Kevin Leininger: Hoosier hospitality, consistency are casualties of Buttigieg’s religious war against Pence

April 16-- Apr. 16--This being Holy Week, Christians are invited by Christ's suffering on their behalf to ponder their own shortcomings and need for a savior. This also being the seemingly endless political season, Americans of all faiths and none have again been reminded of how religion without repentance breeds sanctimony, not compassion.

And, believe it or not, this particular lesson comes to us not from supposedly intolerant religious and political conservatives but from the selectively open-minded left -- with an ironic twist on Hoosier hospitality thrown in for good measure.

Democratic South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has a lot going for him: He's attractive, well-spoken, young (37), intelligent (a Rhodes scholar), a veteran (he served in Afghanistan as a member of the Navy Reserve) and married. Buttigieg is also outspokenly gay, which no doubt is one reason this week's presidential bid by the previously obscure Midwestern mayor has received so much attention and, if polls are correct, support.

Buttigieg has also received a lot of notoriety because he has boldly waded into the political-religious soup that was once dominated by evangelicals by like Vice President and former Indiana Gov. Mike Pence -- who just happens to be the chief target of Buttigieg's self-righteous wrath.

Pence, of course, has been accused of supporting Christian bigotry against gays ever since he signed Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law in 2015. Modeled on a federal law signed by Democratic President Bill Clinton, RFRA was intended to allow business owners and others to follow their consciences when asked to participate in such things as same-sex weddings. The backlash from the left and many business groups was immediate, and even though the law was later amended specifically to protect the LGBT community, the episode created an opportunity Buttigieg has eagerly manipulated and exploited.

"It's something that really frustrates me because the hypocrisy is unbelievable," Buttigieg said. "Here you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything I hear in Scripture in church . . . (But) if me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade. And that's the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: that if you've got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me.

"Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator."

Just this week Rolling Stone magazine reported how "Pete Buttigieg is fighting, and winning, a battle over religion with Mike Pence" -- in part by accusing the vice president of hypocrisy for signing a bill espousing religious virtue while allowing "himself to become the cheerleader for the porn star presidency."

It's a legitimate point: Last October I wrote a column headlined "Can bad people promote good policies? Maybe, but why can't we have both?" As a Christian, I held my nose and voted for Trump despite his unconvincing campaign religiosity and his obvious personal flaws because he promised to nominate conservative judges, secure the border and ease regulations, among other things. He hasn't delivered on everything, but Hillary Clinton would have pursued an entirely different path -- which is why, given the same choice, I would vote for Trump again tomorrow without a hint of remorse. Conversely, although I could vote for a gay candidate I could not support one who, like Buttigieg, is OK with late-term abortions, the Green New Deal or packing the Supreme Court.

That's not hypocrisy; that's the reality of politics. What good does voting for the most personally moral candidate do if that person espouses bad policies or can't get elected in the first place?

Politics should not be confused with theology, and there are people on both the right and now the left who have grown very adept at focusing on opponents' sins while ignoring their own. The lesson of Holy Week and the Scriptures from which it is drawn is that everyone, Republican or Democrat, straight or gay, has fallen short of the glory of God and cannot save themselves no matter what they do or how they vote.

"If I saw a restaurant owner refuse to serve a gay couple, I wouldn't eat there anymore." That quote isn't from "Mayor Pete" but from Pence, who said it in 2015 when he called Buttigieg a "dedicated public servant and a patriot." The left, meanwhile, is busy banning Chick-fil-A restaurants from airports and elsewhere because of the company's Bible-based support for traditional marriage.

If Buttigieg is half as smart as people think, surely he's noticed the irony -- if not the hypocrisy he seems to detect only in others.

This column is the commentary of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of The News-Sentinel. Email Kevin Leininger at kleininger@news-sentinel.com or call him at 461-8355.

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