Vice President Mike Pence did not mince words after mainstream media outlets carried out their “attacks” against his wife, second lady Karen Pence, and Christian education with a slew of reports that slammed her for her return to teaching art at a private Christian school.
“The attacks on Christian education by the mainstream media have got to stop,” Mike Pence told Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), on Thursday on the “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” radio show.
Karen Pence, an artist who studied elementary education, had previously taught at Immanuel Christian School in northern Virginia during her husband’s tenure in Congress.
The second lady’s office announced this week she returned to teaching art two days a week at the school.
“I am excited to be back in the classroom and doing what I love to do, which is to teach art to elementary students,” Karen Pence said in a statement. “I have missed teaching art, and it’s great to return to the school where I taught art for 12 years.”
But liberals and mainstream media outlets immediately pounced after learning Immanuel Christian School requires employees, students and parents to adhere to a statement of faith.
It requires them to believe in and practice biblical sexual morality and traditional marriage between one man and one woman.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo even compared Karen Pence’s decision to teach at the school to embattled Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) recent racist comments — which spurred GOP House leadership to remove him from all committees and call for his resignation.
“The point is that the value of exclusion is embraced here. And our vice president’s wife, in the place where she is — it does the same thing,” Cuomo said Wednesday on “Cuomo Prime Time.”
Related: Karen Pence Sparks Liberal Upset by Returning to Teach at a Private Christian School
“And it adds to the anxiety from people around why this White House, why this president, doesn’t speak out against a member of his party [who] embraces a message that isolates the same kinds of people … being singled out where the vice president’s wife works,” Cuomo said.
When Perkins asked Pence if he were “concerned” about efforts “to marginalize people of faith that’s going on in our culture right now,” Pence decried the “attacks” on his wife and Christian education.
“The attacks on Christian education by the mainstream media have got to stop.”
“Karen and I have been in and around public life for almost two decades. And so to be honest with you, we’re used to the criticism,” Mike Pence said. “But the attacks on Christian education by the mainstream media have got to stop.”
“We cherish the freedom of religion in this country. This administration stands four-square for the freedom of religion of people of all faiths,” the vice president added. “And to see the mainstream media criticize my wife because she’s choosing to return to the classroom of an elementary Christian school is wrong. Again, the attacks on Christian education must end.”
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