Par For The Course – definition: par for the course is a noun –  something to be expected

While the following story may be “par for the course, that doesn’t make it acceptable! Christians should be highly upset with the the characterization that being a Christian is a “mental illness”.

Note that Mike Pence is from the same hometown that I am, and I have talked to him on numerous occasions. I don’t claim to know everything about him, but I have followed his political career from the very beginning.

I will make my comments to the story below in the article with bold red. Please remember that these comment will be my OPINION. Take a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNpm_NglrJQ

‘The View’ star Joy Behar mocks Mike Pence’s Christian faith: ‘That’s called mental illness’

The women of ABC News’ “The View” took a shot a Vice President Mike Pence’s Christian faith on Tuesday, mocking the former governor of Indiana for talking to Jesus and even calling it a “mental illness.”  From Merriam-Webster.com – Definition of mental illness: any of a broad range of medical conditions (such as major depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that are marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions to impair normal psychological functioning and cause marked distress or disability and that are typically associated with a disruption in normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, interpersonal interactions, or daily functioning

It all started when they played a clip from “Celebrity Big Brother,” in which former White House staffer Omarosa Manigault Newman discussed the vice president. Who makes Omarosa an expert on Vice-President Pence? My guess is that she barely knows him.  

“As bad as you think Trump is, you would be worried about Pence… everyone that is wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their life,” she said in the clip. “I am Christian, I love Jesus, but he thinks Jesus tells him to say things.” How would she know what Jesus tells anyone other than herself?

The talk-show panelists pondered what Omarosa’s motive was, before Sunny Hostin chimed in, “I think what’s interesting is that she said Jesus tells Mike Pence things to say.” I think that most Christian would agree that Jesus talks to us through His word, and some will believe (in my opinion rightly so) that they hear from Jesus directly. Does that make me mentally ill?

Hostin declared that Pence is a “hated figure” in Indiana, claiming she knows firsthand because she attended law school in the state. I can’t find the dates that Hostin attended law school at Notre Dame. She was born in 1969 so if she was in her early 20’s then she would have been there somewhere around the mid 90’s. Pence ran for office in the House of Representatives for the first time (an lost) in 1988, and didn’t start his time in Congress until 2001 in a district in Southern Indiana.  Notre Dame is in the very Northern most point in the state. Maybe she had heard of Mike Pence while at Notre Dame, but I’m thinking she knew little to nothing about him at that time. 

“He’s not very popular at all,” she said. “I think when you have a Mike Pence who now sort of puts this religious veneer on things and calls people ‘values voters,’ I think we’re in a dangerous situation.” Let’s see – Mike Pence was elected and served in Congress from 2001 to 2013. That would mean he was voted into office in his district 6 different times. He served as Governor of the state of Indiana from 2013-2017 and was running for re-election when President Trump named Pence as his running mate in the 2016 election. Granted, he made some decisions that were very unpopular, but it’s hard to reconcile Hostin’s OPINION that he is “hated and not very popular” with the FACT that he won election on 7 different occasions. 

Hostin said she is a “faithful” Catholic but doesn’t want her vice president “speaking in tongues.” It’s obvious that as a Catholic she knows nothing about “speaking in tongues”,  as the topic was what Pence heard from Jesus, not about how he spoke to Jesus. Personally knowing his hometown church and having been there a few occasions, I can assure you that there was no speaking in tongues done while I was there.   

Joy Behar then said: “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you.” Pure sarcasm and vitriol.

Behar said hearing voices is a “mental illness” before Sherri Shepard offered a limited defense of Pence.

“As a Christian, that’s just par for the course,” Shepard said “You talk to Jesus, Jesus talks back. What concerns me is, how long is the conversation with Jesus?” Shepard acknowledges that Jesus talks to us, so why would it the length of that would be concerning. If Jesus talks to him for 30 that’s ok, but if it’s a minute or two or three or longer then that’s “concerning”?

Behar, an ABC News star, uncomfortably joked, “Can he talk to Mary Magdalene without his wife in the room?” This is probably the worst comment of the entire interview. Critics of the Bible has banded Mary Magdalene as a woman of ill repute, and the “without his wife in the room” part is making reference to Pence’s previous comments on how he keeps his vows to his wife. 

Shepard then said that the key is “moderation” and anything that is “too much” is concerning. Again how is moderation and too much defined?

“Do we want our politics served to us with a religious veneer over them?” Hostin asked. “This administration is not a values-driven administration.” Let’s see – religious veneer and politics. Our founding documents and Constitution has religious veneer written all over them, and the Founding Fathers were mostly Christians (no matter what uninformed naysayers might tell you). If you watch the video, you will notice that the hosts couldn’t even agree on what values-driven is. 

Finally, I find it very interesting, at the end of the segment, that Bahar commented that Pence would be much better that Trump. “I don’t think anyone could be worse than Trump.  (garbled words) Say what you will about Mike Pence and his religiosity and everything else. I don’t think that he’s mentally ill even though he says that he is hearing voices. I don’t think he is that crazy”. So when it’s Pence alone, he and Christians are mentally ill and several other derogatory things, but when compared to Trump – Behar seems to think that Pence would do lots of things right. Total hypocrisy and I believe that ABC should discontinue allowing these women to spew there 1st Amendment protected venom.