Mike, The Donald’s V-P
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, December 23, 2016 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Mike Pence is a seasoned politician, who knows his way around Washington as a senator and the governor of Indiana. His military veteran dad operated a gas station in Columbus, Indiana, to support his wife and six children, who were reared in the Catholic faith.
When Mike was in fifth grade his “booming” voice “blew away” the audience during an oratorical contest with older sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students. After finishing high school in 1977, Pence earned a history degree at Hanover College in 1981 and a law degree from McKinney School of Law five years later.
This is how he tells it: “I grew up on the front row of the American dream. My grandfather immigrated to this country, and I was raised in a small town in Southern Indiana in a big family with a cornfield in the backyard. Although we weren’t really a political family, [my heroes] were President John F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I went off to college and had largely walked away from the faith …. [Then], I met a group of folks in a non-denominational Christian fellow group.”After telling a fraternity brother he wanted a Christian cross like the one he wore, the brother said, “Remember, Mike, you have … to wear it in your heart before you wear it around your neck!” Later, at a Christian music festival, Mike gave his life to Jesus Christ.
During their 31-year marriage he and Karen produced three children: a Marine Corps officer; a writer and film-maker; and a social liberal, who overcame her liberalism long enough to vote for her dad for governor.
Mike Pence says this about himself, “I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order. [The] Christian faith is at the very heart of who [I am]. I made a commitment to Christ. I’m a born-again, evangelical Catholic. I … encourage you … to pray that America will once again stand tall, stand strong. ‘[Prayer is] the last best hope of earth,’ that’s what Abraham Lincoln called it. It’s still true.”
This is how he paraphrased 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If His people who are called by His name will humble themselves and pray, He will hear from heaven and He will heal our land. One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” And today, I say, “Merry Christmas, everybody!” For Georgia Insight, I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.