Months after getting blocked from House committees over his comments concerning white supremacy and nationalism, Iowa Rep. Steve King has compared the criticism he faced because of it to the plight of Jesus Christ.
A town hall held in Cherokee, Iowa, April 23 saw King discussing the backlash toward the end of the meeting. Rev. Pinky Person, who presides over the Faith In Christ Fellowship Church, had expressed concern over how “Christianity is really being persecuted.”
King began by assuring Pearson that they have “solid faithful people in Washington and here in the district.” He then started to reflect on his experience after his comments to The New York Times in January, where he said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
Afterward, numerous calls rang out for his resignation.
“For all that I’ve been through — and it seems even strange for me to say it — but I am at a certain peace, and it is because of a lot of prayers for me,” he told attendees Tuesday at Western Iowa Tech Community College around the 58:10 mark. “When I have to step down to the floor of the House of Representatives and look up at those 400-and-some accusers — you know we just passed through Easter and Christ’s passion — and I have better insight into what He went through for us, partly because of that experience.”
The passion is the final short span of Jesus’ life which begins with his entry into Jerusalem and concludes with his crucifixion and demise on Good Friday.
King’s remarks had Twitter users reacting promptly.
“He’s just like Jesus if Jesus were the opposite of everything Jesus is supposed to be.”
“White privilege is being told to shut up and responding, ‘THIS IS LIKE WHAT THEY DID TO JESUS!!! I’M LIKE JESUS!!!’ 😭, said stand-up comic W. Kamau Bell.
“#SteveKing said he knows what it’s like to be a Black man born into poverty to an unwed mother, live as a refugee, raised in the hood, lost his Dad, rejected by society, racially profiled, falsely arrested, unjustly convicted & sentenced to die. Yea, ok,” Bishop Talbert Swan said.
The Republican congressman was stripped of making committee assignments in the House for two years following his racist comments earlier this year. Still, at the town hall, he maintained his oft-repeated stance that he was misquoted in the article. When Cleghorn, Iowa, resident Mike Bunt asked King to resign because he can’t make assignments, the Representative addressed his remarks again.
“The New York Times misquoted me…I cannot let that stand,” King, a member of the Roman Catholic Church, told the audience.
