A White House photo of Vice President Mike Pence praying with his coronavirus task force team has sparked a heated debate on social media about religion, politics and the efficacy of prayer. The simple photo shows Pence sitting in a chair and bowing in prayer as more than 15 others in the room also pray. Mike Pence is a Bible-believing Christian.
It should be no wonder, then, that one of the first ways the vice president has responded to his role in combating the coronavirus is to pray. Just as unsurprising has been the (bigoted) backlash Pence has received for turning to God for wisdom in the face of what could, for some, present a dangerous reality, should they be exposed to the virus.
“Mike Pence and his coronavirus emergency team praying for a solution. We are so screwed,” tweeted Thomas Chatterton Williams, a writer for New York Magazine and Harper’s Magazine.
“Mike Pence can pray whenever he likes, but I do find it odd to see him leading a prayer during a meeting of the coronavirus task force with people like the head of the CDC and Dr. [Anthony S.] Fauci,” Matt Novak, an editor for Gizmodo, tweeted.
Novelist Irvine Welsh also commented on Twitter: “Look at these utterly useless c***s praying for the #coronavirus to go.”
Many others, though, defended Pence. Evangelist Franklin Graham tweeted, “A touching & powerful photo of Mike_Pence & the President’s Coronavirus Taskforce praying when they met last week in his office. Thank you VP Pence and each one who is serving. Let’s join them in asking God for His wisdom, direction, & help in the response to this virus.”
Writer Jonathan Merritt tweeted, “Criticize Mike Pence all you want for being inept in his strategy to dealing with this. But mocking him for praying like 79 percent of Americans have done in the past 3 months – is why so many regular Americans despise wine-and-cheese liberals.”
When faced with the spread of a virus for which there isn’t yet a vaccine (though one is on the way, thanks to Israel), you should want those in leadership to use every tool in their arsenal to act wisely and deliberately. I’m glad he’s praying about it.