A pain in the Buttigieg

Presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg recently gave a much-touted, much-quoted speech to Victory Fund, a pressure group for the LGBT pogrom. I have no idea who the Democrat nominee will be. I'll comment on some of his statements because dumb ideas can become very influential and harmful. 

Two preliminary observations: 

1. Why was the audience at Victory Fund cheering his statements about the Creator? How many of them actually believe that God made us? 

2. It's not enough for infidels like Buttigieg to reject Christianity. Rather, the attempt something more insidious. They try to co-opt Christianity. They try to redefine it, pretending that progressive Christianity is the real deal, while biblical Christianity is just an interpretation, not to mention an illegitimate interpretation. That's an especially dangerous form of intolerance. It refuses to let the opposing side define their own position. It can't concede that the other side represents the authentic expression of the opposing position. It acts as though the other side is misrepresenting its own position. Tyrants like Buttigieg presume to speak on behalf of Christianity, as spokesmen for what Christianity really stands for. 

This is different than disagreeing with a position. This is more radical. This is the refusal to allow and acknowledge that there even could be an opposing position. It becomes impermissible and punishable even to mention the existence of a contrary viewpoint. 

This idea that there’s something wrong with you, puts you at odds not only with yourself but with your maker. Speaking only for myself, I can tell you that if me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade. If you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me, your quarrel, sir, is with my Creator.

That's a popular homosexual trope. Several basic problems:

i) The idea that there's something wrong with humans is core Christian theology. We are sinners. We have a propensity to evil. 

ii) What about people with genetic illnesses. Does that diagnosis put them at odds with their maker? Apart from Adam and Eve, humans don't come direct from the hand of God. God uses natural processes to creates human beings. God creates us indirectly through providential means. And in a fallen world, things can and do go wrong with the moral and natural order.

iii) I don't have an opinion on whether Buttigieg chose to be Buttigieg. There could be a combination of nature and nurture. But acting on homosexual impulses is a choice.

iv) As a Calvinist, I don't have a problem with saying God caused Buttigieg to be homosexual. That doesn't preclude disapproval. If I think there's something morally wrong with villains like Queen Jadis or the Unman, does that put me at odds with C. S. Lewis? Hardly. They are villainous characters by design. The reader is intended to disapprove of Queen Jadis and the Unman. Disapproval of the character doesn't entail disapproval of the novelist. A villain is a foil character. 

By the same token, I can disapprove of Buttigieg lifestyle and political agenda even though God predestined it. God predestined that as something for Christians to combat, just as Lewis invented Lucy and Ransom to counter Jadis and the Uhman.

My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man

Does anal sex make you a better man? What about rimming or golden showers? 

perfectly legal to fire somebody because of who they are…

But that's precisely what zealots like Buttigieg want to do to Americans who dissent from the LGBT policies. 

freedom to live of life of your choosing

Once again, zealots like Buttigieg deny to Christians the freedom to live a life of their choosing. 

county clerk their interpretation of their religion

If that's a swipe at Kim Davis, she was enforcing state law. 

only get one life

Which illustrates the danger of atheism. If you think this life is all there is, that naturally makes you ruthless. 

transgender troops ready to put their lives on the line for this country have their careers threatened with ruin

Transgender soldiers are physically and psychologically unfit. 

In addition, I don't owe transgender soldiers any more gratitude than I owe squeegee bandits. Don't do something I didn't ask, wish, or countenance, then act like you're doing me a favor. Don't try to shoehorn me into your debt against my will. You weren't doing that for me, but for yourself, as a pretext to leverage the issue. Your cynical tactics are nothing more than emotional coercion and moral extortion.