In my most recent podcast (Hidden Headlines, Episode 53) I explain how Bernie Sanders is, and has been for decades, a communist. Listen, I know there are millions of communists in this world, but (thank God) the United States of America is not ready to have one as president–for now. Communism is antithetical to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Communism is also not compatible with the God of Creation and His Son, the Messiah Jesus.
To socialists and their communist counterparts, all that really exists is the material world. Karl Marx, the father of socialism/communism, invented the notion of dialectical materialism — the belief that matter contains a creative power within itself. This enabled Marx to eliminate the need for a creator, essentially erasing the existence of anything non-material.
To the Marxist, suffering is caused by the unequal distribution of material possessions, and salvation is achieved by the re-distribution of the same. There’s no need for the spiritual. If everyone is given equal stuff, all the problems in society will somehow dissolve.
This worldview contradicts both Bible-based Judaism and Christianity which affirms the existence of both a material and a non-material world and teaches that humankind’s greatest problems are spiritual. The Bible says the cause of suffering is sin, and salvation is found in the death and resurrection of the Messiah. And, even if we are unable to accumulate personal wealth, the Bible teaches that we can still have an abundant life here on earth. That’s because our quality of life is not determined by how much stuff we have, but by our relationship to God.
There are still enough well informed, Bible-believing citizens in the country who reject Bernie’s communism.
As for Democratic candidate Pete Buttigieg, America is not ready for a homosexual to be president, particularly one who is not just very liberal, but one who pushes a gay agenda.
It was less than five years ago that the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in a ruling that dramatically advanced gay rights in America. Over the past two decades, public support for same-sex marriage, seen as an indicator of acceptance of the LGBTQ community as a whole, has flipped from 60 percent opposition to more than 60 percent approval. I contend that flip is because of the aggressive manner in which LGBTQ activists publicly crucify any who are outspoken against their agenda.
I know this is difficult for those reading this who stand with the LGBTQ agenda to believe, but as a follower of Jesus I do not hate or even dislike you; I just oppose any agenda that is antithetical to God’s Word as revealed to us in the Bible.
Some claim Jesus never said anything about homosexuality and therefore is neutral on the topic. Not true. Jesus was unequivocal in saying that to understand marriage and the sexual union, we must go back to the beginning and see how God created humanity and to what end. (See Matthew 19 and Mark 10.) Jesus holds up the creation story in Genesis not as a quaint Sunday school lesson, but as authoritative — reminding us that God created each of us male and female, each for the other. And the sexual union that God created and ordains is for husband and wife to come together in physical union, one flesh. As for marriage, it’s also God’s desire that one man be committed to one woman (and vice versa).
When God said that it “is not good that the man be alone” (Genesis 2:18) he wasn’t bemoaning that Adam didn’t have a friend or was lonely. He was saying that the male could not really know himself as male without a contrasting human. The Bible reveals that both male and female become fully human via their interaction and contrast with one another. This happens most profoundly (and mysteriously) in marriage. It’s also biologically evident that for humans to multiply male and female genders are required. The male and female roles are so remarkable in marriage that even in Heaven the church will be recognized as a bride and Jesus the bridegroom.
As for sexuality and sexual drive, at some point we all have some manner of sexual urges that compel us to disobey (or contemplate disobeying) God’s design for sexuality. In the New Testament book of 1 Corinthians we read a daunting passage that hits numerous sins and vices with equal clout:
Don’t you know that unrighteous people will have no share in the Kingdom of God? Don’t delude yourselves — people who engage in sex before marriage, who worship idols, who engage in sex after marriage with someone other than their spouse, who engage in active or passive homosexuality, 10 who steal, who are greedy, who get drunk, who assail people with contemptuous language, who rob — none of them will share in the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you used to do these things. But you have cleansed yourselves, you have been set apart for God, you have come to be counted righteous through the power of the Lord [Jesus] the Messiah and the Spirit of our God.
I Corinthians 6:9-11 (Complete Jewish Bible version)
We’re all tempted, but not all of us fall into sin. Scripture tells us that Jesus was tempted in all ways as we are, but did not sin (see Hebrews 4:15). Sexual sin is giving in to that desire in either mind or body. Engaging in same-sex acts is sin, just as is engaging in premarital or extra-marital sex between a man and woman.
I have many friends and acquaintances who are or were same-sex attracted, but live obediently within a Christian sexual ethic; some are now married to a man or woman of the opposite sex. I also know heterosexuals who live in celibacy. God requires that we each subjugate our sexual (and many other) desires to our faith in Him; and countless same-sex attracted believers do so willingly and joyfully. One of the signs of a Christian is his or her desire to be obedient to Jesus’ teaching and His teachings are demanding. The scriptures define and change us, not the other way around. Biblical morality cannot change with the times. In addition to his homosexuality Buttigieg contends he is a Christian. If this is so, he is living a life that is defiantly in opposition to the precepts of God.
Besides living in proud defiance of God’s ways, Buttigieg is an activist who encourages even young kids to go gay. Buttigieg had an emotional moment this past Saturday night with a nine-year old boy who asked him for help to come out as gay. During a Q&A session where questions were drawn from a fishbowl, the boy, later identified as, Zachary Ro, thanked the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana for his bravery and sought help from Buttigieg on coming out.
“Would you help me tell the world I’m gay, too?” Ro asked the first openly gay presidential candidate, adding, “I want to be brave like you.”
Rather than suggesting therapy to this confused pre-pubescent child, Pete told the boy to basically go-for-it. “I don’t think you need a lot of advice from me on bravery, you seem pretty strong,” Buttigieg responded. “It took me a long time to figure out how to tell even my best friend that I was gay, let alone go out there and tell the world. And to see you willing to come to terms with you who you are in a room full of thousands of people you never met, that’s really something.”
Pete seems like a nice guy, but he really needs to surrender his life to the Lordship of Jesus the Messiah and allow God to transform his sexual desires into that which are congruent with the Bible.
Meantime, America’s not ready for Pete.