Beto Dismisses Importance of Religion After Man Urges America To Return To Jesus
Former Texas Democratic congressman and failed Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke tends not to get many tough questions on the campaign trail.
I guess when you run the kind of outfit that kicks Breitbart reporters out of events, that’s what happens.
However, when the 2020 presidential candidate does get uncomfortable questions, he manages to do make moves that might not help him out in the long run — you know, like dismissing the importance of religion in American life.
In this case, the questioning happened during a town hall event in South Carolina this week, according to Fox News. O’Rourke gave the microphone to a man who didn’t sound like he was either on the Beto bandwagon or with the Democrats at all.
When he started out, he mentioned religion — and that seemed to trigger a lot of people in the audience.
“What’s happening in America today is there’s less religion, there are less goals, people are not getting married, people are not looking forward to goals and stuff in their lives,” he said.
“Basically, the fiber of America is what’s failing,” he said. “When I was little, when I was little — you’re talking to a rocket scientist, I know you don’t believe that … I had goals. I’m a son of immigrants and we prayed in school.”
You can clearly hear the room getting restive at this point.
“Our worst problem in school was chewing gum under the desktop. So there were goals and our country made it to the moon. Now what’s happened is all of this has gone away, and because all of this stuff has gone away, people are what’s failing,” the man said.
“America is becoming more and more violent. We have a tendency to violence. The only thing that can save America is the word ‘Jesus.'”
The man was roundly booed, and one audience member interrupted him by yelling, “Separation of church and state!”
Someone rightly suggested Jesus, the savior of the world, was the answer to our problems
He was then booed by a Democrat crowd at a @BetoORourke event
This is the Democrat party
Do not let this mob get close to power
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 30, 2019
To his credit, O’Rourke stepped in and said that they were going to “let you have the microphone without interruption.”
“The only thing I encourage is, remember, whatever you do as a leader, you will either lead people toward more godliness or you will lead them –” the man said.
“Shut up and go to church,” another person in the audience yelled.
When he got the microphone back, O’Rourke dismissed religion as having anything to do with it.
“I appreciate your perspective, sir,” he said. “I just wanted to add something to what you said, which is that everyone in a developed country has cell phones, has video games, probably has a lower attendance at church than you do here in the United States, but comes nowhere close to the level of bloodshed and carnage.”
In other words, neither Jesus nor religion had anything to do with it. It’s all about guns — even though we didn’t have these problems during that earlier time when chewing gum was one of our biggest issues.
This isn’t to say that there weren’t other problems, mind you, but it’s interesting how dismissive O’Rourke is of religion.
Interesting, but perhaps not surprising. This is the modern Democratic Party, after all. Consider this recent resolution from the DNC about the “Religiously Unaffiliated Demographic.”
It notes, among other things, that “the religiously unaffiliated demographic has tripled in the last two decades, now representing 25% of the overall American population and 35% of those under the age of 30” and that “those most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views have used those religious views, with misplaced claims of ‘religious liberty,’ to justify public policy that has threatened the civil rights and liberties of many Americans, including but not limited to the LGBT community, women, and ethnic and religious/nonreligious minorities.”
With no small amount of electoral cupidity, the resolution announces that “the Democratic Party is an inclusive organization that recognizes that morals, values, and patriotism are not unique to any particular religion, and are not necessarily reliant on having a religious worldview at all.”
Right.
An “inclusive organization” that seems to think of Christian conservatives as “those most loudly claiming that morals, values, and patriotism must be defined by their particular religious views” who are actively threatening many Americans.
That’s just deplorable. If only they could come up with a nickname for these individuals …
Meanwhile. the resolution praises “[t]he value, ethical soundness, and importance of the religiously unaffiliated demographic, a group of Americans who contribute in innumerable ways to the arts, sciences, medicine, business, law, the military, their communities, the success of the Party and prosperity of the Nation.”
When it comes to religion, this isn’t the party of Pete Buttigieg and his liberal version of Christianity. It’s a party that’s eager not only to check the box that says “none of the above” but actively push back against a large number of those who don’t.
If you don’t believe me, just watch that video again.
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