PETE BUTTIGIEG AND MIKE PENCE

Pete Buttigieg, one of the democratic presidential candidates, is staking his claim as a genuine voice of the Christian faith, more genuine than the voice of the vice president:

·       South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is not letting the vice president forget that he opposed the union that Buttigieg says “moved me closer to God.”

·       “It has made me more compassionate, more understanding, more self-aware, more decent,” Buttigieg said of his relationship with his husband at the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s annual brunch in Washington, D.C., on Sunday.

·       “My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man,” he added. “And yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God.” https://ijr.com/buttigieg-pence-speech-gay-marriage/

Buttigieg claims that gay made him a better person. This may be. However, our normal condition is characterized by self-deception. Our “confirmation bias” serves as one indication of this tendency to welcome those ideas that confirm our bias and to reject the rest.

Instead, I’m more concerned about his statement that “it has moved me closer to God.” How does he assess his claim? Perhaps it’s because he has encircled himself with only those people who regard him as their hero, the one who is carrying their torch to a possible presidency.

However, if Buttigieg is a Christian, he should know that the Biblical faith has always been a magnet to imposters claiming to be God’s representatives and their fate. Therefore, Scripture warns God’s people in many ways to be alert against this danger:

·       “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. (Deuteronomy 13:1-4)

Buttigieg might not be a miracle worker, but he is charming and well-educated and comes armed with a teaching of a different god, one who approves of the gay lifestyle, despite the many passages which express God’s disdain for sexual immorality, including homosexuality:

·       For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done…Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:21-22, 24-28, 32)

After we stubbornly reject God in favor of our own desires, God gives us up to these desires to freely pursue them and to justify them. And justify them, we must! Why? Because our conscience continues to indict us with the charge of “sin” and “rebellion” against God, as many ex-gays have acknowledged! The evidence of their internal conflict is in the statistics. Gays resort to substance abuse far more than others do. Gay domestic violence remains alarmingly high. Gay men live on the average of 20 years less than the average. Mental health issues abound along with suicide. This coincides with the Scriptural warning that they receive “in themselves the due penalty for their error.”

Meanwhile, the LGBTQ “Christian” community interprets these verses as merely an injunction against uncommitted gay relationships. However, the verses never cite a lack of commitment as the problem, but rather that it is “unnatural” (according to both our conscience and to God’s law) and “shameless.”

Within all of the Scriptures, there is not a single verse that gives the slightest encouragement to the homosexual lifestyle. However, Buttigieg claims that this “shameless” behavior has “moved me closer to God.” Not only does he promote this lifestyle, but his stance “give[s] approval to those who practice them.”

Buttigieg preaches a gross and damning distortion of the Christian faith (Luke 13:1-5). How does he hope to succeed? He is very charming and well-spoken, as even numerous conservatives have observed. However, these are just the people who graduate to become false prophets. I have never met a false teacher who wasn’t charming and articulate. It is only these who have the hubris to exalt themselves above the Word of God.