Pete Buttigieg hosts 'Believers for Biden' virtual town hall
DALLAS, Pa. — Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., hosted a virtual town hall this week aimed at young, religious Americans in support of 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
“Across the country, I know that there are a lot of people, certainly some of my neighbors here in Indiana who grew up believing that if you had certain values or cared about certain things, that meant you had to be a Republican," he said Tuesday towards the beginning of the short, intimate gathering.
The event, titled “Young Believers for Biden,” featured Buttigieg as the headline speaker for an informal and frank discussion of the role of religion in the Democratic party and the Biden campaign.
It was the latest attempt by the Buttigieg camp to establish himself as a vocal and prominent religious politician — a role largely monopolized by the GOP in recent elections.
Buttigieg repeatedly acknowledged the fundamental religious division in American politics throughout his unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination and in his public appearances since.
In February, Buttigieg wrote that his campaign’s successes belonged “to people of every religion and no religion who agree that God does not belong to a political party in the United States.”
In 2018, Buttigieg came out against a Catholic high school in Roncalli that fired a teacher who was discovered to have broken her contract by getting married to a member of the same sex, asking, “How can this possibly be consistent with the notion of family—or with the love of Christ?”
Buttigieg’s public statements on religion and his personal brand of Christianity are distinct from those of the GOP, however, in the ways that Buttigieg has repeatedly broadened his vocabulary about God. Through less specific language and open-ended statements, Buttigieg attempts to scoop both the Christian vote and the inclusivity-minded social justice base in a single shot.
“Today Christians around the world celebrate the triumph of light, faith, and life over darkness and death,” Buttigieg wrote on Twitter for Easter earlier this year. “It’s easy, obligatory even, to say this all has new meaning this year. But meaning is up to us... so let us fill this day with meaning, and with joy.”
This same inclusive language was displayed in this week’s virtual town hall, where the opening benediction was offered to “God of our many understandings.”
Buttgieg slammed President Donald Trump for a perceived lack of authenticity in his religious beliefs, saying, “you have a president who seems to regard the Bible as a prop to be held up and waved around even while acting to repress those who were crying out for the very forms of justice... that we care called to in our traditions."
Biden and his running-mate, Kamala Harris, are both former rivals of Buttigieg -- all three of them were candidates for the Democratic nomination, and shared plenty of barbs with one another.
However, Buttigieg claimed that even in those times of competition, he came to respect both of them, saying, "One of the things that was unmistakably true, was how they were guided by their faith."
“As a member of the LGBTQ community, it is very important for me that we be here for people of every religion and of no religion equally, as the Constitution prescribes, and how our consciences counsel,” he said. “But that doesn't mean we need to be silent or pretend otherwise when our faith commitments call us to certain, very specific needs in terms of the dignity of other people and our conduct in public life."
Buttigieg is set to continue campaigning for Biden up until the November election with several other former political opponents of the former vice president.
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer and editor from northeastern Pennsylvania. He covers religious issues with a focus on the Catholic Church and Japanese society and culture.