Political commentators certainly had their work cut out for them in the aftermath of the two Democratic Party presidential debates last week. Many moments received public scrutiny, as the 20 candidates jostled for support. Kamala Harris’ assault on Joe Biden dominated the headlines, with other areas of focus including heavy support for gun control, the effective removal of American borders, and the blatant attempt to pander to various voting groups with promises of duplicity and insincerity.
However, one statement from Pete Buttigieg crept by relatively unnoticed. The calmly delivered words of the unassuming Harvard- and Oxford-educated mayor of South Bend, Indiana received a moment of applause, but then slipped into obscurity beneath waves of absurd sound bites and radical promises. When analyzed in isolation, it’s clear that his words are dripping with the sort of virulent anti-Christian bigotry that has permeated even the highest levels of the American Left:
The Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion. We should call hypocrisy, and for a party that associates with Christianity to say 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 has lost all claim to ever use religion language again.
Interestingly, Buttigieg doesn’t mention specific religious sects, organizations, or even individuals. The reason for this is that no such mainstream Christian sects, organizations, or individuals exist. It is willingly ignorant to argue that Christians believe that God endorses general child separation or detention, and lazily over-simplistic to claim that Christians who support various levels of immigration control are religious hypocrites who are in favor of such suffering.
Buttigieg’s attempt to slander Christian conservatives was a smoothly delivered example of a standard Democratic strategy. They present every societal issue as a false dilemma, where the only two choices are to either maintain the current situation or to fully accept and embrace their proposed solution. Then, if you dare to disagree with even the smallest element of their suggested policies, you are labeled as an uncaring, uncompassionate bigot who is solely motivated by a certain amount of schadenfreude.
The Democratic Party’s 2020 platform is rife with similar examples. If you don’t agree with Democrats’ views on abortion-on-demand, it’s because you hate women and want to see them as sexual slaves. If you don’t agree with their views on universal public healthcare, it’s because you want the poor to die. If you don’t agree with their views on open borders and the removal of the very notion of “illegal immigration,” it’s because you want migrant children to suffer. Pete Buttigieg applied this strategy, adding the false, anti-Christian argument that conservative Christians believe that the suffering of migrants is sanctioned by God.
The Democrats claim to be the party of unity, inclusivity, and diversity, yet they regularly exclude others based on their religion, gender, or political ideology. From a position of theological ignorance, using the most derisive and divisive language, they often cite Scripture in an attempt to uncover hypocrisy and thereby undermine religion itself.
Pete Buttigieg, himself an Episcopalian, seems to be trying to split the religious baby as he openly demonizes the entire American religious Right. He must remain attractive to the religious or pseudo-religious American Left — who themselves attribute their leftist viewpoints to their faith — while pandering to the Democrats’ anti-religious base. In this case, he failed in his attempt.
Unless Buttigieg is able to provide an actual example of a conservative Christian who celebrates the suffering of migrants as a religious good sanctioned by God, he has shown us that beneath his inoffensive, reasoned, and calm facade lies either an unabashed anti-religious bigot, or someone who is willing to politically profit from the betrayal of his supposed faith.