Having to be near people who don't agree with you is so icky.

Gay Olympian very upset because Vice President Pence will lead the U.S. delegation

By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--January 18, 2018

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Gay Olympian very upset because Vice President Pence will lead the U.S. delegation

The Olympics are not my thing, so maybe Rob knows more about whether this guy is noteworthy as a competitor. But when you're gay and you're prominent in any way, you're always noteworthy to the media. And it appears that when it was announced Mike Pence would lead the U.S. Olympic delegation to South Korea, USA Today got right on the phone with figure skater Adam Rippon in search of the reaction they already knew he would give: “You mean Mike Pence, the same Mike Pence that funded gay conversion therapy?” Rippon told liberal "sportswriter" Christine Brennan. “I’m not buying it.”

Now in fairness to Rippon, it appears it was Christine Brennan who decided to make this political. Rippon was happy to play along, but he was only reacting to the media question posed to him. It's hardly newsworthy that the vice president leads a country's Olympic delegation. That's one of the things people in that position do, regardless of party. It's not a partisan thing. But I'm so silly, since in 2018 every conceivable thing is partisan. Mike Pence is "controversial" because liberal "sportswriters" like Christine Brennan don't like him. So just like her equally liberal "sports" colleage Nancy Armour, Brennan uses sports as a platform to spout about politics. But by giving Rippon a platform, she also gave him the opportunity to reveal his own ignorance and intolerance. And he sure did:

“I don’t think he has a real concept of reality,” Rippon said of Pence. “To stand by some of the things that Donald Trump has said and for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory. If he’s okay with what’s being said about people and Americans and foreigners and about different countries that are being called ‘shitholes,' I think he should really go to church." The widespread belief that Pence supports gay conversion therapy comes from a statement he made in 2000 on his congressional campaign website: “Resources should be directed toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.” While he didn’t explicitly mention gay conversion therapy, leaders in the LGBT community have said they believe that’s what Pence meant in light of his long-standing opposition to gay rights. In November 2016, the New York Times reported that Pence's spokesman at the time, Marc Lotter, denied that Pence supports the practice.

After publication of this story Wednesday, Pence's press secretary Alyssa Farah emailed a statement to USA TODAY Sports: “The vice president is proud to lead the U.S. delegation to the Olympics and support America’s incredible athletes. This accusation is totally false and has no basis in fact. Despite these misinformed claims, the vice president will be enthusiastically supporting all the U.S. athletes competing next month in Pyeongchang.” Rippon did say in his Tuesday night interview that if given a chance to meet Pence after competing (unlikely considering the relatively short length of any delegation’s visit to the Games), he would consider it. “If I had the chance to meet him afterwards, after I’m finished competing, there might be a possibility to have an open conversation,” Rippon said. “He seems more mild-mannered than Donald Trump. … But I don’t think the current administration represents the values that I was taught growing up. Mike Pence doesn’t stand for anything that I really believe in."

Let's deal with this whole business of "gay conversion therapy," which is presented as some sort of schlock psychiatric procedure. Because Mike Pence believes gay people can choose not to engage in homosexual behavior, he is accused of supporting and giving money to this supposed schlock psychiatric procedure. In fact, Mike Pence believes - as I do - what the Bible says about homosexual sex, that it's an abomination in the eyes of God because it's inconsistent with God's design for human sexuality, which is between one man and one woman who are married to each other. Any other type of sex, not exclusively homosexuality but certainly including it, puts you in rebellion against God.

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That said, many people struggle with urges of the flesh that would lead them into disobedience in God's eyes. These urges of the flesh come from evil spirits, and those evil spirits can be bound, rebuked and cast out using the authority of Jesus Christ. Now, if someone doesn't care about being right with God, then of course they're going to obey their fleshly urges. To them, even the suggestion that they should rebuke them in Jesus's name is silly and absurd. But for the person who's trying to get their life in line with God's design, but is struggling with these fleshly urges, Jesus Christ provides the power and the authority to be successful. If you want to tar that as "gay conversion therapy" because that makes it easier for you to rip on it, it's a free country. But apart from that whole discussion is this: Why does someone have to agree with you about everything, or approve of everything you do, in order for you to be willing to meet him? If Mike Pence believes Adam Rippon's lifestyle is immoral, but he's still willing to shake his hand and welcome him as part of the Olympic team, then that's a credit to Mike Pence. If Adam Rippon is unwilling to return this decency in kind because he can't deal with anyone who doesn't think like he thinks, then that's a discredit to Adam Rippon. The secular left has a very disturbing tendency of regarding everyone who disagrees with them as beneath contempt and unworthy of a simple greeting or the most basic decency. That is the very spirit Adam Rippon is displaying with his attitude toward the vice president. Remember what I said about spirits. Connect the dots.

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Dan Calabrese——Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

Follow all of Dan’s work, including his series of Christian spiritual warfare novels, by liking his page on Facebook.

Having to be near people who don't agree with you is so icky.

Gay Olympian very upset because Vice President Pence will lead the U.S. delegation

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