Clayton Jennings has had his ministerial credentials revoked by his church elders (who he has gone on to attack viciously, fleeing his church’s discipline), his very prominent evangelical mentor who at first promised to ‘restore’ Jennings to ministry then publicly repudiated him as unrepentant, churches across the country have canceled his speaking engagements and Penguin Books scuttled his upcoming book. This past Sunday, the last in a long string of women alleging sexual predation came forward, and she happens to be one of the stars of this seasons’ reality show, The Bachelor.
Today, Jennings is hanging out with the Vice President of the United States and his former boss, Mike Pence.
Jennings posted the following picture to his social media accounts, bragging about spending time with the American Vice President and “real man of God,” Mike Pence.
While Pulpit & Pen holds generally favorable opinions of the former Indiana governor and VP of the United States, it is wholly unacceptable for a man of Pence’s position to allow himself to be used by sexual predators and spiritual charlatans for the purpose of propaganda (knowingly or unknowingly).
If Jennings is correct, and his former boss (Jennings was an intern and staffer for Pence) is close enough friends with the Jennings family that he prays for them “often” (Don Jennings, Clayton’s father, was forced into resignation for, in part, helping to cover up the misdeeds of his son, via audio released to the church by this website), it would be hard to believe that Pence is not tacitly aware of the scandal. Of course, that’s reliant upon Jennings’ statement being truthful.
While evangelical celebrities like Tony Nolan and Greg Locke both contacted Penguin Books and removed their endorsement of the unrepentant predator, one wonders how Jennings – other than by the type of Indiana political connections that landed him an internship with Pence in the first place – would garner time with the VP. One also wonders how someone who only very recently was exposed as not respecting the “no’s” and physical boundaries of women would have passed even a rudimentary background check by the Secret Service (they don’t use Google?).
The Republican Party, already under regular media attack for the so-called “war on women,” should greatly bristle at the VP spending time with someone so publicly repudiated for sexual and spiritual predation of women. While Pence was recently defended by this ministry for his “Billy Graham Rule,” the truth is that spending time with a man the moral character of Clayton Jennings is easily as tarnishing to his reputation as spending time alone with a female business associate. And may God forbid Jennings spend any time alone with female members of Pence’s family.
Pence’s office should publicly give comment regarding his relationship with Jennings, and he should personally repudiate the mistreatment of women, the type and kind of which has been demonstrated by his former staffer, Clayton Jennings.
We support the social conservatism of Mike Pence. Hanging out with spiritual and sexual abusers of women is not socially conservative.
