On March 28, an exposé on United States Vice President Mike Pence’s wife, Karen, appeared in the Washington Post. In it was this quote: “In 2002, Mike Pence told the Hill that he never eats alone with a woman other than his wife and that he won’t attend events featuring alcohol without her by his side, either.”

In a fit of unrighteous indignation, editors of some major magazines took to Twitter to lambast Pence for what is, to anyone with a proper understanding of human nature, a prudent principle for a happy marriage. Pence’s policy seems to be modeled after evangelical preacher Billy Graham’s rule, where he wouldn’t meet with a woman other than his wife to “avoid any situation that would even have the appearance of compromise or suspicion.”

Within the same Washington Post exposé was this fantastic quote, apparently ignored by Pence’s critics:

Friends and aides, meanwhile, say [Karen] is the Pence family “prayer warrior,” a woman so inextricably bound to her husband that even then-candidate Trump understood her importance and consulted her in critical campaign moments.

Pence’s policy is not intended to restrict, but to protect. To protect the beautiful institution of marriage. So the vice president loves his wife—enough to make sure he continues to love her. For the critics, that’s apparently just too much for one woman, and not enough for the rest.

https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/847199851733434369

https://twitter.com/espiers/status/847088853899001857

The Atlantic, one of America’s oldest and most prestigious magazines, published an opinion piece titled “How Pence’s Dudley Dinners Hurt Women,” which went on to describe how Mike Pence, the White House, and conservatives in general are making women suffer by excluding them with their sexism. Olga Khazan asked, “If Pence literally won’t sit at the table with women, where does that leave women’s issues?”

She finished the piece with some of her personal advice. In seeing the following, we should remember the Atlantic was once the type of magazine to have first published the Christian poem “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

But in the age of sexting, avoiding co-ed meetings seems aimed more at managing one’s reputation than at preventing a sex scandal. In 2017, if you really wanted to cheat on your wife, you wouldn’t take your staffer to the Palm. You’d hit her up on Snapchat.

New York Times writer Nate Cohn said, “The response to Pence’s unwillingness to be alone with women is, from my POV [point of view], the most surprising and eye-opening cultural divide in a while.”

On the other side of the physical Atlantic, the Guardian, one of the United Kingdom’s most widely read newspapers, similarly abused Pence. “The vice president’s rule is insulting for men and limiting for women,” wrote Jessica Valenti. “Pence is a misogynist. … [W]e know it because of his odd personal rule not to dine with women alone,” continued Valenti.

It’s this kind of warped and ideologically hamstrung thinking that should make clear that America’s culture is in ruin. A deadly sickness runs through it.

These are not the rantings of the fringe. These messages are being published (albeit from one side of the political spectrum) by the very cream of America’s and Britain’s media. Their expositors have been educated in the most enlightened and socially conscious universities (see “The Deadly Path of Higher Education”).

And yet that “enlightened” education has led them to believe that having dinner with your wife and not spending time alone with other women is not only unnecessary, it is a bigoted, sexist evil.

The whole situation is reminiscent of a saying Jesus told a large gathering (Matthew 11:18-19; New Living Translation):

For John didn’t spend his time eating and drinking, and you say, “He’s possessed by a demon.” The Son of Man, on the other hand, feasts and drinks, and you say, “He’s a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!”

President Donald Trump bragged about his exploits of women: sexist. Vice President Pence purposely avoids any situations where he could exploit women: sexist.

It cannot be that Vice President Pence is following a prudent policy—respectful of his wife and the women he works with. It must be that he does not want women to work at all.

It cannot be that Vice President Pence loves his wife. It must be that he hates women.

As the biblical Prophet Isaiah, looking into our present day, prophesied in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.”