Jesus Christ didn’t limit his outreach only to the poor, social outcasts and the disenfranchised who would be receptive to his message of love, understanding and redemption.

He also sought out the Pharisees and Sadducees, and berated them for their hypocrisy, self-righteousness and pride.

Vice President Mike Pence, an evangelical Christian, has agreed to be a commencement speaker only at Christian colleges and military academies who he feels would be receptive to his brand of conservative evangelical philosophy.  

But there’s light shining even in the darkest citadels of white evangelicalism, when Taylor University, an evangelical school in rural Indiana, announced that Pence would speak at the commencement ceremony on May 18 hundreds of students immediately protested. Surely Pence thought that a white evangelical university in his home state of Indiana would be a safe place for his religious bigotry.

Alex Hoekstra the author of an online petition asking the university to disinvite Pence wrote:

“Inviting Vice President Pence to Taylor University and giving him a coveted platform for his political views makes our alumni, faculty, staff and current students complicit in the Trump-Pence Administration’s policies, which we believe are not consistent with the Christian ethic of love we hold dear.”

Indeed, any university, college or military academy that invites Pence to speak is complicit with the anti-Christian and anti-democratic views of Donald Trump.

Taylor University should honor Christ, disinvite Pence, and extend an invitation to Mayor Pete, a man who truly embodies the loving and humanitarian spirit of Jesus Christ.