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Pete Buttigieg Wrongly Interprets Bible in an Attempt To Justify Abortion

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Did you know Pete Buttigieg is religious? Don’t worry — if you didn’t, he’ll tell you. Repeatedly.

The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate’s belief in the Christian deity is about as well-established as the fact that he’s a mayor.

I don’t wish to cast aspersions on Mayor Pete’s beliefs, mind you. Rather, I think they’re interesting inasmuch as the Democrats have been moving in a decidedly secular direction, both in terms of what their candidates publicly profess to believe and in the policies they support.

This can lead to some interesting contortions, as Buttigieg proved when he tried — and failed — to provide biblical support for abortion.

The South Bend, Indiana mayor was appearing Friday on “The Breakfast Club” when he decided to expound on the Christian faith, because of course he did.

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There wasn’t anything particularly new about most of the appearance if you’ve followed Buttigieg’s campaign; he talked about the “rigid” faith of Vice President Mike Pence and intimated that God was actually on the Democrats’ side because “every other word that comes out of the mouth of Christ is about things like helping those in need.”

(Christ apparently left out the part about government doing this helping and taking your money to do it, but I’m sure we can fill in the blanks there.)

However, he decided to veer into abortion, “which is obviously a tough issue for a lot of people to think through morally,” he said.

And then he decided to give his biblical defense of terminating the lives of the unborn, which is about as flimsy as you’d expect: “Then again, there’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath, and so even that is something that we can interpret differently.”

He is, of course, pro-choice.

“I think, no matter what you think about the kind of cosmic question of how life begins, most Americans can get on board with the idea of, all right, I might draw the line here, you might draw the line there, but the most important thing is the person who should be drawing the line is the woman making the decision,” Buttigieg said.

Getting into that last part puts us in some thorny territory, but let’s talk about that biblical defense of abortion.

When Buttigieg talks about how there are “a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath,” what he’s most likely referring to is Genesis 2:7, in which God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

That’s Adam, of course. If Buttigieg wants to take this part of the Old Testament literally, I’d like to see him explain it to the Democratic base.

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Do you think the Bible justifies abortion?

The point of that verse, I think we might agree, is that God needed to breathe life into Adam in order to get the whole thing rolling.

Genesis, of course, is the first book of the Bible. Apparently, Buttigieg didn’t read too far into the book.

Just to save him and his supporters from having to wade too deeply into it, here are a few other verses he might want to consider:

  • “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13-14)
  • “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
  • “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:41)
  • “From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” (Psalm 22:10)
  • “Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” (Job 31:15)
  • “If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” (Exodus 21:22-25)

So God knows you before you were formed in the womb and also formed your inward parts.

He has set aside dire punishments for those who harm the unborn in battle.

Do we still want to go with that whole life beginning with breath thing? Is that your final answer, Mayor Pete? Do you want to phone a friend?

It’s rather ironic that Mayor Pete is accusing conservatives — especially Mike Pence, who he’s fashioned as his bête noire even though Pence seems to have rather liked the guy, save for his opinions — of using the Bible as a book of convenience when that’s precisely what he’s doing.

One Bible verse about Adam means that life starts at birth, period.

Income redistribution is biblical because “every other word that comes out of the mouth of Christ is about things like helping those in need.”

Here’s his Godly take on climate change, too: “If you believe that God is watching as poison is being belched into the air of creation, and people are being harmed by it — countries are at risk of vanishing in low-lying areas — what do you suppose God thinks of that?”

I suppose the real question is what God thinks of using the Bible as an accessory to support your predetermined political opinions.

That shouldn’t be a hard question to answer, though.

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C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he's written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture




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