https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/us/p ... e=HomepageKaren Pence Is Teaching at Christian School That Bars L.G.B.T. Students and Teachers
Karen Pence, who taught art class at Immanuel Christian School in Virginia from 2001 to 2013, started teaching there again this month. The private Christian school forbids employees from engaging in “moral misconduct,” including sex before marriage, and from identifying as transgender, among other rules.
By Matthew Haag Jan. 16, 2019
Karen Pence, the second lady of the United States, returned to teaching art this week, accepting a part-time position at a private Christian school that does not allow gay students and requires employees to affirm that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.
The website of the school, Immanuel Christian School, which enrolls kindergartners through eighth graders at its campus in Springfield, Va., details its religious beliefs and expectations of both students and their parents, as well as those who wish to work there. The school’s employment application requires candidates to describe their faith in Jesus Christ, affirm that they are a born-again Christian and vow to adhere to specific standards in their personal and professional lives.
The eighth item on the application’s “Articles of Employment,” which requires applicants to sign their initials next to a list of beliefs, outlines Immanuel Christian’s definition of marriage and stances on sexual identity.
“I understand that the term ‘marriage’ has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman,” it reads, adding that certain “moral misconduct” would be disqualifying, such as “heterosexual activity outside of marriage (e.g., premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex), homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, any other violation of the unique roles of male and female.”
It was not clear whether Mrs. Pence, who previously taught art at Immanuel Christian when her husband, Vice President Mike Pence, was a member of the House of Representatives, had to fill out an application for the position. A spokeswoman for Mrs. Pence, whose office announced this week that she had accepted the job in December and had already started to teach at the school twice a week, did not answer a list of questions about her new job and her personal beliefs.
“Mrs. Pence has returned to the school where she previously taught for 12 years,” Kara Brooks, the communications director for Mrs. Pence, said in an email on Wednesday. “It’s absurd that her decision to teach art to children at a Christian school, and the school’s religious beliefs, are under attack.”
Heckova job, Kara!