Joy Behar Apologized To Mike Pence For Comparing Christianity To Mental Illness

Iger, Behar, and Pence. Image by Forward Montage/GETTY

By Becky Scott March 12, 2018

Faith is a funny thing. It has divided the world throughout history, the cause of countless bloody deaths. It has torn families apart, it has been used to justify torture and enslavement, but it has also provided comfort and hope and order — elements of existence that are hard to otherwise come by.

Panic as the Bible Belt might, faith isn’t going anywhere — but neither are those who enjoy pointing out the arbitrary line in the sand dividing faith-based miracles from magic and mental illness.

Enter Joy Behar from stage left.

“The View” host said Vice President Mike Pence’s claims that he talks to The Man himself, Jesus H. Christ, was akin to mental illness nearly a month ago on live television. Christian viewers rose up in protest, flooding ABC with requests for an apology.

This weekend, Bob Iger, CEO of ABC’s parent company, Disney, ensured shareholders that Behar had personally apologized to Pence over the phone. Unfortunately, according to Fox News and many of its impassioned viewers, that is not enough.

The Media Research Center, which describes itself as a “watchdog group”, issued a statement demanding that Behar apologize on air.

“Behar and ABC need to publicly apologize for the bigoted slurs on ‘The View.’ The bigoted statements made about the vice president’s Christian faith offended hundreds of millions of Christians across the country, the largest faith group in the United States. Their apology should therefore be as public as their insult,” Bozell said.

The Media Research Center launched a campaign following the initial statement to demand an on-air apology.

Thus far, Behar has remained silent. I suspect, however, that the separation of church and state is at greater risk cNASDAQurrently than the right of Christian Americans to practice their faith. Just a suspicion.

Becky Scott is the editor of The Schmooze. Follow her on Twitter, @arr_scott

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO