Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, who’s in a same-sex marriage, had some words for anti-gay Vice President Mike Pence on Meet the Press over the weekend, saying, “If you got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me — your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”

He was basically pushing back on Pence’s excuse of Christianity to impose his bigotry, something he did in Buttigieg’s state of Indiana and continues to do from the White House.

Yesterday, on FOX Radio’s The Brian Kilmeade Show, wife Karen Pence and daughter Charlotte Pence were on to promote their book when the question arose about Buttigieg’s comments.

Look at how they responded.

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

Making a direct reference to her new book, Karen emphasized that Buttigieg was misunderstanding what the Pence family and other religious supporters believe. “I think in our country we need to understand you shouldn’t be attacked for what your religious beliefs are and I think kids need to learn that at a young age that this is okay what faith people have, we don’t attack them for their faith.” … “Religious liberty also means that you can believe in god or you cannot believe in God – you can believe whatever you want and you shouldn’t be afraid being persecuted for that,” Charlotte added.

How’s that for a pivot? Buttigieg criticized Pence’s bigotry and his family took it as criticism of their faith. No one’s criticizing Christianity when it comes to anti-LGBTQ hate because we know there are different kinds of Christians who use various justifications to defend whatever their positions are. (That’s a game we can play with all religions.)

Buttigieg, especially, isn’t going after Pence’s faith because they share the same faith. What he’s condemning is the use of their religion to promote bigotry and discrimination under the law.

And for what it’s worth, it’s absolutely fair to criticize people’s faith when they say very clearly that it’s inspiring them to do all kinds of horrible things. Pence doesn’t get a pass on his hate just because he bases it in religion. It’s the same reason people are free to criticize the “Mike Pence Rule” even if he has religious reasons for it.

Christianity is not an immunity shield from criticism.

But when you’re from a family where all criticism is seen as religious persecution, it’s not surprising they wouldn’t understand that. Critical thinking isn’t a Pence family strong suit.

(via Joe. My. God.)

