I’m not a religious person, but I appreciate those religions
that bring us together and encourage acts of benevolence. On the other hand, I
don’t appreciate people who promote fanatical adherence to their own particular
religious ideas and make life hard for others who don’t share their beliefs. Which
is why I prefer Pete Buttigieg’s religiosity to Mike Pence’s.
Vice President Pence has been in a verbal feud
with Mayor Pete lately, largely because Buttigieg is a rising star in the
Democratic Party and is running for president as an openly gay candidate married to his husband, Chasten. Pence
has made a name for himself by opposing gay marriage and promoting the idea that
being gay is a choice. As governor of Indiana, he signed a bill aimed at restricting
the rights of LGBTQ people.
I am baffled by people who regard being gay as a
choice. I can assure all who may ask that I did not “choose” my heterosexual
proclivities. They came onto me in full force sometime around 1960, and choice
had nothing to do with it.
Does Mr. Pence believe that Mr. Buttigieg chose to
be gay just to be cool? Or because he wanted to annoy Jesus? There’s no
evidence for the latter, given that Mayor Pete has made Christianity a spiritual
touchstone in his life. And the mayor’s Christianity, by the way, is, in my
opinion, the best kind: it calls for an open-hearted, compassionate, and
understanding attitude toward all people no matter what their religion might be.
Or might not be in the case of those who have no religion.
To be fair, I suppose even Mayor Pete’s generous
religious spirit would draw the line at some point. I say this because I
remember a hilarious Gahan Wilson cartoon in which a man
complained of his family fleeing their homeland because they were persecuted
for their religion. Meanwhile, just over his shoulder could be seen a ghastly
portrait of an evil, grinning Satan.
And even the most religiously tolerant citizen
might declare the bloody rituals of traditional Aztec sun-worship off limits.
But I digress. My point is that I believe a person
can be as religious as he or she likes, but not to the point of using religion
to demonize, make life hard for, or cut out the beating hearts of the rest of
us. It is, after all, fundamentally selfish and self-serving to declare that You
Know what the word of God is. I get the feeling that a lot of hardcore Christians
are not worshiping God so much as their own interpretation of God, which is to
say, they are really worshiping themselves.
As a non-believer, I have no standing to explain
the essential nature of God. But if I did, I would guess that a twenty-first century
Jesus might express himself through words like these, “Verily I say unto you, blessed
are those who love each other and in the light of that love choose to marry.”
