Joy Behar Calls Strong Christian Faith a ‘Mental Illness,’ 30,000 Angry Faithful Respond
From Vice President Mike Pence to Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, high-profile Christians often face slurs about their faith.
But as shown when “The View” host Joy Behar trashed Pence, or when commentators across the nation took up their pens to defend Barrett, Christians are not taking abuse in silence.
During a February 2018 segment of The View,” co-host Joy Behar indulged herself with a dose of what she considered humor at the expense of Pence.
“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus, it’s another thing when Jesus talks to you,” Behar said. “That’s called mental illness if I’m not correct.”
Pence, who has taken more than one criticism for his faith, was stung to reply on behalf of all Christians.
“It’s an insult not to me, but to the vast majority of the American people who like me cherish their faith,” he said on C-SPAN, according to The Washington Post. “It demonstrates how out of touch some in the mainstream media are with the faith and values of the American people. That you could have a major network like ABC permit a forum for invective against religion like that.”
Pence’s rebuttal was followed by a campaign led by the Media Research Center to hold the show’s co-hosts accountable for spreading “anti-Christian bigotry.”
The movement gained momentum among angry viewers, as ABC received over 30,000 calls after the MRC started its campaign, Fox News reported at the time.
“Make no mistake, the slurs against the Vice President’s faith insult millions of Christians and are unacceptable,” MRC president Brent Bozell wrote in an open letter. “If there are no on-air apologies after this deplorable episode, Christians will tune out ABC programming across the board. And we will do our best to encourage it.”
He added: “I am sure the advertisers of ‘The View’ will be just as appalled as I am about the anti-Christian remarks made on the show.”
The protests led to a March 2018 apology from Behar, according to The Post.
But more than two years later, Barrett was being lambasted for her Catholic faith, prompting Royal Alexander to pen an Op-Ed for the Louisiana-based Natchitoches Parish Journal in which he joined the wave of Christians fighting back.
These attacks on Judge Barrett’s religion are part of a bigger agenda to marginalize people of faith and demonize religious institutions.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) October 26, 2020
“National media and the cultural elite often mock and ridicule Americans who worship and strive to live out their faith. They view faith, religion, and the worship of God in much the same way the atheist, communist Karl Marx did, as ‘the opiate of the masses.’ The New York Times has admitted, in a rare and striking moment of candor, ‘we don’t get religion,'” he wrote.
“Judge Barrett is now accused of being an “extremist” because she has been a part of People of Praise, a closely-knit religious group that encourages its members to strive together for a greater holiness in their lives,”Alexander added. “She’s also begun to be attacked for a comment she made in a speech she gave years ago that ‘a legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is building the Kingdom of God.’ This is a typical, ordinary expression of a sincerely held religious belief that any believer — Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or Muslim — would identify with as the purpose of their faith.”
Alexander said the issue is wider than Barrett.
“Our religious freedoms and protections are as clear as they are fundamental and we should demand they be followed for Judge Barrett, or next it may be one of us, a neighbor, or a friend who is applying for a loan, seeking a job or applying to college who is discriminated against because of our faith,” he wrote.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
