When Will the Rising Tide of Bias Against Christians Stop?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The rising tide of intolerance against Christians in the U.S. has found a new platform for persecution — the spouses of public service officials. Karen Pence, her husband Vice President Mike Pence, and by proxy the current administration, have been accused by the media of “making a statement” against LGBT people because Mrs. Pence has chosen to teach art at a Christian school. The question was even raised as to whether taxpayers should continue to pay for her Secret Service protection.
This is part of a striking and alarming trend — a trend that uses a religious litmus test to determine if individuals are fit for public service and demands that those in office deny their conscience and beliefs.Freedom of religion is a First Amendment right set forth by our Founding Fathers, not some new conservative fad adopted since the Trump administration came into office.
Using a religious litmus test as a prerequisite to serve in office is unconstitutional, yet the current list of examples of this trend is too long: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) said of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, Catholic “dogma lives loudly within you”; the Christian views of Russell Vought, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, were called Islamophobic by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) repeatedly asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his confirmation hearing, “Is gay sex a perversion?”; and most recently Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) challenged federal judicial nominee Brian Buescher about his ties to the Knights of Columbus, an international Catholic service organization with almost 2 million members.
More examples can be cited, especially with regard to our Senate Judiciary Committee. This trend has now spread to accusing the spouses of our public servants of bigotry and hate for their religious beliefs, and it must stop.
Immanuel Christian School, where Mrs. Pence works, is an institution that has educated children and served the community in Northern Virginia for 43 years. All people are welcome; however, the school asks that its applicants be followers of Christ and adhere to certain standards of conduct regarding sex and marriage. These are the same standards of conduct that have been part of the teachings of Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam (to name just a few religious faiths) throughout their long histories.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 5.8 million elementary and secondary school children (pre-K through 12th grade) are enrolled in private institutions, making up more than 10 percent of all school enrollment in the U.S. Particularly important to note is that about 67 percent of these have a “religious orientation or purpose.”
The majority of these religious educational organizations are Roman Catholic and African Methodist Episcopal, but the list also includes Greek Orthodox, Jewish, Islamic, Seventh-Day Adventist, and more. Are these 23,000 religious educational institutions, which consist of almost 336,000 teachers, 4 million schoochildren and their parents and families, also bigots, or could it possibly be that they hold and live by their moral and religious beliefs? Should we scrutinize the teachers, students, and standards of conduct of each of these schools as well?
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“ More examples can be cited , especially with regard to our Senate Judiciary Committee. This trend has now spread to accusing the spouses of our public servants of bigotry and hate for their religious beliefs, and it must stop.
Immanuel Christian School, where Mrs. Pence works, is an institution that has educated children and served the community in Northern Virginia for 43 years. All people are welcome; however, the school asks that its applicants be followers of Christ and adhere to certain standards of conduct regarding sex and marriage. These are the same standards of conduct that have been part of the teachings of Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam (to name just a few religious faiths) throughout their long histories.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, about 5.8 million elementary and secondary school children (pre-K through 12 th grade) are enrolled in private institutions, making up more than 10 percent of all school enrollment in the U.S. Particularly important to note is that about 67 percent of these have a “religious orientation or purpose.”
It will stop when conservative Christian stop trying to trample the religious and secular rights of others and begin treating others as Jesus taught them to.
Don't be a bigot and do unto others as you want them to do to you.
So in your opinion Christians are the only ones doing this?
BTW I'm not saying some don't. But you are targeting Christians like they are the end of humanity.
Christians are the majority in the US population and in Congress, so who is oppressing them?
But we have the Constitution and the rule of law for that.
You don't need to make assumptions about a person's future secular performance based on their religion. That's bigotry. There are many millions of Christians who fight to protect the very rights you reference. I wouldn't endorse quizzing any nominee for public office about their religion no matter what it was.
The Framers put that prohibition (Article VI, Clause 3) in the Constitution for a reason. You like to lean on the First Amendment when you think it's anti-religion, but you want to ignore the Constitutional prohibition against a religious test for public office.
That isn't sufficient when we have Justices like Scalia who didn't believe that there was a separation of church and state in the 1st Amendment.
Asking them about their religious views isn't disqualifying that a test would be. You can be a devout Christian and still support equal rights for others and a strict seperatrion of church and state. Former Ohio Governor Strickland was a Methodist minister and he was also adamant about the strict separation of church and state.
When it's no longer remarkable for an atheist or person whose religion is one other than Christianity to run for or hold public office, maybe I won't think these seeds are quite so ridiculous.
But for now - they're ridiculous.
You think it ridiculous that a current event article by the leader of Concerned Women For America needed to be written and that Real Clear Politics carries it. She was right on and correct about every point she made in it. Thank goodness for Concerned Women For America and Alliance Defending Freedom and others for standing up for our beliefs and defending them from those who hate us and every thing about America that we hold dear.
I think it's ridiculous that some members of the overwhelming religious majority of this country, which has actually managed to get some of its religious principles written into our laws, are complaining of persecution.
When you're not allowed to buy beer from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday because you're legally required to respect the Jewish sabbath, get back to me.
I hold my beer very dear and remember when you couldn't buy it here on Sunday
You still can't in WV before 1:00 on Sundays.
Can't buy it all on Sunday in Arkansas
Only in restaurants are Sundays alcohol sales permitted around here. It varies by county in Ohio.
I'm sure your Ilk thinks that.
Mike Pence is the spawn of the devil-- he is a truly evil man!
I don't know about all of that, but I sure don't want him as president......leave Trump alone.
I figure that IS why pence is V P.
You know, bringing that up you are not that far fetched.
It was not a joke.
Notice how pence was kept at arms length even for a long time.
clean pence , clean gonna be there pence
That sounds much like Barack Hussein Obama actually. Pure evil undiluted. Mike Pence is a great American.
How exactly was Barack H. Obama evil?
You think that there was anything at all about him that wasn’t evil?
What do you think was evil about Barack H. Obama? Don't bother with the BS that he doesn't love the US/flag, or other nonsense.
1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
That's not an answer.
What makes Obama pure undiluted evil?
Doesn't seem to mind spewing hate and bigotry while complaining about hate and bigotry huh?
His irony detector seems to need a software update before it can function properly.
Gets a bit confusing when one enjoys living in the hate crime capital of Northern California.
Criticism and even "accusations" are not persecution. Junk seeds like this one should be shitcanned on sight.
Ah, the pro censorship majority faction of NTer’s has arrived.
It is only censorship when the government fines or imprisons you for your speech. Does John or Perrie act with the direction of the government?
Right in time when fake Christian bigots and haters start complaining about hate and bigotry.
This is just something for people to argue about, another distract and more "poor abused us" stuff.
She was so bored as the VP Pence's wife she went back to teaching art at a strict school.
Big surprise.
Simple when they stop wanting to be treated more special than everyone else and when they stop trying to enforce their beliefs on others
Also it would probably help if they stopped posting seeds about their perceived bias every single day
it's their battle mentality from their religious beliefs that cause this - the "us vs them" and "good vs evil", they are constantly "battling" someone or something. Without the persecution complex and "victim cards" - then they'd actually have to deal with themselves internally or deal with actual issues.