'A Little TMI': GOP Rep. Gives Off-Color Reason for Almost Being Late to Prayer Breakfast
Pro tip: If you’re the speaker at a prayer breakfast and you’re almost late and you have to give a “TMI” reason for it, don’t.
Alas, this advice comes too late for Rep. Nancy Mace. The South Carolina Republican was speaking at a prayer breakfast for her Palmetto State colleague, GOP presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott, on Thursday on Capitol Hill.
However, she was almost a bit late for the Judeo-Christian prayer breakfast. (Did you get that this is a prayer breakfast? Let me say it again, bolded and in italics: prayer breakfast. As in, religious.) She came with an excuse, though. Her fiancee — as in, the man she is not yet married to — wanted to have sex and she had to escape his grasp.
“When I woke up this morning at 7, I was getting picked up at 7:45, Patrick, my fiancee, tried to pull me by my waist over this morning in bed,” she told the audience.
“And I was like, ‘No, baby, we don’t got time for that this morning,'” she added. “I gotta get to the prayer breakfast, and I gotta be on time.”
“A little TMI,” she concluded, to laughs. “He can wait, I’ll see him later tonight.”
Nancy Mace at Tim Scott’s prayer breakfast:
“I woke up this morning at 7, Patrick my fiancé tried to pull me by my waist in bed and I was like ‘no baby we don’t have time for that this morning’ I gotta get to the prayer breakfast… He can wait. I’ll see him later tonight.” pic.twitter.com/LzAJ5M84P1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 27, 2023
Yet again: prayer breakfast!
Now, let’s be clear that the Bible is pretty explicit — more explicit than Mace, even — on the issue of sex before marriage, whether it be in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 22, for instance) or the New Testament (take 1 Corinthians 7).
Pretty much every flavor of Abrahamic religion, in fact, is clear on this. Again, everyone sins, but as one Twitter user noted, “know your audience” — and don’t be proud of it.
Public Speaking 101: know your audience.
— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) July 27, 2023
Mace went on to tweet that “I go to church because I’m a sinner not because I’m a saint!
“Glad those in attendance, including @SenatorTimScott and our pastor, took this joke in stride. Pastor Greg and I will have a little extra to talk about on Sunday now,” she added.
I go to church because I’m a sinner not because I’m a saint!
Glad those in attendance, including @SenatorTimScott and our pastor, took this joke in stride. Pastor Greg and I will have a little extra to talk about on Sunday now 😂 https://t.co/krK2f1ALNZ
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) July 27, 2023
Religious conservatives didn’t buy it.
“Thinking about this again,” pundit Allie Beth Stuckey tweeted. “These comments just go to show how little politicians — even Republican politicians — know or care about Christianity. They have no idea the values Christians hold. They’d be aghast to know we still think sex is reserved for marriage.”
Thinking about this again. These comments just go to show how little politicians — even Republican politicians — know or care about Christianity. They have no idea the values Christians hold. They’d be aghast to know we still think sex is reserved for marriage https://t.co/allkgBo4p3
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) July 27, 2023
Megan Basham, meanwhile, said that “[a] true shepherd would have a serious talk w/ Rep. Mace.
“There would be real church discipline. Not just because she is living in unrepentant sin, but also because of her promotion of abortion. What she said is as much an indictment of her pastoral leadership as of herself,” she tweeted.
(Alright y’all knew I wasn’t going to make full three weeks before I posted on my feed). This episode tells us so much about the failure of church leaders. A true shepherd would have a serious talk w/ Rep. Mace. There would be real church discipline. Not just because she is… https://t.co/1i3c62P5bm
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) July 27, 2023
A priest, meanwhile, pointed out the issue with the “c’mon, everybody sins sometimes” school of thought: “We’re all sinners,” Fr. Patrick Behm tweeted. “That’s not the issue. The issue is when we have no remorse and no intention of conversion. If you know this is something you need to talk about with your pastor on Sunday, then I recommend you stop this behavior.”
We’re all sinners. That’s not the issue. The issue is when we have no remorse and no intention of conversion. If you know this is something you need to talk about with your pastor on Sunday, then I recommend you stop this behavior. https://t.co/Ma8NwOfNzH
— Fr. Patrick Behm (@FrPBehm) July 27, 2023
That’s the key issue here — the level of pride about it. It’s a great laugh! Har har, she was almost late because she’s living in sin. And it’s more to talk about on Sunday! Whatever!
If you feel the need to share your “TMI” sins, just don’t. It’s not just that nobody wants to hear them, it’s a sign you’re not taking it particularly seriously, either. The fact she needed to air it out as if it were no big deal is the biggest problem here — and there is no shortage of issues with her remarks before (one last time) a prayer breakfast.
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