual or lesbian activity” or “transgender identity”.
“Those rules would appear to be consistent with the views of Vice President Mike Pence, a longtime critic of gay rights,” Reid continued.
Although, Reid would come to admit that “[r]ules banning homosexuality are not uncommon at private Christian schools, and generally they do not violate the law.”
But Reid would give the microphone to law professor and founder/president of Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson, to blast the Second Lady as a bigot. “Karen Pence is sending a message,” he proclaimed. “This is the Second Lady of the United States cheering that discrimination and exclusion on.”
As for the defense of Mrs. Pence, all Reid offered was:
A spokesperson for Karen Pence said in a statement, "It's absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school and the school's religious beliefs are under attack." Immanuel Christian school did not respond to our request for comment.
CBS provided this focus on Karen Pence as a distraction from the Democrats’ own problem with a rising tide of anti-Semitism and anti-Catholic bigotry.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS Evening News
January 16, 2019
6:46:48 p.m. EasternJEFF GLOR: Vice President Mike Pence’s wife, Karen, has returned to teaching at a Christian school in Virginia where gay students and gay teachers are not welcome. Here’s Chip Reid.
[Cuts to video]
KAREN PENCE: I call my initiative Art Therapy: Healing with a Heart.
CHIP REID: Second Lady Karen Pence's decision to teach art part-time at Immanuel Christian School in northern Virginia has generated controversy. That's because the private elementary school's website says it may “refuse admission” or “discontinue enrollment of a student” if a “parent or guardian” violates a “biblical lifestyle”. Prohibited behavior includes “participating in, supporting, or condoning … homosexual activity.” Likewise, employees, including teachers, can be fired for engaging in “homosexual or lesbian activity” or “transgender identity”.
Those rules would appear to be consistent with the views of Vice President Mike Pence, a longtime critic of gay rights.
MIKE PENCE: To defend that institution that forms the backbone of our society, traditional marriage.
REID: Rules banning homosexuality are not uncommon at private Christian schools, and generally they do not violate the law.
EVAN WOLFSON: Karen Pence is sending a message.
REID: But law professor Evan Wolfson says the question is not what's legal, it's what's right for victims of discrimination.
WOLFSON: This is the Second Lady of the United States cheering that discrimination and exclusion on.
REID: A spokesperson for Karen Pence said in a statement, "It's absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school and the school's religious beliefs are under attack." Immanuel Christian school did not respond to our request for comment. Chip Reid, CBS News, Washington.
