WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence turned to the Bible when asked recently what he makes of a new critical biography that calls him as a “Christian supremacist."

“The Bible says count it all joy when you endure trials of many kinds," Pence told the Christian Broadcasting Network in an interview excerpt released Friday. "Any time I’m criticized for my belief in Jesus Christ, I just breath a prayer of praise."

In “The Shadow President: The Truth About Mike Pence,” that came out this week, authors Michael D’Antonio and Peter Eisner cast Pence's background – congressman, Indiana governor, Trump VP – in a harsh light, arguing that “the most successful Christian supremacist in American history” is already functioning as a “kind of replacement president” and is preparing to “fashion a nation more pleasing to his god and corporate sponsors.”

After New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote about the book under the headline “Mike Pence, Holy Terror,” religious leaders and other Pence supporters accused Bruni and the book’s authors of religious bigotry. Saying he’d “never heard such hatred poured out against such a good man,” evangelist Franklin Graham urged supporters to pray that God will put a “hedge of protection” around Pence and his family.

"You've been under attack," David Brody, chief political analyst for CBN News, said to Pence in asking for his reaction.

Pence told Brody, "I really don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it."

"This is a nation of faith," Pence said. "We’ll continue to stand for the things that we believe in."

Pence, who has long described himself as a "Christian, a conservative and a Republican – in that order," also defended his faith in February after one of the co-hosts of the ABC daytime talk show The View cracked that Pence is mentally ill if he thinks Jesus is talking to him.

"It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talk to you," Joy Behar, an actress and comedian, said on the show. "That's called mental illness, if I'm not correct. Hearing voices."

Pence responded that Behar's comments are "evidence of how out of touch some in the mainstream media are with the faith and values of the American people."

"I'd like to laugh about it, but I really can't," Pence said at the time.