In a speech to his supporters this Sunday, presidential candidate and South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg talked about his faith and sexual orientation, at one point saying, “If being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade.”
Buttigieg then turned his focus to Vice President Mike Pence, whose views about issues such as same-sex marriage are well known, saying that he wishes that people such as Pence would understand that being gay isn’t a choice.
“And that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand,” he said. “That if you have a problem with who I am, your quarrel is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.”
Buttigieg’s comments drew a harsh response from Pence, who said that the 2020 candidate should “know better.”
“He’s said some things that are critical of my Christian faith and about me personally. And he knows better,” Pence said Thursday in a CNBC interview. “He knows me.”
Other Christian leaders are coming forward to denounce Buttigieg’s comments, one of whom is Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. On Fox News this Tuesday, Perkins spoke with host Todd Starnes and argued that Buttigieg is wrong when it comes to his sexual orientation’s inborn nature.
“The fact is, God does not create people that way,” Perkins said. “Now, there’s circumstances that lead one maybe down that path, and I’m not saying anyone would choose that lifestyle — but to say that they were made by God?”
According to Perkins, science isn’t on Buttigieg’s side.
“First off, the science doesn’t back that up, and Scripture doesn’t back that up, because Jesus himself spoke to what marriage was. And [the biblical book of Matthew] also spoke to what gender was. I don’t hear Mayor Pete quoting that.”
In fact, the science isn’t on Perkins’ side.
From The Guardian:
Evidence from independent research groups who studied twins shows that genetic factors explain about 25-30% of the differences between people in sexual orientation (heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and bisexual). Twin studies are a first look into the genetics of a trait and tell us that there are such things as “genes for sexual orientation” (I hate the phrase “gay gene”). Three gene finding studies showed that gay brothers share genetic markers on the X chromosome; the most recent study also found shared markers on chromosome 8. This latest research overcomes the problems of three prior studies which did not find the same results.
In Tuesday’s interview, Perkins went on to say that Buttigieg is an example of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” when it comes to interpreting Scripture.
“Scripture warns of wolves in sheep’s clothing coming and talking smooth, trying to be all things to all people,” Perkins said. “The reality is he’s advocating for policies that are not in line with the Scripture. You can talk about words. You can use the rhetoric of Scripture, but your policy has to match it.”
Watch the segment below:
H/T JoeMyGod
Featured image via screen grab/YouTube
