Today I got the notification that my alma mater, Taylor University, is going to have Vice-President Mike Pence speak at their 2019 commencement ceremony. The backlash was almost immediate with comments on Facebook and Twitter, along with petitions created and letters being drafted and sent. I’ll be honest, I signed the petition. Some might question why, after all, Mike Pence is a professed Christian and Taylor is a Christian university. Not to mention, I’m also a pastor and a Christian myself, so why would I have an issue with Mike Pence?
There is a quote often attributed to Dietrich Bonhoeffer that says: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” I am in no way calling Mike Pence evil, I really believe that he is a deeply religious man with strongly held convictions. However, the Pharisees were deeply religious too. Jesus never questioned their faith nor their devotion. He questioned their quest for money and power, and how they treated others and put the law before love.
Mike Pence is complicit in what is happening in the current administration and government. From the refusal to call racism and hate what it is to the inhumane policies that have seen children separated from their parents and locked in cages (it doesn’t matter where they’re from…they’re children). Not to mention the blatant lies, the bullying and namecalling, the rhetoric stoking racism and fear, and the overall greed that sees the quest for money and power at the expense of the least of these. Pence is in a position where he could easily speak up, hell he could even use his so-called Christian principles as an excuse as to why he is speaking up. If Pence is a devout Christian he should be able to quote the Bible and Jesus and call out all of the evils that surround him on a daily basis. Yet he says nothing, “not to speak, is to speak”.
John Wesley said that Christians are to “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”. Mike Pence is in a position of power. He’s the second most powerful person in what used to be the most powerful country in the world. Yet he doesn’t use his power to make a positive difference. Instead, he helps to pass policies that discriminate others, stands silently by while his boss continues to lie and backtrack, while his party continues to take advantage of most Americans and while legislation is passed that will harm the majority of Americans and damage his God’s creation.
I signed the position because the God that Mike Pence serves and the Jesus that I know are nothing alike. My Jesus told Christians that our greatest commandments were to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and that the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. Mike Pence may love God, but from what I can tell Mike Pence only considers someone his neighbor if they look like him, talk like him, love like him, worship like him and vote like him.
I ended up choosing Taylor University because I thought it was a place where I could grow in my faith but could also be myself. I avoided other more conservative Christian colleges because I feared I wouldn’t fit in. I didn’t want to wear a tie or avoid listening to rock music. Taylor had its rules, but I didn’t find them overly restrictive or heavy-handed to me. I enjoyed my time at Taylor, I grew in my faith and even received my call to ministry there. Taylor will always hold a special place in my heart. However, having Mike Pence speak at graduation a week after speaking at Liberty University, makes that space a little bit smaller.
The Prodigal Pastor 