WATCH: Shapiro Slams Critics Of Pence's Christianity: 'There's A Baseline Level Of Hatred For Christians On The Cultural Left' | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: This informational nugget was sent to me by Ben Shapiro, who represents the Daily Wire, and since this is one of the most topical news events, it should be published on BCN.



    Speaking with Fox News Host Shannon Bream Thursday night, Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro ripped leftists who have targeted Vice President Mike Pence for his Christian faith, saying, "There's a baseline level of hatred for Christians, on the cultural Left."

    Bream began by citing an op-ed from late July in The New York Times by Frank Bruni, who wrote, "There are problems with impeaching Donald Trump. A big one is the holy terror waiting in the wings. That would be Mike Pence, who mirrors the boss more than you realize. He's also self-infatuated. Also a bigot. Also a liar. Also cruel."

    Bream prompted Shapiro by asking, "A holy terror?"

    Shapiro responded:

    This is how you got Trump. I sort of get tired of using that phrase but this is legitimately how you got Trump. You say that Mitt Romney's the worst guy in the world, and before that, John McCain was the worst guy in the world, and then Republicans are like, "Fine. How about if we just nominate this guy. Right? This guy who just punches everything. How about that?

    And then, it turns out that no matter how bad the Republican supposedly is, the next Republican will inevitably be even worse. Mike Pence will certainly be worse; he's a worse person, a scarier person than Donald Trump. You always think that there's some limit to the lengths to which the Left will go to portray a Republican as bad, but no matter how much they hate Trump, the next guy they'll hate just as much or more because he's the next guy. That's just how it works.

    Bream quoted former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault and Joy Behar from "The View" attacking Pence, then asked, "Why do you think it's just okay to Christian-bash him so much?"

    Shapiro answered:

    Because there's a baseline level of hatred, really, for Christians, on the cultural Left; it's most evident in New York and Los Angeles, places where I've spent a lot of time. There's this belief that everybody who deeply believes their faith is actually, secretly a bigot, that the reason they are acting out their religion in public is not because they believe their religion, but because they are using the religion as a cover for bigotry. It's the same sort of thing that they've used with regard to Jack Phillips over at Masterpiece Cakeshop; really, he hates gay people; it's not that he's a Christian who believes he has to abide by his religious standards; it's that he secretly hates gay people and trans people and he's just using religion as a cover. They say the same sort of thing about Mike Pence; truly there's a tyrannical tendency among religious people, and then they just use Jesus or the Bible as an excuse.

    Now, of course, none of that is true, but it does demonstrate the militant secularism of the Left and it also shows why putting people who believe that sort of thing in charge of government is a dangerous thing, because if they actually believe that religious folks are by nature bigots, and that they're only using all of this religious talk to cover up their bigotry, it's no wonder they're always attempting to crack down on folks who have a religious bent, despite the fact that the Constitution was specifically designed to preserve the religious freedom of Americans.

    Bream quoted a new book that warned of a theocracy in the United States if Pence became president.

    I find it absolutely bewildering that the same folks who are claiming that Mike Pence is going to run a theocracy also want federal gun control to seize all the guns. It's truly amazing. It's also amazing that the folks who are saying that Mike Pence wants to run a theocracy ignore the fact that Mike Pence is a constitutional conservative who wants to limit the size and scope of government. The only theocrats, the only people who actually want to rule from above by instituting their moral preferences on society from the top down, are the folks on the Left, who actually want to invade rights on a regular basis and force people to do things that they don't want to do. It's a lot more common on the Left than it is on the Right, so they're actually using their own theocratic tendencies toward government, which a lot of folks on the radical Left see as a quasi God-like figure; they're using that own theocratic tendency and then projecting it onto people like Mike Pence. It's really quite disgusting.

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