On June 17, 2019, Mayor Peter Buttigieg from South Bend, Indiana cast a terrible aspersion on all former United States presidents by insisting that more than one of them was a practicing homosexual. “We’ve probably had excellent presidents who were gay — we just didn’t know which ones,” Buttigieg said in an interview with “Axios on HBO” that aired Sunday. “I mean, statistically it’s almost certain.”
No documentation was made to support his assertion, and none will be found. The lives of our American presidents are well documented. While these national leaders were not without their personal weaknesses and moral faults, being a practicing homosexual was not one of them.
So why did Pete Buttigieg interject this issue into his presidential campaign? Two possibilities come to mind.
First. Pete Buttigieg wants to justify his own lifestyle. Pete Buttigieg may believe he is a married man to another man, but that belief defies nature, an orderly society, the meaning of language, and the known will of God that a man is to “leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen. 2:4). God created male and female to marry and mate. God created Adam and Eve. God did not create any other option, but sin does.
When a person violates reason, defies nature, and has contempt for the will of the Creator, that person must try to justify the unjustifiable. This is what Eve did. She justified doing wrong when she saw the forbidden fruit was “good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired” (Gen. 3:6). Eve took the fruit and ate. Eve stopped caring for the will of God in order to advance her own thoughts and agenda. Then, Eve avoided taking personal responsibility by saying she was “beguiled,” but not before she enticed Adam to join her in her revolt against Divinely established authority. People may think there is safety in numbers, but that too is a form of self-deception, for God will not be mocked. Those who sow to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption (Gal. 6:8).
Second, Pete Buttigieg is projecting his own behavior onto others. What he condones in himself, he wants to find in others. According to psychologist, projection is a defense mechanism individual use so that unenviable or unpleasant traits, impulses, behavior, and ideas can be avoided in themselves. According to the Bible, individuals suppress the truth in order to avoid an unpleasant confrontation with their conscience, and reality (Rom. 1:18).
Mayor Pete wants to be happy. Most people do. What God wants, is for His children to be holy. Former presidents of the United States wanted all people in America to have freedom to pursue happiness. Thomas Jefferson said, “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” Former presidents knew that “…. those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord” (Abraham Lincoln). President Dwight David Eisenhower said, “Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first and most basic expression of Americanism.”
In addition, some of our presidents wanted to be personally holy before God. President John Quincy Adams wrote, “My custom is to read four or five chapters of the Bible every morning immediately after rising. It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day. It is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.” President John Quincy Adams wanted to please God.
If Mayor Pete wants to identify with former presidents, let him seek holiness, without which, no one will see God (Heb. 12:14). “I consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for public service.” ~ President John Adams
