Mike Pence and "The Book": A master class in disingenuous biblical interpretation [View all]

Source: Salon

Mike Pence and "The Book": A master class in disingenuous biblical interpretation

Brandon R. Grafius
Sun, August 27, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT·7 min read

While it's tough to come back from a mob chanting about hanging you, Mike Pence reminded viewers at last Wednesday night's GOP presidential debate that he can still preach a good sermon. And one that, in a few short sentences, used some tried-and-true strategies to present his own viewpoint as the unassailable truth.

About half an hour into the debate, the topic turned to abortion and whether the assembled Republican candidates would support a federal ban, now that Roe v. Wade is no more. There was some hemming and hawing from Nikki Haley about the inarguable fact that Republicans are well short of the 60 votes required in the Senate to support a ban, and some bobbing and weaving from Ron DeSantis for unclear reasons. But when the question came to Pence, the former vice president turned solemn. He first reminded DeSantis, "I'm not new to this cause," and then pivoted to deeply religious conversion language.

"After I gave my life to Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I opened up the Book," Pence began — you could hear the capitalization in the way he intoned these words — where he reported finding the foundational text for his staunch opposition to abortion. "And I read," he continued, "'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and see, I set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.'" (Those last two words should probably be capitalized as well, lest viewers miss that they've seen this phrase on a bumper sticker.)

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But to get to this point, the former veep had to make some extremely dubious leaps in interpretation — leaps that probably aren't obvious to most observers. This short paragraph of Pence's offered a master class in evangelical biblical interpretation, with all the sloppy readings and false claims to authority that this practice entails.

The first thing to note is that Pence takes two Bible verses, from different books, ...

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/mike-pence-book-master-class-160002765.html