01/21/19
As most of you know Vice President Mike Pence's wife, Karen,
has accepted a job at the Immanuel Christian School
in Northern Virginia . Normally I would applaud that. Given the woeful state of our education
system I would hope that being a teacher would prompt her to become an advocate
for that disturbingly undervalued profession.
Yes, I realize that the Immanuel
Christian School
There is just one little problem. You know the school that she will be teaching
at, yeah, it is just a teensy bit prejudiced.
You know, just like the Marianas Trench
is just a teensy bit deep.
This school seems to think that bigotry is a virtue. Yuppers, a virtue. Now it was always my understanding the word
"virtue" referred to something positive. Now, I realize that what is regarded a s
positive is subjective, but damn!
The school's brand of bigotry? LGBT students and teachers are banned from
the school. So, if you are a dude who likes
weener or a lady who digs who-who (Tech terms, you will be tested later) or one
of those lucky people who like both, don't even bother showing up. You are all terribly naughty people. Apparently.
The school actually goes farther that that and it bans a
great many things that it deems morally wrong.
Including, but not limited to: even having anything to do with anything
LBGT related (Put down those Elton John and Liberace CDs and back away
slowly!), divisive conduct, premarital sex, living together outside of wedlock
(most awkward wrestling move ever!), polygamy,
porn, adultery, premarital sex, violation of the unique roles of male and
female (back to the kitchen with you!), etc.
Now this isn't just stuff you can't do on campus, this is stuff you can't do at all! Here's an example of how much this school
wants to be in control of the lives of the students and faculty, in order to
have your child attend the school the parents have to sign an agreement that it
calls, the "Essentials of Faith".
Number thirteen on this list states: "I will regularly pray for the
needs of the school, my child's teachers, the school administration, and school
board." Nice, huh? I wonder how they know. Is it possible to run a wire tap on people's
prayers? Does the NSA know about this?
They want all involved with them to live according to the
laws laid down in the bible. Which
version of the bible they don't actually specify. So, for all of you keeping score, gayness and
wanking are a no-no but slavery (with a handy little section on the logistics
thereof in Lev 25), genocide (all over the place), and smashing babies against
rocks (Psalm 137) are just fine! Hooray
for morality!
So maybe, just maybe, the second lady didn't realize that
the school was so... "harsh".
Maybe she thought it was just a regular private school. Nope, she had taught there for twelve years
prior to becoming the second lady.
Some might say, "Hey, she is still a teacher. Why couldn't she still be an advocate? Well, she could but it would be a little like
David Duke advocating for voting. Sure,
he was an elected official and voting is important (in theory) but the
negatives of the person kind of overshadow the message just a tad.
"But, hey," I hear some of you thinking (that's
right, I am totally inside your head!), "It's not as if she is an elected
official." Fair enough. But her husband is and she has his
support. He went so far as to say in an
interview regarding the reporting in the media:
“To see major news organizations
attacking Christian education is deeply offensive to us,” Further stating that. “We’ll let the critics
roll off our backs,” the vice president continued. “But this criticism of
Christian education should stop.” Because, as we all know, expressing differing
opinions is downright un-American!
He seems to have a fundamental (most likely willful)
misunderstanding of the problem here. No
one is attacking Christian education.
First, I would imagine a great many Christian private schools might not
want to be put in the same category as ICS.
Second, the school isn't really the issue. The issue is that the second lady and the
vice president are in vocal support of bigoted and exclusionist practices and
that should make anyone nervous.
Now I firmly believe that anyone can worship or not worship
anything that they see fit. No matter
how vile something is, it is a person's right to believe it. The caveat to that would be, "as long as
it doesn't hurt anyone else". I may
find your beliefs repugnant but I support your right to believe them. The problem with this situation is this:
Those personal beliefs, in a situation like this have a better than average
chance of slinking in to public policy.
Best case scenario, a whole lot of people have their bigotry
validated. Think I am exaggerating? Go have a look at some of the wacky things
Mike has said. It's probably ok. I mean, it is not like a belief system has
ever been used against anyone who believed differently before. Right?
Oh, fun fact:
According to the bible (Mathew 05:32 and others) Jesus
stated that a person who divorces their spouse and marries someone else is
committing adultery, as it the person who marries her. Mike Pence is Karen's
second husband. Hmmm, there was
something prohibited by the school, wasn't there? Something that started with an
"A" Something in a nice
scarlet...
Ok, in all fairness it really puts the onus on the man but
that probably has something to do with the bible, in general, doesn't view
women as real people. Mike on the other
hand...
Rant Over...for now.
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