Losing faith in America
When the media mocks Mike Pence’s religious beliefs, they’re disrespecting ordinary citizens
CUMBERLAND, Md. — Last week Joy Behar, co-host of the ABC show “The View,” did something that has become an escalating trend in our popular culture over the past 10 years — she mocked religiosity.
In a segment about Vice President Mike Pence and his belief that he hears the voice of God, Behar quipped: “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness, if I’m not correct . . . hearing voices.”
The audience of “The View” clapped and laughed along with her.
But outside the entertainment bubble, in places like Cumberland, people were horrified.
“I am not sure what shocked me the most, that Behar mocked one of the core beliefs of Christianity or the reaction of the studio audience,” said Tim McGregor, pastor at the Lighthouse of Hope, a non-denominational Christian church here in western Maryland.
“It is troubling to me how much they responded to her. They were affirming it with laughter and clapping, and I’m like ‘ What you people.’ I mean, “What do believe in?” McGregor said.
McGregor said most Christian denominations believe in the same thing Pence does — that Jesus can speak directly to members of his flock. “If anyone knows anything about the Christian faith, the gift of the Holy Spirit is God speaking to us and through us,” he said, adding, “It’s not like [Pence] thinks he’s Moses or something. You know what I’m saying?” McGregor finds this intolerance and lack of empathy from celebrities and the media both startling and predictable. “It is as though in popular culture being a person of faith has gone from being a virtue to a liability,” he said. Behar’s jeering of Pence follows 18 months of public scorn thrown at the vice president. It began with the audience booing him at a Broadway production of “Hamilton” and recently sparked again at the Olympics, where the vice president sat steelyfaced alongside Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korea’s brutal dictator, during the opening ceremonies. USA Today’s David Meeks blasted Pence for not standing for the united Korean team, calling him “an embarrassment.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post likened Kim Yo-jong to Ivanka Trump, noting her “high cheekbones and fine ears.”
Never mind that she is the director of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Workers’ Party of Korea and is part of a regime that publicly executes its people.
For McGregor and millions of other Christians, it is unnerving to live in a world where the sister of a despot is normalized and glamorized but a man of faith is considered “mentally ill.”
Since the beginning of the 1970s, people who sit in a pew every Sunday are decreasingly represented in the industries that control our popular culture, entertainment, media and politics. Part of the reason for this is demographics. While the United States is home to more Christians than any other country in the world, according to data compiled by Pew Research Center, and roughly 7 in 10 Americans identify with some branch of the Christian faith, the percentage of adults over 18 who describe themselves as Christians has dropped by nearly 8 percentage points in just seven years, from 78.4 percent in 2007 to 70.6 percent in 2014. Unsurprisingly, residents of red states are more religious (Alabama is most religious at 77 percent), while people in the coastal states, where the bulk of our media and entertainment is created, are much less religious (Massachusetts is least religious at 33 percent).
This empathy gap often isolates people of faith as they are depicted as being odd, unhinged, outside the norm — or “clinging to their religion,” as Barack Obama once said on the campaign trail.
Nestled here near a gentle curve of the Potomac River in the shadow of the Appalachian Mountains, McGregor says that recruiting new young members to his congregation is the best way to offset this hostility.
“Forty percent of my congregation is under 30 years old. That is the good news. They are the future; [they are] the consumers of news and products and entertainment who can push back against the cultural decline in respect for people of faith,” he said.
People of faith, meanwhile, are never confused by their roles as citizens, said McGregor. “We try to communicate with everyone respectfully with understanding . . . and, of course, civility.”
Or as Pence said in response to the boos at “Hamilton”: “This is what freedom sounds like.”
This country was built on tolerance towards all peoples, including religious ones. The cultural elite should remember that mocking them is no different from mocking someone because of their race, gender or sexual persuasion — groups they so fiercely and rightly work to protect.