[Vision2020] Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept 11-15-16 "Mike Pence Will Be the Most Powerful Christian Supremacist in U.S. History"

[Ted Moffett]

Reading Jeremy Scahill's article below convinced me the guy's a genius as
an investigative journalist.  If even half of what is revealed in Scahill's
article is true... Yikes.
The final paragraph is here, for those disinclined to read the whole screed:

*"Perhaps that episode is telling. The radical religious right doesn’t need
to save Trump’s soul. As they saw in the campaign, Trump has staked out a
hateful agenda — one that tracks quite well with the crusades of Pence and
his fellow apostles. Even if elements of Trump’s vile rhetoric and his
various threats were a psychotic form of performance art, or mere
opportunistic political strategy, as some suggest, they have set the stage
for the pursuit of a civilizational war that poses a dire threat to
vulnerable populations throughout the world. President Obama, Hillary
Clinton, and a slew of prominent Democrats have publicly said that
Americans should give Trump a chance. With Mike Pence seated at the right
hand of the father, running foreign and domestic policy, they will do so at
their peril."*
------------------------------------------------
Most know about Glenn Greenwald, one of the founders of "The Intercept,"
right?  Just in case not...
https://theintercept.com/staff/glenn-greenwald/

https://theintercept.com/staff/
Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald is one of three co-founding editors of The Intercept. He is
a journalist, constitutional lawyer, and author of four *New York Times*
best-selling books on politics and law. His most recent book, *No Place to
Hide*, is about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting
on the Snowden documents around the world. Prior to co-founding The
Intercept, Glenn’s column was featured at *The* *Guardian* and *Salon*. He
was the debut winner, along with Amy Goodman, of the Park Center I.F. Stone
Award for Independent Journalism in 2008, and also received the 2010 Online
Journalism Award for his investigative work on the abusive detention
conditions of Chelsea Manning. For his 2013 NSA reporting, he received the
George Polk award for National Security Reporting; the Gannett Foundation
award for investigative journalism and the Gannett Foundation watchdog
journalism award; the Esso Premio for Excellence in Investigative Reporting
in Brazil (he was the first non-Brazilian to win), and the Electronic
Frontier Foundation’s Pioneer Award. Along with Laura Poitras, *Foreign
Policy* magazine named him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers for 2013. The
NSA reporting he led for *The* *Guardian* was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer
Prize for public service.

-----------------------------------------

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/mike-pence-will-be-the-most-powerful-christian-supremacist-in-us-history/
Mike Pence Will Be the Most Powerful Christian Supremacist in U.S. History
<https://theintercept.com/2016/11/15/mike-pence-will-be-the-most-powerful-christian-supremacist-in-us-history/>
Jeremy Scahill <https://theintercept.com/staff/jeremy-scahill/>
<https://theintercept.com/staff/jeremy-scahill/>
November 15 2016, 10:27 a.m

*The election of* Donald Trump has sent shockwaves through the souls of
compassionate, humane people across the country and the world. Horror that
a candidate who ran on a platform of open bigotry, threats against
immigrants and Muslims, and blatant misogyny will soon be president is now
sinking in. Trump appointed a white nationalist, Steve Bannon, as chief
White House strategist — which was promptly celebrated
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a50685/steve-bannon-kkk/> by the
American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan. Bannon and other possible
extremist Trump appointees, such as John Bolton, a neocon who believes the
U.S. should “bomb Iran
<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/26/opinion/to-stop-irans-bomb-bomb-iran.html?_r=0>,”
and the authoritarian Rudy Giuliani, are now receiving much deserved public
scrutiny.

The incoming vice president, Mike Pence, has not elicited the same
reaction, instead often painted as the reasonable adult on the ticket, a “
counterbalance
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mike-pence-sounded-nothing-like-donald-trump-in-the-vp-debate/2016/10/05/2ce2193c-8a24-11e6-b24f-a7f89eb68887_story.html>”
to Trump and a “bridge to the establishment
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/us/politics/mike-pence-vice-president.html>.”
However, there is every reason to regard him as, if anything, even more
terrifying than the president-elect.

Pence’s ascent to the second most powerful position in the U.S. government
is a tremendous coup for the radical religious right. Pence — and his
fellow Christian supremacist militants — would not have been able to win
the White House on their own. For them, Donald Trump was a godsend. “This
may not be our preferred candidate, but that doesn’t mean it may not be
God’s candidate to do something that we don’t see,” said
<http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/david-barton-christians-must-accept-that-trump-is-gods-guy-in-this-election/>
David Barton, a prominent Christian right activist and president of Wall
Builders <http://www.wallbuilders.com/abtbiodb.asp>, an organization
dedicated to making the U.S. government enforce “biblical values.” In June,
Barton prophesied: “We may look back in a few years and say, ‘Wow, [Trump]
really did some things that none of us expected.’”

Trump is a Trojan horse for a cabal of vicious zealots who have long craved
an extremist Christian theocracy, and Pence is one of its most prized
warriors. With Republican control of the House and Senate and the prospect
of dramatically and decisively tilting the balance of the Supreme Court to
the far right, the incoming administration will have a real shot at
bringing the fire and brimstone of the second coming to Washington.

“The enemy, to them, is secularism. They want a God-led government. That’s
the only legitimate government,” contends
<http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/21/reporter_who_unearthed_pence_radio_tapes>
Jeff Sharlet, author of two books on the radical religious right, including
“The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
<https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060559793/the-family>.” “So when they
speak of business, they’re speaking not of something separate from God, but
they’re speaking of what, in Mike Pence’s circles, would be called biblical
capitalism, the idea that this economic system is God-ordained.”

One of Trump’s sons, Don Jr., reportedly
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/magazine/how-donald-trump-picked-his-running-mate.html?_r=0>
said that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and
foreign policy, while Trump would focus on the vague mission of “Making
America Great Again.” Trump’s campaign subsequently claimed
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/magazine/how-donald-trump-picked-his-running-mate.html?_r=0>
the story was “made up
<http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/20/politics/john-kasich-donald-trump-vice-president/>,”
though Trump has consistently denied saying things he is on record as
saying, so who knows? In any case, the implications of a Pence vice
presidency are vast. Pence combines the most horrid aspects of Dick
Cheney’s worldview with a belief that Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” novels are
not fiction, but an omniscient crystal ball.

While Trump has flip-flopped on a variety of issues, Pence has been a
reliable stalwart throughout his public life in the cause of Christian
jihad.

How the GOP foisted Pence on Trump is undoubtedly a fascinating story that
hopefully will some day be revealed. Obviously, Pence gave Trump badly
needed credibility with evangelical voters and the GOP establishment, but
Pence’s selection portends a governing apocalypse. While Trump has
flip-flopped on a variety of issues, from abortion to immigration to war
and health care, Pence has been a reliable stalwart throughout his public
life in the cause of Christian jihad — never wavering in his commitment to
America-First militarism, the criminalizing of abortion, and utter hatred
for gay people (unless they go into conversion therapy “to change their
sexual behavior
<http://web.archive.org/web/20010519165033fw_/http://cybertext.net/pence/issues.html>,”
which Pence has suggested the government pay for).

He supported making the Patriot Act permanent and wants to ban the burning
of the U.S. flag. Pence does not believe federal law enforcement agencies
should have to get a FISA warrant to conduct domestic surveillance and
voted against requiring any warrant for domestic wiretapping. As governor
of Indiana, he did quietly sign a bill
<http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2014/03/27/pence-signs-bill-limiting-electronic-surveillance-police/6978209/>
to limit the use of Stingray devices
<https://theintercept.com/2015/12/17/a-secret-catalogue-of-government-gear-for-spying-on-your-cellphone/>
by local law enforcement, though it was during the early stages of the
Snowden revelations and the public concern about government surveillance
was intense.

Pence supported giving retroactive immunity to telecom companies implicated
in warrantless surveillance. He does not want congressional oversight of
CIA interrogations — which Trump believes should include waterboarding and
other torture “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” Pence has paid
lip service to the illegality of torture but said that “enhanced
interrogation” has saved lives. He has characterized
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-pence-torture_us_57f51bfde4b04c71d6f152ce>
relationship-building, non-coercive interrogation strategies as “Oprah
Winfrey methods.” Pence is against
<http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll153.xml> whistleblower protections
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/house-bill/985> that would
prohibit retaliation for reporting crimes or misdeeds. In 2002, the ACLU
gave him a 7 percent rating
<http://www.ontheissues.org/Governor/Mike_Pence_Civil_Rights.htm> on civil
rights.

He wants the U.S. to resume the practice of holding new prisoners at
Guantánamo Bay or, as Trump put
<http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/07/12/trump_were_not_closing_gitmo_were_going_to_fill_it_up.html>
it, they plan “to fill it up.” Pence also supports expanded use of the
military tribunal system.

Pence has claimed that he wants to “economically isolate” Iran rather than
engage in a military attack. But should Israel decide to conduct
pre-emptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, he said
<http://www.indianasnewscenter.com/news/local/Full-Interview-With-Congressman-Mike-Pence-101202939.html>
in 2010, “if the world knows nothing else, let the world know this: that
America will stand with Israel.” He supported a failed legislative effort
<https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/hres1553/text> to make it U.S.
policy “to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear
threats posed by the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the use of
military force.” Both in rhetoric and policy, Pence has compared “radical
Islam” to the “evil empire of the Soviet Union” and said
<http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/09/11/exclusive-gov-mike-pence-on-911-says-america-must-elect-a-president-who-will-name-the-enemy-radical-islamic-terrorism/>
that he and Trump will “name the enemy” and “marshal the resources of our
nation and our allies to hunt them down and destroy them before they
threaten us.”

“We’ll see Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of history where it
belongs,” Pence promised.

As has been widely reported, as governor of Indiana, Pence signed
<http://iga.in.gov/static-documents/0/1/a/8/01a8b9ae/HB1337.02.COMH.pdf> a
law requiring fetal tissue from abortions to be buried or cremated, making
his state one of the most medieval in its approach to reproductive rights.
The fetus burial law, which Pence claimed would “ensure the dignified final
treatment of the unborn,” was suspended
<http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/30/judge-grants-preliminary-injunction-indiana-abortion-law/86556662/>
at the 11th hour by a federal judge, who said it was likely
unconstitutional. Pence has been at the forefront of the movement to defund
Planned Parenthood. “We’ll see Roe v. Wade consigned to the ash heap of
history where it belongs,” Pence promised. He has long sought to have 14th
Amendment protections applied to fetuses, arguing that they should be
declared persons. In Congress, Pence voted
<http://www.ontheissues.org/HouseVote/Party_2003-530.htm> to criminally
punish <https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1531> doctors who
performed late-term abortions, except in cases where the woman’s life was
in danger. A doctor who “kills a human fetus” faces up to two years in
prison, according to that law
<https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1531>.

Pence opposed efforts to widen hate crimes laws to include attacks on LGBT
people. He tried to block federal funding of HIV treatments unless they
came with a requirement to advocate against gay relationships. Pence
opposes non-straight people serving in the military. “Homosexuality is
incompatible with military service because the presence of homosexuals in
the ranks weakens unit cohesion,” he said
<http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-07-14/who-is-mike-pence>.

Pence believes “the only truly safe sex … is no sex” and once (falsely)
claimed <http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0202/15/wbr.00.html> on CNN that
“condoms are a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted
diseases.”

Pence supports the “wall” Trump has said he will build, believes in
self-deportation, and has staked out one of the most virulent positions
against the U.S. taking in refugees from Syria. In defending a proposed ban
on Syrian refugees entering Indiana, Pence said
<http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21694832-most-other-governors-seem-have-quietly-dropped-matter-indianas-governor-losing>
it was necessary to “ensure the safety and security of all Hoosiers.” He
has advocated for greater militarization of the so-called war on drugs,
including escalated military patrols. Pence denounced activists and others
protesting recent police killings of unarmed African-Americans, charging
they “seize upon tragedy in the wake of police action shootings.” He said
he found it offensive to “use a broad brush to accuse law enforcement of
implicit bias or institutional racism and that really has got to stop.” He
has said that “police officers are the best of us.”

Pence is a strong supporter of stop-and-frisk programs, which in New York
were used overwhelmingly against people of color. “It’s on a sound
constitutional footing,” said
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/297661-pence-defends-stop-and-frisk-it-literally-saved-lives-in>
Pence, who added that he wanted the practice expanded nationwide.
“Stop-and-frisk literally saved lives in New York City when it was
implemented, and it’s been implemented in cities around the country.”

One interesting difference between Pence and Trump centers on the First
Amendment. Trump has made clear he believes in waging war against a free
press and has encouraged hostility toward journalists covering his
campaign. While in Congress, Pence was a major force
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/29/mike-pence-might-be-the-medias-new-best-friend/>
behind trying to get a federal shield law to protect journalists’ rights to
maintain confidential sources. A former radio talk show host, Pence said he
was inspired to act by the case of then-New York Times reporter Judy
Miller, who was imprisoned
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/07/politics/reporter-jailed-after-refusing-to-name-source.html>
for refusing to answer questions about her sources during the scandal
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plame_affair> over the outing of undercover
CIA operative Valerie Plame. No such law was ever passed and the bill
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/987> provided
wide latitude to nullify the protections of journalists in national
security situations.

When he joined the ticket with Trump last summer, Pence claimed they
were internally
reviewing
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/29/mike-pence-might-be-the-medias-new-best-friend/>
the campaign policy on the treatment of journalists covering Trump events.
If anything, the situation worsened as the campaign moved forward.

On health care, Pence is now on board with repealing the Affordable Care
Act, though as governor he did embrace the law in a pretty bold
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2016/11/01/mike-pences-obamacare-fudge/>
act of hypocrisy. He also supported denying non-emergency care for people
who cannot afford a Medicare co-payment and opposed expanding the
Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Pence is what might be termed “climate change curious,” though earlier in
his political career, he wrote an essay in which he asserted
<http://web.archive.org/web/20010415121513/http://mikepence.com/warm.html>,
“Global warming is a myth. The global warming treaty is a disaster. There,
I said it.” More recently, Pence has kind of acknowledged
<http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/27/politics/mike-pence-donald-trump-climate-change-trade/>
the fact-based nature of human action contributing to climate change but
opposes ending any of the industrial, governmental, or corporate practices
responsible. He has consistently advocated withdrawing from climate change
agreements and treaties. Pence has an impressively atrocious record on
environmental issues and a slavish devotion to big energy and big oil
companies.

He opposed government assistance to U.S. workers who lost their jobs
because of free trade agreements and has supported every neoliberal trade
program since his time in public office. Pence was a loud proponent of the
Trans-Pacific Partnership until he joined Trump on the ticket, and now he
claims to be pondering the “wisdom” of the agreement.

*Mike Pence was* raised Catholic, in a Kennedy Democrat household, but he
has been a devout evangelical since being converted at a Christian music
festival
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/04/vp-nominees-tim-kaine-mike-pence-catholic>
in Kentucky while in college. Pence now describes himself as “a Christian,
a Conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” Even his political action
committee’s name gives off a crusader vibe: Principles Exalt a Nation.

Pence opposed <http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll156.xml>
imposing restrictions on no-bid contracting, which may help explain his
close relationship to Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater. In December
2007, three months after Blackwater operatives gunned down 17 Iraqi
civilians in Baghdad’s Nisour Square, Pence and his Republican Study
Committee, which served “the purpose of advancing a conservative social and
economic agenda in the House of Representatives,” organized a gathering to
welcome Prince to Washington. But their relationship
<https://theintercept.com/liveblogs/vpdebate/mike-pence-and-americas-favorite-christian-crusader/>
is not just forged in wars. Prince and his mother, Elsa, have been among
the top funders of scores of anti-gay-marriage ballot initiatives across
the country and have played a key role in financing efforts to criminalize
abortion.

Prince has long given money to Pence’s political campaigns, and toward the
end of the presidential election, he contributed
<http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00575373/1112111/sa/ALL> $100,000
to the pro-Trump/Pence Super PAC Make America Number 1. Prince’s mother
kicked in another $50,000. Ironically, Erik Prince — who portrays himself
as a mix between Indiana Jones, Rambo, Captain America, and Pope Benedict —
is now working with the Chinese government through his latest “private
security” firm.

*The Prince family’s* support for Pence, and the Christian supremacist
movement he represents, has deep roots.

Erik Prince’s father, Edgar, built up a very successful manufacturing
business in Holland, Michigan, and became one of the premier bankrollers of
what came to be known as the radical religious right. They gave Gary Bauer
the seed money to start the Family Research Council and poured money into
James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. “Ed Prince was not an empire builder.
He was a Kingdom builder,” Bauer recalled soon after the elder Prince’s
death. “For him, personal success took a back seat to spreading the Gospel
and fighting for the moral restoration of our society.” Erik Prince’s
sister Betsy married Dick DeVos, whose father, Richard, founded the
multilevel marketing firm Amway and went on to own the Orlando Magic
basketball team. The two families merged together like the monarchies of
old Europe and swiftly emerged as platinum-level contributors to far-right
Christian causes and political figures.

The Prince and DeVos families gave the seed money for what came to be known
as the Republican Revolution when Newt Gingrich became House speaker in
1994 on a far-right platform known as the Contract with America. The Prince
and DeVos clans also invested heavily in a scheme developed by Dobson to
engage in back-door lobbying activities by forming “prayer warrior”
networks of people who would call politicians to advocate for Dobson’s
religious and political agenda. Instead of lobbying, which the organization
would have been prohibited from doing because of its tax and legal status,
they would claim they were “praying” for particular policies.

The Princes consistently poured money into criminalizing abortion,
privatizing education, blocking gay rights, and other right-wing causes
centered around their interpretation of Christianity. The family,
especially Erik, was very close to Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man,” Watergate
conspirator Charles “Chuck” Colson. The author of Nixon’s enemies list,
Colson was the first person sentenced in the Watergate scandal, after
pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in the investigation of the dirty
tricks campaign against Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who leaked the
Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War. Colson became a born-again
Christian before going to prison, and after his release, he started the
Prison Fellowship, which sought to convert prisoners to Christianity to
counter what Colson saw as the Islamic menace in U.S. prisons. Erik Prince
funded this as well and went on prison visits with Colson.

“There’s a coalescing idea that somehow, obviously, God is doing something
with Trump.”

All of these figures, bankrolled by the Prince family, are the ideological
and theological ascendants of Mike Pence, who called Colson “a dear friend
and mentor.” Colson and his allies viewed the administration of Bill
Clinton as a secular “regime” and openly contemplated a faith-based
revolution. In the early ’90s, Colson teamed up with conservative
evangelical minister-turned-Catholic priest Richard Neuhaus and others to
build a unified movement. That work ultimately led in 1994 to the
controversial document
<https://www.firstthings.com/article/1994/05/evangelicals--catholics-together-the-christian-mission-in-the-third-millennium-2>
“Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third
Millennium.” (Note: I wrote extensively about this in my book “Blackwater:
The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army”
<https://www.amazon.com/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary-ebook/dp/B0097CYTYA>
and drew heavily on that for this story.) Pence has described himself as “a
born-again, evangelical Catholic.”

The ECT manifesto declared:

The century now drawing to a close has been the greatest century of
missionary expansion in Christian history. We pray and we believe that this
expansion has prepared the way for yet greater missionary endeavor in the
first century of the Third Millennium. The two communities in world
Christianity that are most evangelistically assertive and most rapidly
growing are Evangelicals and Catholics.

The signatories called for a unification of these religions in a common
missionary cause, that “all people will come to faith in Jesus Christ as
Lord and Savior.” They asserted that religion is “privileged and
foundational in our legal order” and spelled out the need to defend “the
moral truths of our constitutional order.” The document was most passionate
in its opposition to abortion, calling abortion on demand “a massive attack
on the dignity, rights, and needs of women. Abortion is the leading edge of
an encroaching culture of death.” It also called for “moral education” in
schools, advocating for educational institutions “that transmit to coming
generations our cultural heritage, which is inseparable from the formative
influence of religion, especially Judaism and Christianity.”

The ECT signers, according to author Damon Linker — who worked for Neuhaus
for years — “had not only forged a historic theological and political
alliance. They had also provided a vision of America’s religious and
political future. It would be a religious future in which upholding
theological orthodoxy and moral traditionalism overrode doctrinal
disagreements. And it would be a political future in which the most
orthodox and traditionalist Christians set the public tone and policy
agenda for the nation.”

In November 1996 — the month Clinton crushed Bob Dole and won re-election —
an organ of what Linker termed the theoconservative movement, Richard
Neuhaus’s journal First Things, published
<https://www.firstthings.com/article/1996/11/001-the-end-of-democracy-the-judicial-usurpation-of-politics>
a “symposium” titled “The End of Democracy?” Acknowledging that it might be
viewed as “irresponsibly provocative and even alarmist,” the symposium
bluntly questioned “whether we have reached or are reaching the point where
conscientious citizens can no longer give moral assent to the existing
regime.” A series of essays raised the prospect of a major confrontation
between the church and the “regime,” at times seeming to predict a
civil-war scenario or Christian insurrection against the government,
exploring possibilities “ranging from noncompliance to resistance to civil
disobedience to morally justified revolution.”

Chuck Colson authored one of the five major essays in the issue, as did the
extremist judge Robert Bork, whom Reagan had tried unsuccessfully to
appoint to the Supreme Court in 1987. Colson’s essay was titled “Kingdoms
in Conflict.” “Events in America may have reached the point where the only
political action believers can take is some kind of direct, extra-political
confrontation of the judicially controlled regime,” Colson wrote, adding
that a “showdown between church and state may be inevitable. This is not
something for which Christians should hope. But it is something for which
they need to prepare.”

Dobson said the essays “laid an indisputable case for the illegitimacy of
the regime now passing itself off as a democracy,” adding, “I stand in a
long tradition of Christians who believe that rulers may forfeit their
divine mandate when they systematically contravene the divine moral law. …
We may rapidly be approaching the sort of Rubicon that our spiritual
forebears faced: Choose Caesar or God. I take no pleasure in this prospect;
I pray against it. But it is worth noting that such times have historically
been rejuvenating for the faith.”

*Today, Pence and* his allies have warded off the return of another secular
Clinton regime that their ideological and theological prophets once
contemplated overthrowing. They will now have the opportunity to build the
temple they have long desired. “Secular viewers forget that King David
wasn’t always such a nice guy in the Bible, but he was God’s chosen man,”
said
<http://www.democracynow.org/2016/7/21/reporter_who_unearthed_pence_radio_tapes>
Jeff Sharlet. “So there’s a coalescing idea that somehow, obviously, God is
doing something with Trump.”

Donald Trump’s grasp of the bible is certainly not up to the standards of
Pence and the religious zealots behind him. “Two Corinthians 3:17, that’s
the whole ballgame,” Trump declared — in the same way he spits out “Make
America Great Again” — in front of an audience at an evangelical college on
the campaign trail. People laughed. At him. It is Second Corinthians.

Perhaps that episode is telling. The radical religious right doesn’t need
to save Trump’s soul. As they saw in the campaign, Trump has staked out a
hateful agenda — one that tracks quite well with the crusades of Pence and
his fellow apostles. Even if elements of Trump’s vile rhetoric and his
various threats were a psychotic form of performance art, or mere
opportunistic political strategy, as some suggest, they have set the stage
for the pursuit of a civilizational war that poses a dire threat to
vulnerable populations throughout the world. President Obama, Hillary
Clinton, and a slew of prominent Democrats have publicly said that
Americans should give Trump a chance. With Mike Pence seated at the right
hand of the father, running foreign and domestic policy, they will do so at
their peril.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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