Mayor Pete Formally Announces His Candidacy; Draws Attacks from Christofascists

As I noted in a Facebook post today, I watched Pete Buttigieg's formal announcement of his campaign for the presidency.  I found Buttigieg's remarks to be very impressive.  Just as interestingly, among those speaking before Buttigieg spoke were mainline religious clergy who were sportive of his candidacy and showed a loving face of Christianity - a face of Christianity one rarely sees when the hate merchants of the "professional Christian" set and most evangelicals speak.  Not surprisingly, Buttigieg's references to his faith are drawing shrieks and attacks from the Christofascists, especially those have sold their souls and what little shred of morality they may have possessed to chase power through supporting Donald Trump, a living embodiment of the seven deadly sins.  The contrast could not be more stark and one can only presume that the Christofascist attacks are driven by fear that Buttigieg might prompt some of their lemming like followers to question allegiance to someone as morally foul as Trump.  A piece in Huffington Post looks at the continued attacks on Buttigieg.  Here are excerpts:

The ease and openness with which Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg talks about his religious beliefs appears to be causing consternation among some conservative Christians. 

Evangelical Christians have long seen themselves as the standard-bearers for faith and family values in American politics. Buttigieg, a gay Christian, is directly challenging that, driving some evangelical leaders to try to paint his faith as an inauthentic expression of Christianity.

Franklin Graham, son of the famed evangelist Billy Graham and a supporter of President Donald Trump, criticized the faith of the South Bend, Indiana, mayor ― and progressive Christianity as a whole ― on Twitter and Facebook Thursday. 

Graham was responding to Buttigieg’s criticism of Vice President Mike Pence, a former governor of Indiana, earlier this week. Buttigieg had said Sunday that “the Mike Pences of the world” should realize that “if you’ve got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”

Pence characterized Buttigieg’s comments as an attack on his faith. The vice president told CNN on Friday that he is a “Bible-believing Christian” who draws his truth “from God’s word.”

Buttigieg fired back by saying that he’s not critical of Pence’s faith but is concerned about his anti-LGBTQ policies.

“I don’t have a problem with religion. I’m religious, too,” Buttigieg said on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” on Friday. “I have a problem with religion being used as a justification to harm people.”

Conservative evangelical writer Erick Erickson . . . said that progressive Christianity is a “hypocritical farce.” He denigrated the Episcopal Church, the denomination that Buttigieg belongs to, claiming that it is “no longer a Christian institution.”

For years, the loudest and most politically influential Christian voices in the U.S. have come from the religious right. The Moral Majority movement of the 1980s cemented conservative Christians’ ties to the Republican Party. Today, Trump receives counseling and advice from an unofficial cadre of evangelical Christian leaders and has repeatedly pledged that he will prioritize those leaders’ political goals.

But more and more progressive, left-leaning Christian voices are now speaking up, too. These leaders, informally known as the religious left, see their movement as rooted in the abolitionist efforts of the 19th century and the civil rights movement of the 20th century. Progressive Christians have used the Bible as inspiration for activism that is intersectional, interfaith and protective of the rights of women, immigrants, the LGBTQ community and people of color.

And unlike the majority of white evangelical Protestants, these Christians have been highly critical of the Trump administration’s conservative agenda.

Jim Wallis, a progressive Christian and founder of the magazine Sojourners, told HuffPost that he believes the religious right is “terrified” of the conversations that Buttigieg’s comments are launching. 

“They are afraid the new conversation about faith and politics, sparked by Mayor Pete Buttigieg, will get people looking and talking about the things Jesus said and did, and called us to,” Wallis wrote in an email. 

Wallis said that for him, being a Christian means taking care of the poor, immigrants and other marginalized communities. He cited Matthew 25, a chapter of the Bible in which Jesus preaches about how those who care for the hungry, thirsty, imprisoned, sick and vulnerable will be welcomed into heaven. (Buttigieg has said that’s one of his favorite biblical passages.)

“That is a very dangerous conversation to let happen when you are a totally uncritical supporter of Donald Trump, a man whose life, behavior, morality, words, and policies are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ,” Wallis said. 

“The religious right and some on the secular left have one thing in common,” Wallis said. “They want Americans to believe that all religion in this country is right-wing politically.”  But it’s not, as the mayor from South Bend is reminding his fellow Americans.

The money quote of Buttigieg is this: “I have a problem with religion being used as a justification to harm people.”  Franklin Graham and his fellow hate merchants have good reason to fear the wake up call Buttigieg is sending.  It will expose their hypocrisy.