Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, recently took a job as an art teacher at a Christian school, and as expected, she and religious schools were quickly criticized by the Left.   David Perry from the Huffington Post called these schools “anti-American” and “endorsing exclusion and bigotry”. He went on to point out that “many require explicit professions of faith from faculty”, as well as the requirement that “not only must teachers avoid acting in a way that is immoral in their personal lives, but every aspect of the educational experience”.   He views this as a problem. I do not. This is another example of where liberals just can’t fathom that everyone doesn’t think like they do.

He wants the small number of religious, specifically Christian schools to embrace the liberal ideology that has permeated most public schools in the nation.  He misses the purpose of religious schools. They are to educate through the lens of religious beliefs and teach more than just the required subject matter. Part of their goal is to establish a foundation of religious and moral values.  Mr. Perry doesn’t understand that is a major reason parents send their kids to a religious school. It is as much about what they want their kids to be taught as it is about not wanting conflicting values drummed into their children by liberal teachers and textbooks.

If you send your child to a religious school, wouldn’t you expect the faculty to have similar faith and convictions?   Oh, the horror of wanting teachers to avoid ways that are immoral! That might rub off on the kids. That’s the point! Of course, faculty and students may exhibit just as much bad behavior as anyone else.  There are plenty of bad apples in parochial schools, but they have a clearly defined level of standards. These schools set their own standards and if parents don’t like the values, they are free to choose an alternative.  Parents choose these schools because they want their own values reinforced with the children. I thought “choice” was a progressive value.

Mr. Perry and others in the media don’t like standards of behavior, but they want to impose their own version of morality on everyone else.  If you don’t buy into the approved liberal orthodoxy, well then you are an anti-American bigot. That’s immoral to Mr. Perry, and your traditional family values are the real threat to the nation.  He doesn’t see his own hypocrisy.

Did you notice how quickly the bandwagon grew to condemn the Covington Catholic school boys at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.?  I believe part of the reason the criticism was fast, furious and harsh was because they were Catholic Christians on a pro-Life march. You think the media and others would have erupted in a Twitter-fest if the kids were Muslims or immigrants in support of sanctuary cities?   We both know the response would have been different.

And the straw that broke the camels back for Mr. Perry?  He found a school where “students are required to venerate the U.S. Flag”.   Wow, teaching kids to revere, respect, honor and take pride in the flag, country and military.  What a sin! So non-inclusive! Quick, call the ACLU! What were these schools thinking? I guess Mr. Smith is no longer a lucky fellow.