At once, the ears of Christian viewers everywhere perked up. Pence had knowingly bastardized a precious passage from the New Testament. The epistle to the Hebrews states, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” In addition to substituting “Old Glory” for “Jesus”—a stunt that was nothing short of blasphemous—Pence deliberately conflated the freedom of being reborn in Christ with the supposedly all-conquering civil liberties enjoyed by Americans. It was a rhetorical sleight of hand aimed at rousing the very sorts of star-spangled Christians who would threaten his
...more
