Former Vice President Mike Pence addressed Southern Baptists at a luncheon event focused on public service where he criticized President Joe Biden, questioned the future of the Republican Party and upheld faith as the answer for the country’s problems.
He spoke during a Tuesday luncheon held at a hotel across the street from the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention with Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
After trumpeting his role in the Trump administration’s appointment of justices who “sent Roe versus Wade to the ash heap of history,” Pence made it clear that he has found nothing to appreciate about the current presidency.
“I’ve never voted for Joe Biden,” he said. “I can’t think of a thing he’s done that I agree with. And I’ve known Joe Biden a long time. And, I mean, there’s a big debate over the president’s condition, ability to do the job. Let me just assure you, Joe Biden has always been that wrong. I mean, that’s not new.”
Some of the audience, about 400 people dining on boxed lunches of turkey sandwiches, pasta salad and chocolate chip cookies, laughed, and even more applauded the overturning of the constitutional right to legal abortion in the U.S. two years ago.
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Pence, who was drawn to the Republican Party during the Ronald Reagan era, said he’s focused on “traditional conservative values” and advocating for them through his Advancing American Freedom, a foundation he created in 2021. But he sees division in his political party.
“The influential men and women in this room need to know there’s also a very healthy debate within my party about whether we’re going to stay on the course of a strong national defense of American leadership in the world, of limited government and balanced budgets, traditional moral values, the right to life and an affirmation of religious liberty and marriage,” he said, “or whether we’re going to start to move in another direction.”
One of those divides, he said, is future legislation about abortion at every level of U.S. political life.
“I honestly think we haven’t come to the end of the debate over life: We’ve come to the end of the beginning,” Pence said. “I think the destiny of this nation is inextricably linked to whether we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law.”
Leatherwood asked Pence how he deals with personal attacks, including about decisions that have made headlines, such as to not dine alone with a woman not his wife.
Pence drew laughter again when he described then-President Donald Trump’s reaction to a news story about that personal policy when they were with his team in the Oval Office: “He goes, ‘Can you all believe it? After everything they said about me, they’re attacking Mike Pence for being faithful to his wife.’”
But Pence included a clarification for those in Tuesday’s audience who did not know the history of that choice of personal behavior.
“It wasn’t Mike Pence’s rule: It’s the Billy Graham rule,” he said, referring to the famed evangelist. “When we got busy in public life, Karen and I sat down and just made some decisions about putting our marriage and our families first and that was one of them.”
Pence said he and Trump, on the other hand, may never agree on the decision Pence made to support the outcome of the 2020 election — even as election deniers attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, some threatening his life. But Pence said he focuses on the faith on which he relied then and now.
“I know it’s God’s grace that saw us through that day,” he said.
Leatherwood asked Pence if he had any advice for approaching the upcoming election, as research has shown that most Americans do not want a presidential rematch between Biden and Trump.
“If there was a time to go back to that pulpit and tell your folks pray for America, it’d be now,” the former vice president said, adding that repentance is also necessary.
He recommended “calling our neighbors and friends, not just the people out there that disagree with us openly, that don’t embrace our faith in Jesus Christ, but I’m talking about including people who do and say let’s all examine our hearts and see how it is that we can, in our own lives, have a change of heart that will inspire the nation.”
In the beginning and end of his remarks, Pence expressed his gratitude for those in the audience who are leading and preaching to congregations across the country.
“I want you all to know how grateful I am for the role that you play in the lives of families and communities that you serve,” he said. “I will always believe that the pulpits that you speak behind are infinitely more valuable to the life of this nation than any podium that I’ve ever had the privilege to stand on.”
Adelle Banks es editora de producción y corresponsal nacional de Religion News Service.
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8 Respuestas
Mike Pence is the epitome of what is wrong with white american evangelicals. He propped up a rapist and fraudster, stood by his side and gave him “legitimacy” with evangelicals, and ignored the incredible harm that administration did to the people on the margins of society. He expelled the stranger, took food out of the mouths of hungry children, pushed people into homelessness, and left people naked. He stood idly by while trump politicized covid so millions more people died than needed to. trump was actively trying to kill him on 1/6, and he BARELY made the right choice. Pence is the definition of “using the Lord’s name in vain”. He used it for political prosperity and sold his entire soul for less than a bowl of soup- for the vice presidency.
Estoy de acuerdo.
And what is worse is that the reason Pence could not address the general assembly is that they would have booed him for not overturning the election.
That tells you something about the base of the GOP and evangelical movement.
I wish I could add something to what jen manlief wrote but I cannot. The problems with Pence are succinctly and eloquently stated.
If Mike Pence really believes the bible is the Holy-Spirit-inspired word of God, then what does he do with these scriptures?
GOD DEAF TO SINNERS
if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chron. 7:14
If I had been aware of sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; Ps. 66:18
If anyone turns a deaf ear to my instruction, even their prayers are detestable Prov. 28:9
We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Jn. 9:31
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my face from you. Even if you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood! Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Is. 1:15-16
He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a trivial matter for the people of America to do the detestable things they are doing here? Must they also fill the land with violence and continually provoke me to anger? Look at them thumbing their noses at me.
Therefore, I will deal with them in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout in my ears, I will not listen to them.” Ezek. 8:17-18
David gave us a true understanding of God which assures us that He NEVER hears prayers from sinners. Ps. 5:4-6
Colin do you ever sin?
Taking the example of Jesus washing Peters feet – telling Peter that he was spiritually clean but needed daily cleansing.
Jesus explained
“Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you”
-John 13:10
(It is a picture to me of how in the same way that even though after we take a full bath, we still have to wash our hands throughout the day – that does not mean that our body is unclean)
And I’m very uncomfortable with inserting “America” in the place of Israel to whom God was speaking in that passage
Wow. Just. Wow. If Mike Pence cannot think of anything that President Biden has done that he could support, let me give him a list of Biden policies that I very much like: Strong support for Ukrainian resistance against the butcher Putin, strong support for Israel and against Hamas all the while trying to bring a two-state solution to the Palestinian crisis; strong support for NATO and for the security of both Europe and North America; an infrastructure package that is addressing those needs across our country; a sensible Covid-19 policy that has helped us recover from the Trump/Pence Covid disaster of 2020. I could go on, and if Mike Pence is opposed to those things then no wonder he didn’t make headway in his presidential campaign.
After reading the replies to this report (not this report itself) and the replies to the May 30 ‘Blind Faith’ article as well as the May 30 article itself, I am amazed and appalled. I have spent several hours thinking and praying about the behavior of the writers of these things, in addition to inspecting my own behavior in frequent conversations with 2 friends with whom I disagree about Presidents Biden and Trump.
Julie has been very kind to us by providing us a large amount of important information and a free place to discuss it. She only asks that we follow a few simple rules that echo the instructions in the Bible. They are posted in red letters in the large light red box just above where we type our comments. Let’s show more respect for Julie, the beloved family members we are disagreeing with, and for our Father’s instructions given and preserved for us in our Bibles.
Thank you for considering my thoughts. May God bless us all to speak truthfully in ways that will do some good.
I do not care for Pence. He was not Christ like after the election badmouthing President Trump. He’s not loyal and my opinion of him changed greatly. He never had a business nor worked in industry. It made me laugh when he ran for the nomination by bragging about what he did when it was really Trump’s win.