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Americas semi-civil civil war continues, with religion a proxy for the political divide. In 2016, white evangelicals gave more than 80% of their vote to Donald Trump, a share even greater than among white working-class voters. On the other end of the spectrum, religious nones went for Hillary Clinton by better than 40 points.

Despite Trumps priapic escapades, the white evangelical community continues to stand squarely behind him. Franklin Graham, the late Billy Grahams son, threatened Americans with Gods wrath if they had the temerity to criticize the president. At the same time, Jerry Falwell Jr, head of Liberty University, the evangelical powerhouse, has torn into Clinton, Jeff Sessions, Trumps attorney general, and Rod Rosenstein, Sessions deputy. According to Falwell, they all deserve to rot in jail.

Yet even as Trump acts as the battering ram of choice for white America at worship, it is Mike Pence, the vice-president, who is the leading evangelical in the administration. Indeed, it was Pences standing within the evangelical community that helped boost him on to the ticket.

Like his boss, Pence both infuriates and elates. Pence: The Path to Power, written by Andrea Neal whom Pence as Indiana governor appointed to the state board of education in 2013 reads like a hagiography. Neal even compares Pence to the Bibles Queen Esther. The Shadow President, subtitled The Truth About Mike Pence and jointly authored by Michael DAntonio, a Pulitzer prize winner, and another veteran reporter, Peter Eisner, tells the story of a pol on the make.

Both books, however, make Pences religion central to their narrative. Quoting Pence, Neal writes that the vice-president has staked out three positions that have defined his core beliefs: Christian, conservative and Republican, in that order. As for The Shadow President, its first chapter is titled The Sycophant and it begins with a quote from I Corinthians 15:51: Behold, I tell you a mystery.

Pences story starts in Indiana. There, he journeys from Catholic to evangelical Protestant, and from two-time losing congressional candidate and radio talkshow host to congressman, governor and ultimately a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

As a congressman, Pence was a conviction politician who once wrote that global warming was a myth and that greenhouse gases are real but are mostly the result of volcanoes, hurricanes and underwater geologic displacements. He backed the war in Iraq and opposed George W Bushs expansion of Medicare to cover prescription drugs. Pence also successfully pushed for a presidential ban on the use of embryonic stem cells in research, and lost to John Boehner in a bid to be House minority leader.

When Pence ran for Congress, he eschewed big money. But by the time he left, he was a magnet for the likes of the Kochs

When Pence first ran for Congress, he eschewed big money. But by the time he left for the Indiana governors mansion, he was a magnet for the likes of the Kochs, the DeVos family and the Republican donor class. Trump now inveighs against the Kochs; it was Pence who was their pipeline to the administration. Yes, Mammon speaks.

As a governor Pence was almost forgettable but not quite, a proposition upon which both books concur. The Shadow President reports that in private, many Republicans said that Pence had been a middling governor who accomplished little. Neal quotes Jim Atterholt, former chief of staff: He was overscheduled, making too many small decisions, couldnt think, couldnt breathe.

One thing was certain: Pence was no Mitch Daniels, his predecessor who straightened out Indianas budget, served in the Reagan and Bush 43 White Houses, and is now president of Purdue University. A pro-life conservative and former executive at Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical giant, Daniels also understood where not to tread when it came to hot-button social issues.

Pence, not so much. He signed Indiana Senate Bill 101, the Religious Freedoms Restoration Act, which would have generally prohibited a governmental entity from substantially burdening a persons exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability.

The act was viewed as a greenlight to discrimination against gays and lesbians and Pence didnt just sign it, he autographed several copies of it, according to Neal. In short, Pence spiked the football.

All hell broke loose. Indiana-based employers threatened to leave, the NCAA signaled it would boycott the basketball-crazed state, and three Indiana-based Fortune 500 companies, including Eli Lilly, urged immediate action to ensure that RFRA would not sanction or encourage discrimination.

Pence caved to the demands of reality and signed legislation that barred RFRA from being used as a cudgel for religiously driven discrimination, but only after being interviewed by ABCs George Stephanopoulos and emerging worse for wear.

Almost predictably, DAntonio and Eisner manifest their displeasure with Pence from the outset. They rightly tag him for his tropism toward other peoples money and his discomfort with modernity. All of which is understandable, to a point.

What is disappointingly left unaddressed is that the US is the worlds most religious wealthy country, where two-in-five claim to pray daily and where evangelicals comprise nearly the same ratio in our armed forces, despite being only a quarter of the population.

The fact is the first amendments free exercise clause was designed to protect those who embrace discomforting creeds. In a narrow 7-2 decision this June, the supreme court sided with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple. In the majoritys view, the Colorado civil rights commission demonstrated hostility to the bakers religious beliefs by ordering him to undergo anti-discrimination training.

Politicians less doctrinaire and more capable of nuance than Pence may yet be able to achieve a modus vivendi. With the Democrats in desperate search of a foothold in red America, the percentage of religious nones growing and evangelicals not backing down anytime soon, that result may even be a matter of civil and political necessity.

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Mike Pence: power, religion and America's 'shadow president' | US news ...

In his famous speech, Kennedy had asked for Gods blessing: As we set sail, we ask Gods blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. Buzz Aldrin, who followed him, brought a small plastic container of wine and a piece of bread, and actually took Communion on the moon. The stunning success of the landing strengthened the notion that the United States was favored by God over other would-be spacefaring nations, Weibel says.

The holy cosmos: The new religion of space exploration

It was not clear for a long time who was going to do it, she says. If you see it as Team Atheist and Team God, and Team God wins, what does that tell you from their perspective?

Weibel says Pences remarks remind her of the language used by evangelical astronauts, a small but passionate group of people for whom spaceflight had an intense spiritual impact. Jim Irwin, the late Apollo astronaut, became an outspoken evangelical Christian after his lunar mission in 1971. In his memoir, Irwin wrote that he felt God was with him during his mission, like when he prayed for help with a mechanical problem instead of contacting mission control in Houston, and the solution came to him right after.

Jeffrey Williams, who flew to the International Space Station four times, has spoken similarly of sensing Gods presence in space. He also wrote of the experience of seeing Earth at a distance, as God would. In order to give you a glimpse of the wonders of Gods creation from this vantage point that Im talking about, I need to give you a perspective of what the vantage point is, Williams told a Christian radio program in 2011. So imagine yourself on the International Space Station, traveling 17,500 miles an hour, orbits the Earth every 90 minutes Imagine yourself going outside perhaps once in a while and hanging on to the outside and viewing Gods creation, we call Earth, down below.

Most of the evangelical astronauts emerged from the Apollo and space-shuttle eras, Weibel says. In the decades following the moon landing and first shuttle flights, the rhetoric around space exploration that had dominated during the Cold War began to fade. The mission shifted away from national defense and toward scientific discovery. Weibel says younger astronauts she has interviewed are less likely to invoke their predecessors convictions about the future of American space travel. Part of it is more recent astronauts have had to cooperate with the Russians, she says. You have crews on the ISS now that are multinational. For the Americans involved in that, theyre not under the sway of this idea of American exceptionalism.

Eventually, even Aldrin had second thoughts about partaking in a Christian tradition on the moon. Perhaps, if I had it to do over again, I would not choose to celebrate communion, Aldrin wrote in his 2009 memoir. Although it was a deeply meaningful experience for me, it was a Christian sacrament, and we had come to the moon in the name of all mankindbe they Christians, Jews, Muslims, animists, agnostics, or atheists.

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Mike Pence and the Gospel of NASA - The Atlantic

Mike Pence has announced plans for a new, separate US Space Force as a sixth military service by 2020.

The US vice-president said the development is needed to ensure Americas dominance in space amid heightened competition and threats from China and Russia.

In a speech at the Pentagon in Washington DC, Pence said that while space was once peaceful and uncontested, it is now crowded and adversarial.

Previous administrations all but neglected the growing security threats emerging in space, Pence said. Our adversaries have transformed space into a war-fighting domain already, and the United States will not shrink from this challenge.

Donald Trump has called for a separate but equal space force and has been seen as a key driving force behind the headline-grabbing move.

In a tweet Thursday, the president cheered on his number twos speech. Space Force all the way! he wrote.

The proposal calls for the Space Force to become a new sixth branch of the military on par with the army, navy, air force, marines and coast guard. If successful it would become the first new branch of the armed services to be created since 1947.

However, any proposal to create a new service would require congressional action and is likely to come under close scrutiny, especially from Democrats.

To prepare for the new force, Pence announced that the administration would put together an elite squad of service members to fight wars in space, known as the Space Operations Force and drawn from all parts of the military like the existing special forces.

There will also be a United States Space Command, which will develop doctrine and tactics for fighting wars in space.

And the administration plans to create an assistant secretary of defense for space, a position that would eventually turn into a head of the independent Space Force.

The defense secretary, Jim Mattis, has endorsed plans to reorganize the militarys current space-war fighting forces and create a new command, but has previously opposed launching an expensive separate new service. But he said this week he was in agreement with the White House.

Retired astronaut Capt Mark Kelly called the proposed space force a dumb idea, saying it would duplicate work already done by the air force.

There is a threat out there, but its being handled by the US Air Force today. It doesnt make sense to build a whole other level of bureaucracy, he told MSNBC.

Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz said Republicans were too afraid to tell the president the idea was a bad one. Although Space Force wont happen, its dangerous to have a leader who cannot be talked out of crazy ideas, the Democrat tweeted.

But Alabama representative Mike Rogers said he was thrilled with the announcement. We in the House have been warning for years about the threats to our space assets and the unacceptably slow pace to develop more capable space systems, he said.

Pence said the White House is already talking to congressional leaders about getting the new branch approved.

America will always seek peace, in space as on earth, but history proves that peace only comes through strength. And in the realm of outer space, the United States Space Force will be that strength in the years ahead, he said.

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Space Force: Mike Pence launches plans for sixth military ...

Vice President Mike Pence speaks to attendees during a Homeland Security Department conference in New York last month.

Vice President Mike Pence once argued that a president could be removed from office simply if he lost the moral authority to lead.

CNN unearthed two newspaper columns that Pence wrote in the late 1990s, when he was a radio host. In them, Pence made the argument that President Bill Clinton had lost his moral authority to lead the country because of his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Pence wrote that a president needed to be held to a higher moral standard that our next door neighbor, dismissing the idea that the president is just like the rest of us.

The president of the United States can incinerate the planet, he said.

As a result, the First Family must be role models, he argued.

Pence has largely stayed silent regarding the allegations that President Donald Trump had extramarital affairs with a former Playboy model Karen McDougal and a former adult firm actress Stormy Daniels and knew that payments were made to them during the 2016 presidential campaign to keep their stories from becoming public.

Read: FBI has secret tape of Trump talking payment to Playboy model

Pence did once call Daniels assertions of an affair with Trump baseless. Trump is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller over allegations his campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has repeatedly called the probe to be halted.

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Mike Pence once argued a president could be removed on ...

At the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Mike Pence penned two opinion columns calling for former President Bill Clinton to quit or be removed from office.

But the current vice presidents moralistic writings from the late 90s and early 2000s, which CNN unearthed from the Wayback Machine internet archive on Monday, have not aged well.

Pences preachy prose on how presidents should behave, in particular, seems irreconcilable with the conduct of President Donald Trump.

Wayback Machine

In the above column, titled The Two Schools Of Thought On Clinton that was posted on the now-deleted website for Pences Indiana talk radio show, Pence argued the office of president required its incumbent to be of the highest integrity.

If you and I fall into bad moral habits, we can harm our families, our employers and our friends. The President of the United States can incinerate the planet. Seriously, the very idea that we ought to have at or less than the same moral demands placed on the Chief Executive that we place on our next door neighbor is ludicrous and dangerous. Throughout our history, we have seen the presidency as the repository of all of our highest hopes and ideals and values. To demand less is to do an injustice to the blood that bought our freedoms.

In another column on his congressional campaign website, titled Why Clinton Must Resign Or Be Impeached, Pence condemned Clintons affair with college intern Monica Lewinsky and the subsequent attempts to lie about it.

Our leaders must either act to restore the luster and dignity of the institution of the Presidency or we can be certain that this is only the beginning of an even more difficult time for our land.

Its unclear whether Pence still believes what he wrote in his old essays.Trump is accused of multiple extramarital affairs and coverups with hush money payments. And he was recorded bragging about sexually assaulting women.

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These Old Mike Pence Columns On How A President Should ...