Over 30,000 complaint calls made to ABC about Joy Behar’s mocking of VP Pence’s faith on ‘The View’

ABC has reportedly received more than 30,000 calls complaining about "The View" co-host Joy Behar's mocking of Vice President Mike Pence's Christian faith.

The Media Research Center reported that, as of Wednesday, the network had been flooded with complaints about Behar's purported "anti-Christian bigotry."

Why are people mad about Behar?

Behar suggested on "The View" in February that the vice president's mental fitness might not be up to par and offered up his conversations with God as evidence.

Behar's commentary on Pence's mental health began as part of a discussion of former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman’s comments on CBS' “Celebrity Big Brother,” in which the former staffer discussed the Trump administration.

Newman said, “As bad as you think Trump is, you would be worried about Pence. … Everyone that is wishing for impeachment might want to reconsider their life.”

“I am Christian, I love Jesus, but [Pence] thinks Jesus tells him to say things,” Newman added.

Behar and her co-hosts went on to discuss the former White House aide's analysis of Pence’s faith.

“It’s one thing to talk to Jesus,” Behar quipped. “It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you.”

Behar later said that hearing voices is symptomatic of “mental illness.”

Did Pence respond?

Pence, after Behar's comments went viral, said that he couldn't bite his tongue over Behar's criticisms of his faith.

Pence told "Fox & Friends" that while he may  be “accustomed to criticism,” he couldn’t remain silence and say nothing about Behar’s comments.

“When I heard that ABC had a program that likened my Christianity to mental illness, I just couldn’t be silent,” Pence explained.

“My Christian faith is probably the most important thing in my life,” he added. “I do try and start every day reading the Bible. My wife and I try and have a prayer together before I leave the house every morning. But I do think I’m a very typical American.”

“People of all different faiths and traditions have cherished their faith in God,” Pence continued, “and for ABC to have a forum that spoke in such demeaning terms, I think it’s evidence of how out of touch some in the mainstream media are with the faith and values of the American people.”

Fox & Friends actually made Mike Pence address Joy Behar's joke about his Christian faith from last week.

"When I heard that ABC had a program that likened my Christianity to mental illness, I just couldn't be silent." pic.twitter.com/QXPG4kjqEW

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 19, 2018

So what happened next?

Shortly after Behar's remarks, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell penned an open letter to ABC.

A portion of the letter, addressed to the organization's president, stated: "These characterizations of the Vice President’s faith are insulting not just to him, but to all Christians. Yet as of the writing of this letter, neither Ms. Hostin, nor Ms. Behar, nor ABC have apologized."

The letter went on to discuss several more episodes where ABC and "The View" have insulted Christians in what Bozell called a "disturbing trend."

"Apologize on behalf of ABC," the letter continued, and urged some of "The View's" co-hosts to apologize.

The letter added:

Bigotry against any group is hateful and ugly. Unfortunately, anti-Christian bigotry seems to be the last acceptable bigotry. A simple unqualified apology will go so far. Our country is so divided right now, why make things worse? By apologizing you have everything to gain and nothing to lose."

Make no mistake, the slurs against the Vice President’s faith insult millions of Christians and are unacceptable. If there are no on-air apologies after this deplorable episode, Christians will tune out ABC programming across the board. And we will do our best to encourage it.

And where are we now?

MRC, in a blog post, wrote, "The MRC’s Grassroots Army has bombarded ABC President James Goldston with over 30,600 phone calls and 'The View's' advertisers nearly 9,500 times demanding an apology for the blatant anti-Christian remarks."

Additionally, MRC shared the contact information for some of "The View's" advertisers, which include Oreo, Gerber, Clorox, and HomeAdvisor.

The MRC as well as Fox News reported that neither ABC nor any of the show's advertisers have responded to a request for comment pertaining to the calls they reportedly received as a result of "The View's" comments about Pence's faith.