The Siren Call of Pete Buttigieg

Written by Timothy J. Dailey

When Pete Buttigieg, the little-known mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination, he stunned the political world with his meteoric rise in the polls.  Buttigieg was everywhere in the news and on television, thanks to a savvy campaign team that included political operative Lis Smith, who boasted, “I want him on everything.”  In a month, he had raised 7 million dollars, a significant sum for a political nobody starting from scratch in a national campaign.

Buttigieg’s political platform has been described as “generic Democratic”: he supported “Medicare for all,” proposed overturning President Trump’s tax cuts in favor of a “wealth tax,” and advocated comprehensive immigration reform.  Along with other Democratic candidates, Buttigieg has spoken against the power and influence of big corporations, calling for more regulation, in stark contrast to Trump’s push for deregulation.  And, of course, he has expressed grave concern about so-called “climate change.”

Buttigieg follows other candidates, including Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), in calling for the elimination of the Electoral College.  He also endorses expanding the U.S. Supreme Court to 15 justices.  In the Democratic field, these positions place him somewhere between Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on the left and Joe Biden (D-DE) in the center.

So, with some 20 Democratic candidates, why the buzz about Buttigieg?  It may be that his aberrant sexuality has drawn attention to his candidacy, although some commentators try to play this down.  Charles Kaiser, acting director of the LGBT Social Science & Public Policy Center at Hunter College, calls Buttigieg

“a happily married, monogamous intellectual who…thinks very seriously about all the issues of our time. And realizes that climate change is more important than everything else.”

His gayness, according to Kaiser, is “almost irrelevant.”  USA Today columnist Steven Petrow echoes these sentiments:

“If he ends up getting the job he wants, it won’t be because he’s gay. It will be because his focus on climate change is more important than his sexuality.”

The pretense that Buttigieg’s candidacy is not all about his in-your-face homosexuality is pure balderdash.  That he intends to promote what many Americans call immoral behavior has been clear from day one, when at the announcement of his candidacy he paraded his “husband,” embracing and kissing him before walking off stage holding his hand.  A Google search of “Pete Buttigieg gay” brings up more than 150 fawning news stories over the past several weeks from virtually every major media outlet, almost without exception discussing his homosexuality in positive terms.

Some, like Sarah Jones of New York Magazine, are decrying the “anti-gay harassment” that Buttigieg is allegedly facing.  But the shoe is, in fact, on the other foot. Buttigieg has hardened his attacks against Vice President Mike Pence’s traditional views of marriage, saying,

“that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: that if you’ve got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”

Many are concerned that, should Buttigieg be successful in his campaign, his election will open up an unprecedented era oppression against people of faith, as Ray Fava writes in NOQ Report:

“But during [Buttigieg’s] flash in the pan, there was much reason to be concerned.…[if] Buttigieg were to be nominated, the country would be bullied into voting for someone just because they are gay.  There will be another fatwa of Rainbow Jihad waged exclusively on Christians and some Jews.”

Ray lays bare the heart of Pete Buttigieg’s form of Progressive Christianity, which

“is no Christianity at all, just a mere Social Justice Gospel. If there is no need for repentance, there is no real need for Jesus.  Pete Buttigieg is a messenger for the Social Justice Gospel and that is his most threatening feature, not his ability to win the Presidency.”

This is the none other than “another gospel,” as St. Paul warned us about.  Let us hope and pray that there is enough spiritual fortitude in our great land to resist the siren call of Pete Buttigieg.

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