The Religious Left
2020 Candidate and mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg has been in the news quite a bit, even despite no one wanting him to be president. Credit where it’s due, that’s quite impressive. Especially considering — despite being the first openly gay major Democratic Presidential Candidate — most “gay news sites,” (Pinknews for instance) have not endorsed him.
Recently, while on the radio show The Breakfast Club (which I thought was the fake radio show Brain ran on Family Guy), Buttigieg justified his pro-choice positions by a verse in the Bible saying that life starts with breath.
Many Christians have responded pointing out that is not in any way what that verse says, and I’ll leave it at that. As an atheist, I don’t feel qualified to do the whole “I know your religion better than you,” in the vast majority of cases. Some atheists, like the late Christopher Hitchens, could do that, I’m just not one of them.
However, seeing this also reminded me of something Buttigieg said back during the debates. That being that we should raise the minimum wage because the Bible says so. Of course, this argument falls apart when you remember the Bible is not an economics textbook, it’s a collection of writings, many of which are highly outdated.
I find it odd that many anti-theists, including ones that accuse me of secretly being a radical Muslim (as mentioned before, I’m an atheist) because I’m against war with Syria, are supporting Pete’s campaign based in blatant theocracy. But I guess theocracy is okay, as long as it is liberal.
(Side note: This article is not meant to insult liberal or left-wing Christians, one of my best friends is a left-wing Christian in fact, it is meant to insult left-wing theocrats. If you are a Christian who can argue your left-wing ideas without going “I have the power of God and Anime on my side,” then I’m not talking about you.)
I hate to play this game, but if Buttigeig is going to play it then I must also do so. Remember the infamous Bible verse “ If a man has sex with another man, kill them both”? Many forget this verse is just slightly after the less infamous “ Homosexual acts are an abomination to God”.To put it simply, if we valued the Bible even half as much as Buttigieg wants us to, not only would his marriage be illegal but so would his sexuality.
While this blog tends to try its hardest to disagree with everything Pat Buchanan says, he was completely right when he said the following:
Again, if Buttigieg wants us to raise the minimum wage because of the Bible, why should we stop there?
An Ignored Alliance?
Obviously, most Americans have been, and still are, Christians. What that means has changed over time, however, the basic truth of this is still valid.
Again, this is not to go after those on the left who just so happened to be Christians, as long as they kept the government secular. Harry Truman for instance studied the Bible so well from a young age his family would have him settle religious arguments. That does not make Harry Truman a theocrat anymore than it would make every atheist an anti-theist.
However, many Democrats and leftists of the old were also highly religious, and brought that religion to the government.
Take Woodrow Wilson as an example. The first truly left-wing Democratic President (in fact, he was picked specifically in hopes of keeping Theodore Roosevelt voters from going for his third party presidential campaign), Wilson started out giving speeches that were highly religious in nature. He commonly used God to justify his hatred of what he called “the triple wall of privilege,” — those being trusts, banks, and tariffs.
For example:
Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.
As for if you do not wish to worship God, sorry, you’re still screwed.
Former President Jimmy Carter, while not himself a theocrat, also caused theocracy to grow in America. The New York Times argued just this through his public endorsement of Christianity, including once arguing Jesus Christ would support same-sex marriage.
Examples of Democrats running on religion were numerous in the 20th century. In 1984, Jesse Jackson’s Presidential Campaign was no less religious than that of Ronald Reagan (but one involved Jerry Falwell so it must have been worse). Both Walter Mondale and George McGovern ran on religious platforms first and foremost, as they were both deeply religious men and the children of pastors.
Let us not forget even the most beloved progressives do this. Both AOC and Bernie Sanders argued for capping interest rates because religion says it’s wrong. It’s hilarious they don’t mention what happened to Christian bankers who did follow this as oppose to Jewish ones that didn’t. However, the results of the Jewish actually running the banks because Christians are idiots sometimes was not, in any way, funny.
