Karen Pence Goes Back to School

Karen Pence Goes Back to School
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
January 24, 2019

Second Lady Karen Pence is going back to work. Teaching art twice a week. At a Christian elementary school in Northern Virginia. A private school not taking government funds - a.k.a. taxpayer dollars. A school where she previously taught for 12 years.

I will speak up for Mrs. Pence, as Bill McGurn asked in his January 22, 2019 Wall Street Journal editorial, “The Shaming of Karen Pence.”

Only now that Mrs. Pence is Mrs. Vice President, are people taking notice of the nature of Immanuel Christian School in Springfield, VA - not admitting gay students or hiring gay employees. Now the hypocrites emerge from the woodwork - condemning Mrs. Pence for returning to work at a school for which she worked for 12 years when her husband was a “mere” Congressman. A school wishing to teach in accordance with Biblical precepts such as marriage being between a man and a woman, has a right to exist and hire Pence. Where was this condemnation a dozen years ago?

No laws have been broken by Immanuel Christian. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution grants and guarantees “we the people” freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. Those who object to the teachings of this school are free to send their children elsewhere. This is a private school and the general public is not obligated to support it financially.

Should the Immanuel Christian school be forced to hire people antithetical to its mission? Should a Muslim school be forced to hire a non-Muslim if that potential employee does not subscribe to those beliefs? Should a Jewish day school be forced to hire a non-Jew if he or she does not subscribe to those teachings? I know, as a Jewish teacher, I might be uncomfortable in a Muslim school, but would not expect to be hired by one in the first place - and that’s fine.

Karen Pence is free to teach at Immanuel Christian and free to educate those students in the finer points of art.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.