LEE A PAWN IN PENCE OPPOSITION
The left failed to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box in November 2016, so its acolytes have decided to be a persistent thorn in the administration’s side ever since.
That thorn has shown up this week in the form of an online petition hosted by left-leaning Change.org urging Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, to cancel an event Saturday hosting Vice President Mike Pence.
We support the right for all Americans to express their opinions, and even to protest the event, but we feel the petition’s supporters are further lowering the value of dissent when their only mission is to silence the opinions of those with whom they disagree.
Their target is private Lee University, a Church of God-related college that is only lending its Pangle Hall venue and not sponsoring Pence’s appearance as a school event.
However, that opposition to the school is only a smokescreen, as the petition reveals.
It cites Pence and his involvement with America First Policies, a nonprofit organization that supports policy initiatives favored by the Trump administration such as criminal justice reform, winning the war on opioids and rebuilding the country’s infrastructure.
The organization is similar to Organizing for Action, a similar nonprofit organization that advocated — and continues to advocate — for the agenda of former President Barack Obama and that began as Organizing for America under the auspices of the Democratic Party.
The Change.org petition charges that the vice president and the organization favor the rich over the poor, oppressed and marginalized, do not wish to welcome foreigners, and seek oppression and violence over justice and nonviolence.
In fact, the aims of the organization, according to its website, are, in most cases, the exact opposite of what is charged.
The petition also says the organization and its local sponsor, Cleveland businessman Allan Jones, support “tax regulations and policies which will inevitably secure wealth for the middle and upper classes while further afflicting the working and poor classes of society.”
In fact, as shown by tax reform passed by Congress last December, all classes of people have benefited from tax cuts, raises, bonuses and new jobs.
The petition also accuses Pence of failing to acknowledge police brutality in the black community, the overrepresentation of blacks in prisons, the further militarization of police and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and of supporting policies against LGBTQ communities.
Perhaps most unfairly, it says the vice president “does not represent the love, acceptance, and understanding” that “a Christian institution … following the example of Jesus Christ” desires “to embody and live out.”
Since it’s doubtful no local person who signs the petition knows Pence, who has cited his faith as the most important thing in his life, they cannot know if, or how, he follows the example of Christ.
The vice president may be reminded, instead, of the words of Paul, who said, in Romans 16, “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.”
Cedes Harris, the Lee University student who originated the petition, has found both support and opposition on her Facebook site.
Several who posted opinions share our viewpoint about attempting to shut down debate when a speaker takes a different side on an issue.
“What makes our country unique is our freedoms,” Teresa Sumier Carpenter wrote. “Critically thinking about a topic and researching it, which includes both sides of an issue, can give us the gateway to truly understanding why we think and believe what we believe while respecting that others may not believe or think as we do. They have that right just as you do.”
She added that the elimination of civil debate can lead to group think, mob mentality and the loss of the very freedoms we hold dear.
Indeed, since the election of Trump, people have been hurt on college campuses supporting conservative speakers and conservative thought, a supporter of leftist politicians shot U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise and four others at a baseball practice, and, only recently, a Democratic congresswoman, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters of California, advocated that “if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
The ironic truth for Harris and supporters of her petition is that the left’s rage and hate have only energized the right. Instead of letting Trump’s actions — good or bad — speak for themselves, they have made him a sympathetic figure to many. So when Pence only wants to tout the president’s policies, and Lee University only wants to offer biblically mandated hospitality, those who would deny such only look petty and small-minded.