The conversation
In Mike Pence, American evangelicals had their ’24 carat gold ‘man at the White House. Loyalty can tarnish that legacy
Mike Pence remained one of the only constants in Trump’s often chaotic administration. Described as “vanilla”, “stable” and loyal to the point of being “sycophantic”, he is, in the words of one profile, a “common man with humility and accessibility from the Midwest” and, in another, a “man 61-year-old, soft-spoken and deeply religious. “But that humility and loyalty is being tested as his term as vice president comes to an end.” I hope Mike Pence will show up for us, “Trump told supporters at a rally. on Monday, apparently under the mistaken belief that Pence can overturn the election result by presiding over the electoral college vote count in a joint session of Congress today. Balancing the passage Over the past four years, the vice president offered a striking contrast to his commander-in-chief’s fiery and abrasive temperament, in fact, in his acceptance speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention, Pence joked that he had been chosen because Trump, with his “great personality,” “colorful style ” and ” a lot of charisma ”,“ I was looking for some balance in the ticket. Commentators attributed Pence’s firmness to his Hoosier roots and his skills as an “experienced political operator”. But it is your religious beliefs that may inform your policy and style more than anything else; as Pence repeated several times, he is “a Christian, conservative and republican – in that order”. In a 2011 profile during Pence’s candidacy for governor of Indiana, famous state political columnist Brian Howey commented, “Pence doesn’t just wear his faith on his sleeve, he wears the entire Jesus shirt.” It is not a characterization that Pence has avoided far from. “My Christian faith is at the heart of who I am,” said Pence during the 2016 vice presidential debate. Richard Land, former chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and current president of the Evangelical Seminary of the South in Charlotte, said the Atlantic in 2018, “Mike Pence is the 24-carat gold model of what we want in an evangelical politician. I don’t know anyone who is more consistent in bringing their evangelical Christian worldview to public policy. ”But as a scholar of America’s religion and culture, I believe that Pence’s faith and political identities are more complex than these statements suggest. In fact, you can trace three different conversion experiences in your biography. Three-point conversion Growing up in an Irish Catholic family with five siblings, working-class roots and democratic political commitments, Pence attended Catholic school, served as an altar boy in his family’s church, idolized John F. Kennedy and was a youth coordinator for the Local Democratic Party in its teens. It was when I was a freshman at Hanover College in 1978 that Pence experienced an evangelical conversion while attending a music festival in Kentucky advertised as the “Christian Woodstock”. For some years after that, he remained active in the Catholic Church, attending mass regularly, serving as a youth minister and seriously considering entering the priesthood. At the same time, he and his future wife Karen were part of a demographic shift among Americans who “grew up Catholic and still loved many things about the Catholic Church, but also loved the concept of having a very personal relationship with Christ,” close friend. In the mid-1990s, he was married and the father of three children who identified himself as a “born-again evangelical Catholic”, an unusual term that caused some consternation between evangelicals and Catholics. In subsequent interviews, Pence spoke openly about how his 1978 conversion gave him a “personal relationship with Jesus Christ” that “changed everything”. But he tends to avoid labeling his religious views when pressed, referring to himself as a “fairly ordinary Christian” who “appreciates his Catholic education”. He has attended non-denominational evangelical churches with his family since at least 1995. Pence’s political conversion was clearer. Although he voted for Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election, he quickly embraced Ronald Reagan’s economic and social conservatism and his populist appeal. In a 2016 speech at the Reagan Library, Pence credited Reagan for inspiring him to “leave the party of my youth and become a Republican like he did”. “His broad-shouldered leadership changed my life,” he said. Pence often compared Trump to Reagan, arguing that they have the same “broad shoulders”. Pence ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1988 and 1990, and the second blunt loss precipitated a third conversion, this time in political style. In an essay published in 1991 entitled “Confessions of a negative activist”, he described himself as a sinner and wrote about his “conversion” to the belief that “the negative campaign is wrong”. Between 1992 and 1999, Pence honed his mix of family values and fiscal conservatism in a self-titled conservative talk show. The program’s popularity provided a springboard for a successful run in Congress in 2000. During his six terms in the House, Pence acquired a reputation for “pure traditional conservatism” and principled opposition to the leadership of the Republican Party on issues like No Child Left Behind and the expansion of Medicare prescription drugs. Religious acts In addition to his “immaculate” reputation as a “culture warrior”, he also drew attention for following the “Billy Graham Rule” of avoiding meeting women alone and avoiding events where alcohol was served when his wife was not there. gift. During the 2016 vice presidential debate, Pence said that his entire career in public service stems from a commitment to “live” his religious beliefs, “even if imperfectly”. One such belief is his opposition to abortion, based on his reading of particular biblical passages. As a congressman in 2007, he was the first to sponsor the planned paternity de-funding legislation, and he did so repeatedly until the first funding bill was passed in 2011. “I look forward to the day when Roe v. Wade will be sent to the ash heap of history, ”he said at the time. In 2016, despite objections from many Republican state representatives, he sanctioned the country’s most restrictive set of anti-abortion measures, making him a conservative hero. Among other things, the bill prevented women from terminating pregnancy for reasons that included fetal disability, such as Down’s syndrome. Although opponents have managed to get the bill overturned in the courts, Indiana is still seen as one of America’s most anti-abortion states. As vice president, Pence also cast a tie vote in the Senate to allow states to retain federal Planned Parenthood family planning funds in 2017. Pence was also a staunch opponent of LGBTQ rights. He opposed the inclusion of sexual orientation in hate crime legislation and the end of military policy “Don’t ask, don’t say”. He also supported state and federal constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage and expressed disappointment at Obergefell’s 2015 decision, which required all states to recognize these unions. At the same time, he has been a strong supporter of “religious freedom”, particularly for Christians. In March 2015, as governor of Indiana, he signed the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act “to ensure that religious freedom is fully protected”. The act sparked a storm of controversy across the country: critics claimed it would allow individuals and businesses to legally discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community. Under pressure from LGBTQ activists, liberals, businessmen and moderate Republicans, Pence signed an amendment a week later stipulating that he did not authorize discrimination. Reputation betting Pence’s religious and political biography reflects the main political and religious changes in the last 40 years, from the rise of the religious right and his growing influence in the Republican Party to the conservative coalition of evangelicals and Catholics in all denominational lines, to the legacy of Celebrity president “outsider”. These topics converge on Mike Pence, whose conservative “24-carat” and “immaculate” credentials were instrumental in bringing together evangelical voters behind Trump in the 2016 election and who bet his political future on continuing to defend him. This article was republished from The Conversation, a non-profit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Deborah Whitehead, University of Colorado Boulder. Read more: * Why Trump supporters in the Senate can’t overturn the results of the Electoral College they don’t like – that’s how the law really works * What’s next for American evangelicals after Trump leaves office? Deborah Whitehead does not work for, consult, own shares or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article and has not disclosed relevant affiliations other than her academic appointment.