Religious Values, Secular Values, and Karen Pence

2nd Lady, Karen Pence

Appalling! That is the best word I could think of about the mainstream media reaction to 2^nd Lady, Karen Pence’s decision to start teaching again. And yet appalling though it is, it is not surprising.

Their negative reaction is based on  the current liberal zeitgeist that labels any adherence to a biblical directive that is not in consonance with that zeitgeist at best unenlightened - and at worst, downright evil.

Karen Pence will be teaching at a school that actually values and honors biblical teachings.Values that in today’s politically correct anti religious climate are no longer seen acceptable.

What is it that  is so terrible in the eyes of the Left? It the biblical prohibition against homosexual practices the bible considers sinful. The religious school she will be teaching at bans students and parents that do that.

This says nothing about tolerance of people with same sex attractions. Human dignity must always be respected regardless of one’s sexual nature. The school’s rules speak only about religiously forbidden practices. As it does with other acts considered sinful by religious people. Like premarital sex, polygamy, sexual harassment, sex abuse, and other examples of moral misconduct. All forbidden by the school.That a private religious school forbids behavior that is unacceptable to their religion should surprise no one. And should not be criticized.

But that doesn’t seem to matter to the benighted Left. Their definition of immorality includes only acts which are not consensual. If two adults agree, it is by ‘definition’ moral. And we ought to celebrate it! That certain behavior is abhorrent to religious people doesn't even occur to them. To the extent that it does they think it ought to be condemned.

If one is not religious and doesn't place much value in the bible, I get it. If  religion doesn’t mean much to you, then why should you care what goes on in the privacy of anyone’s own home? In fact, believing that any consensual behavior is moral means that the ancient teachings of the bible are immoral!

I understand why they feel that way. They want to assure that LGBT people are treated fairly – equal to heterosexual people. A noble and even righteous goal. But then they go further and say that a lifestyle that generally includes biblically forbidden practices is just as moral as heterosexuals that do not generally violate practices forbidden by the bible. Anything else is considered discrimination. Furthermore expressions of anti gay behavior in any context - even a religious one - is hurtful to the LGBT community.

That may very well be true. But it is also true that if the bible says it is immoral, that is just as much true to a religious person. 

This anti religious mindset has become overwhelmingly the case in our day. Religion is seen as going the way of the dodo bird. Although it’s taking America a lot longer to realize that than it does Europe.The Left loves pointing to Europeans are more enlightened than us about sex. They consider Americans that believe in the biblical values as retrograde fundamentalists. Fools that refuse to recognize just how immoral an ancient bible really is. A bible they believe was written by people at a time when its tenets were thought to be universally moral ones - but are not moral today.

It’s ironic that Europeans are seen as more progressive and more enlightened considering the spate of antisemitic laws plaguing so many European countries. On the other hand they probably don’t see those laws as antisemitic at all.  Jonathan Tobin has an excellent take on this. One that I pretty much agree with. Here are is an excerpt: 

On New Year’s Day, a law banning Jewish religious slaughter went into effect in the Flanders region of Belgium. But as far as the legislators who passed the legislation and the voters who support them, this abridgement of the religious freedom of the Jews of Antwerp is a small price to pay in exchange for a measure that they think is kinder to animals.

Like efforts to make it harder for Jews to observe their religious traditions elsewhere in Europe—a list that includes not only attacks on kashrut, but also efforts to ban circumcision—there’s little doubt that anti-Semitism can be blamed for the enthusiasm for such initiatives.

But the response from supporters of laws that take aim at kosher slaughter or other practices that fashionable European opinion deems beyond the pale is that unenlightened behavior doesn’t deserve protection. Flemish legislators take the position that if Jews want to practice their religion they can do so, but only in such a manner that doesn’t impinge on the majority’s ideas about how to behave. 

Tobin makes the case that this attitude is just around the corner for us here in the US. And that it is the liberal Jewish establishment leading the charge. That doesn’t surprise me in the least ever since I heard a Reform Rabbi here in Chicago calling circumcision an ancient  barbaric custom that ought to be banned in the United States.

How times have changed. Circumcision used to be the one thing every denomination agreed upon. Which is why Bnai Brith - a Reform oriented Jewish organization aiming for universal membership -  incorporated it into their name.

Is it any wonder that Karen Pence is now being criticized for taking a job in a school that actually values biblical teachings over the teachings of the politically correct Left! And that liberal Jewish groups are in the forefront of fighting against those values?

And they want Orthodxy to see them as a legitimate stream of Judaism?! Both here and in Israel?! I hate to say it, but a non Jew like Karen Pence’s values are far more Jewish than those liberal Jewish movements! How sad it is that there are so many Jews like that now. Instead of criticizing Karen Pence we ought to be praising her for the courage to reject the political correctness of our day and instead unabashedly embracing biblical values. I sure do.