Mike Pence is Wrong

AS PART OF his annual commencement speech tour, Vice President Mike Pence warned graduates at Christian colleges such as Liberty University that they would be “shunned or ridiculed for defending the teachings of the Bible” and adherence to “traditional Christian beliefs.” As an example, Pence cited the backlash he and his wife, Karen Pence, received after she took a job at Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, Va., a private Christian school that bans LGBT employees and students and the children of gay parents.

What the vice president and many like him are describing, however, is not an infringement of their rights or persecution, but theological disagreement and different beliefs that are as protected as their own. While the Constitution protects their right to choose their religion and how to practice their beliefs, the Constitution does not protect against theological or philosophical disagreements.

Pence’s assertion that his rights are being infringed upon ignores the historical understanding of the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. The First Amendment protects my Judaism just as it protects another’s Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Hinduism, Buddhism, or atheism.

The long-held understanding of the First Amendment has also enabled different expressions of each religion to flourish in our country. Those who advocated for and wrote the Bill of Rights rejected the idea that a single interpretation of Christianity was legally the “right one.” Thanks in part to what those men put down on paper in the 1780s, the number of Christian denominations in the country has ballooned from fewer than 10 to the perhaps hundreds in the country today. And that doesn’t include the multitude of nondenominational Christian groups.

Even within the denominations, however, there can be a wide range of theological understandings. Both former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions are members of the United Methodist Church, which itself is in the midst of turmoil over theological disagreements and different scriptural interpretations.

So, when Pence advocates for “traditional Christian beliefs,” it’s important to ask whose tradition he’s talking about and to recognize that he, like all of us, has the right to his biblical interpretation and faith. But what he’s doing is conflating disagreement with infringement of rights and ignoring the rich diversity of faith in this country, including in his own chosen faith of Christianity.

Infringement on religious rights in this country is when your movements are restricted because of your faith, as has happened for some Muslims through Trump’s Muslim ban, or when your ability to wear religious garb is prohibited, as has happened for some Sikhs who wear kirpans, or when you are denied service or health care because of someone else’s religious beliefs.

Freedom to practice your beliefs is endangered when your sense of safety is shattered after a hate-fueled attack on members of your faith community as those in Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and African-American Christian communities across the country have experienced through shootings, arson, and violent protests.

Objections to Pence’s views on LGBTQ people or other rights are not an infringement on his—or anyone else’s—religious freedom. Suggesting that they are or that evangelical Christians are “under attack” is not only wrong, it is dangerous. It devalues the reality of religious persecution at a time when people in this country and around the world are being killed because of their faith.

A forceful disagreement with someone’s religious beliefs is simply not the same as the violent acts targeting houses of worship.