Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, said on Tuesday, April 9, that people “shouldn’t be attacked for what your religious beliefs are,” responding to recent comments from South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
Pence made her remarks while appearing on the radio show of Fox News host Brian Kilmeade. She was there to promote a children’s book she and her daughter had written about the Pence family’s pet rabbit, called Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Nation’s Capital.
Pence was responding to comments that Buttigieg had made that referred to her husband on Saturday, when speaking at an LGBTQ Victory Fund brunch event.
According to NBC News, in his speech, Buttigieg said, “If you could have offered me a pill that could make me straight, I would have swallowed it before you could give me a swig of water. It’s a hard thing to think about now. If you had shown me exactly what it was that made me gay, I would have cut it out with a knife.”
He added later: “Thank God there was no pill. Thank God there was no knife.”
He said his marriage last year to schoolteacher Chasten Buttigieg had made him a better man, “and yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God.
“That’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: That if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me,” Buttigieg said. “Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
It is possible neither the Vice President nor his wife understands that there is a difference between “having beliefs” and “acting on or creating policy based on one’s religious beliefs.”
Mrs. Pence said people shouldn’t be attacked for having religious beliefs, “for what one’s religious beliefs are.” OK. I can understand that point. I can even agree with it.
However, her husband has acted and created policy that wouldn’t exist if his beliefs were different than they are. Some people have objected to (using her word, “attacked”) his policy prescriptions or actions. Those people are not objecting to or attacking what his beliefs are.
It’s that distinction — the one falling between being criticized for having a belief vs. acting on that belief — that both Pences appear to miss completely.