Anti-Christian Politics In American Elections

Once again, the US presidential race has started with attacks on the evangelical believers.  Indiana South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg's comment, "It's something that really frustrates me because the hypocrisy is unbelievable.  Here you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in scripture in church."  He was speaking of VP Mike Pence and evangelical voters.

I would have ignored what Buttigieg had to say had he not included evangelicals in his comments.  I will not sit silently by and be criticized by someone who does not accept what the Bible declares as sin.  I have no hatred in my heart for those who commit sin.  I have no delight in pointing out to people the various sins that separate them from God.  No matter what sin you commit there is forgiveness.  The LORD does not want us to gain approval for our sin but rather find forgiveness and turn from our sinful ways. 

Buttigieg is trying to get the approval of his gay lifestyle.  He said, "If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, above my pay grade.  And that is the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand. That if you a problem with who I am, your problems is not with me--your quarrel, sir, is with my creator."

That is like saying, If me being a pedophile was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, above my pay grade. Then blame the Creator for who you are.  I am not sure about the Christian faith Buttigieg claims to have is real.  He attends an Episcopal church—and his comments criticizing President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and the “hypocrisy” of the administration’s evangelical supporters does not speak well for his understanding of scripture.

How does Mr. Buttigieg understand these scriptures?

Leviticus 18:22 ESV You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 ESV If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ESV Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Romans 1:26-27 ESV 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 relationships 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.

Jude 1:7 ESV Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

1 Timothy 1:10 ESV The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

Mark 10:6-9 ESV But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

There was a reason the LORD gave commandments regarding sexual activity.  The god of this world Satan would use every means at his disposal to destroy mankind.  Satan incorporated into false religion the destruction of humanity by using the desire the LORD placed within man and women to be united as one.

The gods of virtually all civilizations engaged in sexual relations. In the Near East, the Babylonian god Ishtar seduced a man, Gilgamesh, the Babylonian hero. In Egyptian religion, the god Osiris had sexual relations with his sister, the goddess Isis, and she conceived the god Horus. In Canaan, El, the chief god, had sex with Asherah. In Hindu belief, the god Krishna was sexually active, having had many wives and pursuing Radha; the god Samba, son of Krishna, seduced mortal women and men. In Greek beliefs, Zeus married Hera, chased women, abducted the beautiful young male, Ganymede.  Poseidon married Amphitrite, pursued Demeter, and raped Tantalus. In Rome, the gods sexually sought both men and women.

Given the sexual activity of the gods, it is not surprising that the religions themselves were abounding with all forms of sexual activity. In the ancient Near East and elsewhere, virgins were deflowered by priests before engaging in relations with their husbands, and sacred or ritual prostitution was almost universal. Male and female prostitutes, serving temporarily or permanently and performing heterosexual, homosexual and other forms of sexual activities, dispense their favors in behalf of the temple. In ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Canaan, annual ceremonial intercourse took place between the king and a priestess. Women prostitutes had sex with male worshippers in the sanctuaries and temples of ancient Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Corinth, Carthage, Sicily, Egypt, Libya, West Africa, and ancient and modern India.

In ancient Israel itself, there were repeated attempts to re-introduce temple prostitution, resulting in repeated Jewish wars against cultic sex. The Bible records that the Judean king Asa “put away the qdeshim [temple male prostitutes] out of the land”; that his successor, Jehosaphat put away out of the land … the remnant of the qdeshim that remained in the days of his father Asa”; and that later, King Josiah, in his religious reforms, “broke down the houses of the qdeshim.”

The LORD GOD CREATOR placed controls on sexual activity. It could no longer dominate religion and social life. It was to be sanctified—which in Hebrew means “separated”—from the world and placed in the home, in the bed of husband and wife. The LORD's commands restricting sexual behavior was one of the essential elements that enabled society to progress. The commandments were to regulate the sexual life of the followers of the LORD started when He declared war on the sexual practices of the world that would destroy mankind.

Anyone who takes the Bible’s views on homosexuality seriously is not obligated to prove that they are not fundamentalists or literalists, let alone bigots. On the other hand, those who claim homosexuality is compatible with their belief bear the burden of proof to reconcile this view with the Bible. Given the explicit nature of the biblical attitude toward homosexuality, however, such a compromise is not possible. All that is possible is to declare: “I am aware that the Bible condemns homosexuality, and I consider the Bible wrong.” That would be an intellectually honest approach. But this approach leads to another problem. If one chooses which of the Bible’s moral commands to take seriously (and the Bible states its prohibition of homosexuality not only as a law but as a value—” it is an abomination”), of what moral use is the Bible?  If you cannot accept all the teachings of the LORD's commandments, then you do not accept the LORD.  Jesus said, “If, you love me you will keep my commandments."

Advocates of the religious acceptance of homosexuality say the Bible is morally advanced in some areas, it is morally regressive in others. Its condemnation of homosexuality is one example.   Far from being immoral, however, the Bible’s prohibition of homosexuality was a significant part of its liberation (1) of the human being from the bonds of unrestrained sexuality and (2) of women from being peripheral to men’s lives.

The Bible lists homosexuality together with child sacrifice among the “abominations” practiced by the peoples living in the land about to be conquered by the Israelites. The two are certainly not morally equitable, but they both characterized a morally primitive world that LORD set out to destroy. They both characterized a way of life opposite to the one that the Creator demanded of Israel. Finally, the Bible adds a unique threat to Israel if they engage in homosexuality and the other offenses of the Canaanites: “You will be vomited out of the land” just as the non-Jews who practice these things were vomited out of the land. This threat “suggests that the offenses were considered serious indeed.”

Christianity cannot make peace with homosexuality because homosexuality denies many of Christianity’s most fundamental principles. It denies life, it contradicts God’s expressed desire that men and women cohabit, and it rejects the root structure that the LORD wishes for all mankind, the family.  The LORD has given us a choice “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse, and you shall choose life.” Christianity affirms whatever enhances life, and it opposes or separates whatever represents death.  So, as a Christian, our concern is with life.

What is amazing about the discussion of homosexuality is that gay men are not seen as the enemy of women.  Homosexuality has an adverse effect on women.  Where is the outcry from women?  In societies where men sought out men for love and sex, women were relegated to society’s periphery. For example, ancient Greece, which elevated homosexuality to an ideal, was characterized by “a misogynistic attitude,” in Norman Sussman’s words. Homosexuality in ancient Greece, he writes, “was closely linked to an idealized concept of the man as the focus of intellectual and physical activities… The woman was serving but two roles. As a wife, she ran the home. As a courtesan, she satisfied male sexual desires.”

In medieval France, when men stressed male-male love, it “implied a corresponding lack of interest in women.  The women of Arab society, where male homosexuality has been widespread, remain in a notably low state in the modern world. This may be a coincidence, but common sense suggests a linkage. So, too, in traditional Chinese culture, the low state of women has been linked to widespread homosexuality. As a French physician reported from China in the nineteenth century, “Chinese women were such docile, homebound dullards that the men, like those of ancient Greece, sought courtesans and boys.”

So, Mr. Pete Buttigieg, I trust your understanding of government is better than your understanding of scripture.  Your theological views on homosexuality are not compatible with historical Christianity or with the scriptures.  Historically any nation that has accepted a sexual lifestyle that is contrary to Biblical teachings has suffered judgment at the hand of God.  It is men like you, Mr. Buttigieg that has brought moral decay to our Nation.  It is my prayer that your political career will end, not because you are a homosexual but because you do not honor God.  You have changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served your own self interests.