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In a recent, in-depth interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, front runner presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said,
"Jesus speaks so often in hyperbole and parable, in mysterious code...There's simply no way that a literal understanding of Scripture can fit into the Bible that I find in my hands."
The battle for 2020 is not merely political. It's spiritual.
Be informed.
Rolling Stone Magazine began their lengthy promotional article with this introduction:
Since the early stages of his presidential campaign, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has made his Christian faith a cornerstone, explicitly attacking the idea that “Christian” and “Republican” are synonymous terms, and eloquently questioning the motives of religious leaders who choose policy over morality and who have become Donald Trump’s faithful apologists on the national stage. “The Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion,” Buttigieg announced during the second primary debate back in July. “But we should call out hypocrisy when we see it. And for a party that associates itself with Christianity to say that it is OK to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages, [that party] has lost all claim to ever use religious language again.”
That pronouncement, and others like it, has gone a long way toward making Buttigieg a front-runner, despite being the only member of the field’s top tier who lacked national name recognition at the start of the race. And since becoming a household name, he has leaned into the assertion that a right-wing interpretation of the Bible is not the only interpretation available, and has used Christian Scripture and teaching to undercut the very wedge issues that define the conservative voting bloc. More specifically, he has argued that being married to his husband brings him closer to God; that one’s views of abortion should not be used by the religious right as a litmus test for one’s faith when it’s an issue that Jesus never even mentioned (though he did speak abundantly on charity and hospitality); and that the so-called “clobber” verses used to condemn homosexuality were cultural, along with so many other pronouncements the Bible makes that Christianity now disregards. “If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade,” Buttigieg said this spring at a brunch for the LBGTQ Victory Fund. “And that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand. That if you got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me — your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
Buttigieg has become a microphone for the growing religious Left.
No one, much, had heard of Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend Indiana, until he decided to run for president.
He caught my attention almost immediately because he was saying what the "religious Left" has been saying for years---and I knew the press would love his talking points---and he is homosexual and "married" to his "husband", and a progressive "Christian", and highly educated, and well-spoken.
From being unknown, he has risen in the ranks of the far Left, to become one of the front runners of the Democrat presidential candidates. He has recently won in polls in Iowa and elsewhere. And he has become one of the leading fundraisers among the candidates.
Redefining Christianity.
In the interview, Pete explains that he did not grow up in a religious home.
That's true. In fact, his father was a
"Marxist professor who spoke fondly of the Communist Manifesto and dedicated a significant portion of his academic career to the work of Italian Communist Party founder Antonio Gramsci, an associate of Vladimir Lenin."
He was an adviser to "Rethinking Marxism," an academic journal that published articles "that seek to discuss, elaborate, and/or extend Marxian theory."
He was a leader in the Marxist movement in America. Apparently, he and his cohorts made some impact, because just yesterday, Rasmussen polls reported that "Democrats and young voters are attracted by socialism."
Pete says,
"The Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion...But we should call out hypocrisy when we see it...To suggest that God would smile on a Party that associates itself with Christianity...and says its OK to separate families at the hands of federal agents, to put children in cages, [that party] has lost all claim to ever use religious language again."
So, that's the new gospel on borders. What about abortion? And homosexual relations?
A selective gospel.
Pete says he is comfortable with the Episcopalian faith, which is "liturgically conservative and theologically liberal."
He says "any encounter with Scripture includes some process of sorting out what connects you to God versus what simply tells you about the morals of the time when it was written, right?"
The religious Left is well known for picking verses that appear to condone their chosen behavior, calling it their "Christian faith"---as opposed to accepting a systematic biblical theology.
This selective gospel fits the progressive ideology. As their "truth" evolves, so do their "beliefs" about what the Bible actually says.
The so-called "cages" he references were actually built and installed by Obama, not Trump.
How is enforcing our borders immoral, while abortion is moral?
About abortion.
Pete is pro-abortion---for sure, but he seems to tread a little more softly---like Rev. Jim Wallis when the topic of abortion comes up.
When Rolling Stone asked him about it he said he affirms Roe v Wade, but, "No matter what you think on where life begins, the question is who gets to decide how to handle this situation."
Biblical Christians have believed for 2000 years that God Himself has already decided how to handle this "situation." God is pro-life.
The takeaway
In the interview, Buttigieg put himself in direct and severe opposition to what he called the "Penses and Falwells of the world" and said that he believes their "hypocrisy" will eventually fall apart.
Making compassion the singular foundation of his version of Christianity, he said this:
"If you find that what you're being told politically cuts against the idea of compassion, sooner of later that's going to lead to a reckoning that just might invite people to reconsider their political commitments.... But we are, I think, really on the eve of a reckoning that could lead to something really good in this country."
The Apostle Paul, in his words to the Galatians (1:8) said this:
"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed."
The religious Left is preaching another gospel-----So is Pete Buttigieg.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Watchful.