Former VP Mike Pence reflects on faith and civility at Duquesne University

Long before Mike Pence became one of the country’s most prominent evangelical Christians, he grew up Catholic and even served as an altar boy in his native Indiana.

The former vice president was on decidedly friendly territory Thursday when he spoke at Duquesne University, the largest Catholic university in Western Pennsylvania.

“We lost him, folks,” Ken Gormley, Duquesne’s president, quipped as Pence described his journey of converting from one faith to another, eliciting laughs from the audience.

Though no longer Catholic, Pence made it clear that his faith and religious views have forcefully impacted his personal life and professional trajectory.

“People that know me well know that I like to describe myself as a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” said Pence, who served as the nation’s 48th vice president from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. “I’ve always tried, at least in my season in public service, I’ve tried to live that faith out, first and foremost in the way that I deal with others.”

Thursday’s event, titled Faith, Civility and Public Service, explored issues such as ethics, civic responsibility and decorum in politics. The audience of more than 300 at the Uptown campus included students, faculty and special guests such as former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, whom Pence described as one of his heroes.

Nick Miller, president of Duquesne’s Student Government Association, opened the program by emphasizing the importance of valuing diverse opinions.

“We need to have respectful dialogue, even with those we may not agree with,” he said.

During the hourlong event, Pence and others touched on subjects ranging from the ongoing federal government shutdown to what he called the “unilateral” tariffs strategy embraced by his former boss and now under scrutiny by the Supreme Court.

“It will be one of the most consequential decisions the Supreme Court will make,” he said, adding that the Constitution clearly states that the authority to impose taxes belongs to Congress. “My hope is that the Supreme Court will reverse the trajectory the administration’s been on. Tariffs are taxes. Tariffs are paid by American businesses and American consumers and are ultimately suppressing economic growth. … I want to see that policy reversed. I want to see us go back to free trade with free nations.”

In answering questions from the audience, Pence addressed his experience on Jan. 6, 2021, when protesters invaded the U.S. Capitol as Congress gathered to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. As he has in previous interviews and speaking engagements, he said he is proud he did his duty to see a peaceful transfer of power.

His actions on that day, he said, were grounded in a promise he made when he was inaugurated as vice president, placing his left hand on Ronald Reagan’s Bible.

“I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he said. “And it ended with a prayer, ‘so help me God.’ ”

Despite a seemingly fraught relationship with Trump, Pence in recent months has commended the Trump administration for ending the immigration crisis at the southern border and for taking military action against Iran’s nuclear program.

Gormley asked Pence to share his views on the current divide in American politics, posing that Congress “is a place of partisan divide and rancor” and suggesting there must be a way to break through what Gormley called a “hardened shell of combativeness and even hostility.”

“Well, gee, look at the time,” Pence joked, before disclosing that he believes one of the best kept secrets in America is that the nation’s capital is filled with “sincere, hardworking people” with the ability to compromise.

“The overwhelming majority of folks are there, in my experience, to get the job done,” he said. “I can say your ideas are bad without saying you’re a bad person.”