"The View" co-host Joy Behar has come under fire for criticising the faith of United States Vice President Mike Pence and for saying that hearing from God is a form of "mental illness."
Her co-host Sunny Hostin said she does not appreciate Pence speaking in tongues, even though she is a person of faith, according to Charisma News. "When you have a Mike Pence who now puts this religious veneer on things and who calls people values voters, I think we're this a dangerous situation. Look I'm Catholic. I'm a faithful person, but I don't know that I want my vice president, um - speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him," she said.
Behar then added that she finds it weird when people hear messages from God. "Like I said before, it's one thing to talk to Jesus. It's another thing when Jesus talks to you," she said, adding that hearing messages from God is a form of "mental illness."
Because of the controversy surrounding the comment, Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, which owns ABC, directed Behar to personally offer her apology to Pence.
"Joy Behar apologised to Vice President Pence directly. She made a call to him and apologised, which I thought was absolutely appropriate. I happen to take exception to what she said. I don't think it was right, and I was glad to hear that she apologised," Iger said in a statement to shareholders, reported CBN News.
But Pence believes Behar offended so many more people of faith other than him, so he encouraged her "to make the same apology publicly on the show that she did privately to him."
Many people actually agree, and they believe that "The View" hosts should not be so careless about their comments. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, said "The View" should do more than just offer a public apology.
"It is a good first step that Joy Behar privately apologized to Vice President Pence, but it is not nearly enough," Bozell said in a statement released by MRC. "Behar and ABC need to publicly apologize for the bigoted slurs on 'The View.'"
"When they do that, this whole matter will be put to rest. Until they do, we will not let up our campaign to let the world - including their advertisers - know of their anti-Christian bigotry," he added.
