WWUTT 1095 Q&A Nancy Pelosi's Claim, Pete Buttigieg's Faith, Talking Politics with Family?

Does Nancy Pelosi truly love everyone? Pete Buttigieg says he's a

Christian. Is he? And how do we talk to members of our family about being godly in politics?

This is When we

Understand the Text, a daily study in the word of God that we may be conformed to the image of Christ.

Visit our website at www .utt .com and don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky who is not in studio with me today.

I know I hear the disappointment in your voices. It's all my fault.

You can blame me. I will take the lion's share of the blame. We record these programs on Thursday evening, and if you're a regular listener to the

Friday Q &A, you'll know that toward the end of the program,

Becky tends to trail off a little bit because she's tired. I'm the night owl.

She's the morning glory. So if I don't get stuff set up to record on Thursday evening early enough, then she doesn't have enough energy to make it all the way through the recording.

And so Thursday was an especially busy day for us, and I didn't get the stuff ready in time.

So I told her, babe, just go to bed, I'll apologize for us both, and God willing, she'll be back on the program with us next week.

Being the Friday edition, we take questions from the listeners, and you can send those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Now, as you brought up today's episode, you might have noticed a couple of names in the title that and these persons are politicians.

The first of those names is Nancy Pelosi. She's the speaker of the House of Representatives here in the

United States of America. Now without going too much into an explanation of our system of government, the speaker of the

House is second in line for president of the United States. If something were to happen to the president, the vice president would become the president.

But if something were to happen to both the president and the vice president, the speaker of the House would become president.

The speaker is Nancy Pelosi. She is a liberal Democrat. And right now, the Democrats, especially in the

House of Representatives, are trying to impeach Donald Trump. They're trying to find something to impeach him with.

And we've been in impeachment proceedings for the last several weeks. If you listen to the briefing with Al Mohler, he's probably been keeping you up to speed on all of that.

So Nancy Pelosi had a press conference yesterday in which she was talking about these impeachment proceedings.

And a reporter asked her a question. He asked her if she hated

Donald Trump. And Nancy Pelosi responded very angrily to that reporter's question.

And her response went viral all over social media yesterday. I made a comment about it as well.

And I wanted to respond to some of the criticisms that I got as a result of this comment.

But first, here is Nancy Pelosi and her exchange with this reporter. Now, the beginning of it's going to be kind of hard to hear because it's in the background.

But then Nancy Pelosi walks back to the podium and it clears up a little bit. You'll be able to hear what she's saying.

But it's specifically the statement she makes about how she doesn't hate anybody that I want to respond to.

Madam Speaker, I don't hate anybody. I don't have a brain that's labeled as out.

We don't hate anybody, not anybody in the world. So don't you accuse me.

I did not accuse you. You did, you did. I asked a question. You did. Representative Collins yesterday suggested that the

Democrats are doing this simply because they don't like the guy. I have nothing to do with it. Let me just say this. I think the president is a coward when it comes to helping our kids who are afraid of gun violence.

I think he is cruel when he doesn't deal with helping our dreamers, of which we're very proud.

I think he's in denial about the constitution, about the climate crisis. However, that's about the election.

This is about the election. Take it up in the election. This is about the Constitution of the United States and the facts that lead to the president's violation of his oath of office.

And as a Catholic, I resent you're using the word hate in a sentence that addresses me.

I don't hate anyone. I was raised in a way that is full, a heart full of love and always prayed for the president.

And I still pray for the president. I pray for the president all the time. So don't mess with me when it comes to words like that.

Now, the comment that she made there toward the end was certainly very good. We've all been instructed to pray for the president of the

United States. In fact, you should even pray for Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House. First Timothy chapter two, verse one.

First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good. And it is pleasing in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Would you desire that president Trump repent of his sin and come to a knowledge of the truth and so be saved?

Pray for him that he would. Would you desire that Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the

House, would repent of her sin and that she would come to a knowledge of the truth and so be saved?

Pray for her that she would. It is certainly good to be praying for our elected officials, as Nancy Pelosi said.

So we are instructed here in the scriptures to do so. But as for her statement that she doesn't hate anybody,

I'm telling you, she most certainly does. Now, whether or not she hates Donald Trump, I wouldn't be able to know that.

But she most certainly hates innocent unborn children. Nancy Pelosi, as one of the most liberal speakers of the

House there has ever been, if not the most liberal, would give a woman who doesn't want her unborn child any and all opportunities to kill that child.

And if Nancy Pelosi had her way, she would make the taxpayer pay for it. This is what

Nancy Pelosi has said about late term abortion, quote, as a practicing and respectful

Catholic. This abortion is sacred ground to me.

This shouldn't have anything to do with politics, unquote. She calls abortion sacred ground and once again makes reference to the fact that she's

Catholic, as though that makes it better. Earlier this year, she said that abortion bans, quote, violate the

Constitution. They ignore basic morality, unquote. They violate what part of the

Constitution? How about in the Declaration of Independence, where it says that the inalienable rights we've been endowed with by our creator include life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

Nancy Pelosi would deny a person that first inalienable right, the right to life.

And she would do any and everything that she could to protect what she believes to be the right to abortion, the right to kill an unborn child.

Yes, my friends, she most definitely hates. And I made a comment about this online, the hatred that is in her heart toward the unborn.

And if she does not repent of it, she stands before God condemned. John 318, whoever believes in him is not condemned.

But whoever does not believe in Jesus is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.

It is only Jesus Christ, only by faith in him. That Nancy Pelosi will be forgiven of her sins and have everlasting life with God.

Being Catholic is most definitely not going to save her. She's basically claiming to be in league with the pope, who's an antichrist.

But it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we come to salvation. And I do pray that she would repent of her wickedness and so be saved.

I made a comment about this online, about how the fact that there is hatred in her heart for the unborn.

And I tied into that statement. First, John 315. But I'm going to start in verse 11 here and read through verse 15.

First, John 311, for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.

And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

And that last verse there, that was the one that I tied into Nancy Pelosi, the hatred that she has in her heart for the unborn.

There are 3000 babies in America who die by abortion daily, 3000 per day.

So, yes, my friends, Nancy Pelosi most definitely hates a lot. After making this comment on Twitter, I received quite a bit of backlash from it.

One of these comments came from a woman who called herself yoga goddess. And she says, so you are obviously not

Catholic. But I would guess born again, evangelical, where you care about a fetus in the womb, but not once a baby is born.

Got it. Actually, ma 'am, I am an adoptive parent, but I don't expect someone who refers to themselves as yoga goddess to be able to to reason rationally and have a sensible discussion.

Instead, passing judgment on these things. That's what you would rather do. I hope that woman likewise repents and comes to a knowledge of Christ because she is steeped in paganism and openly acknowledges that this next comment comes from Pam.

What about all the children murdered by guns? What about the thousands of children in cages right now who will emotionally never be the same from the torture of being separated from their families?

There are thousands of children in foster care that need adoption care for them. Well, as I mentioned earlier,

I am an adoptive parent and I, as a pastor, have also helped other couples get set up with children through adoption.

So I've done referrals, adoption referrals and recommendations and given good references for these families and not just adopting healthy children, but even adopting children who came or who have disabilities and are less likely to be adopted out of the foster care system.

And I've worked with parents to adopt even those health challenged kids. Also, it's been part of my job as a pastor.

But as for this reference to what about the thousands of children in cages right now who will emotionally never be the same from the torture of being separated from their families?

Do you understand why they've been separated from their families? Because mom and dad did something illegal. And so this is the way this is handled all over the nation.

The immigration thing has become kind of the hot button topic in reference to this.

But we had in a town not far from where we live, there was a couple who got in trouble with the law because they were making meth, a husband and a wife, a mom and a dad who together were making meth.

The cops came and arrested them. What happened to the kids? The kids had to be taken away from mom and dad because mom and dad did something illegal.

You don't hear outcry happening as a result of something like that, but you do at the border because it's the perspective of the liberals, of the

Democrats that we should just have open borders that no one should ever get in trouble or arrested because they tried to get into the

United States. There shouldn't be illegal immigration. It's just open borders for everybody. So to try to push that argument, they create this this sympathetic picture of a child locked in a cage that was unjustly ripped from their parents.

No justice is being done on the border because mom and dad illegally tried to enter the country.

It's very unfortunate. It's very sad that this happens. I wish it would not be the case.

But you can't look at this and say something unjust is taking place. The one who did wrong here is not the official who separated mom and dad from their kids.

It was what mom and dad did. Next comment comes from Shannon in Wisconsin. She says,

James three one, in case you forgot, James three one is not many of you should aspire to be teachers, my brothers, for you know that teachers will be judged with greater strictness.

She goes on to say, FYI, you shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery are right next to each other in the

Ten Commandments. God gave us a choice. He doesn't force us. We just assume we can choose for others.

Play God. See First Commandment. I don't really know what she's saying here. I guess she's trying to say that I'm playing

God by telling a person what their choice should be. But of course, she would be playing

God by telling me what my choice should be. See First Commandment. The First Commandment is

I'm the Lord your God. You will not have another one. Shannon, do you worship the

Lord God only and you have no other gods but him? If you are for abortion, then you are sacrificing children to a false

God. That's idol worship. If you are sexually promiscuous, you are not worshiping the one true

God for the scriptures say in First Corinthians chapter six verses nine and ten that the sexually immoral will not enter the kingdom of God.

But there is forgiveness for the person who has done sexual immorality. It's not like it's a deal breaker and there's no way for you to get into heaven.

You can be forgiven your sins today by turning to Jesus Christ. He will forgive you.

He will grant you repentance. You will no longer desire the sinful way, but you desire

God and to please him and then grow and walk in righteousness with Christ.

Next comment comes from a fellow that went by the name of Lightbox Therapy in Buffalo, New York.

Listen, man, God does not like you. All right. Chris goes on to say, but separating families is okay.

Locking children in cages. See this argument come up with regularity, cheating on your wife slash wives, threatening the death of another human.

We must have very different gods. I have really no idea what you're talking about, Chris. I didn't lock any children in cages.

I didn't cheat on my wife. I have not threatened death of another human being. It sounds like you're throwing out arguments so that you don't have to recognize what

I said in my statement that 3000 children are dying every day by the barbaric practice of abortion.

What are you doing about that? Are you as outraged about the slaughter of children?

Are you more outraged about this than you are about children being locked in cages? Because those children who are being separated from their families at the border and put in holding facilities while their parents are getting in trouble, these children are not being murdered.

They're not even being tortured. But if an unborn child goes into a Planned Parenthood clinic, they rarely ever come back out alive.

Where's the outcry for that for the 3000 children that are being killed by abortion every day?

See these persons who are using these comments to say, like, well, what about children being locked in cages as though to suggest that a conservative is hypocritical?

They're actually exposing themselves as hypocrites. They don't care about children at the border or unborn children in the womb.

They're not doing anything about either one. So they're the ones that are actually being hypocrites. Not the person who cares about the life of an unborn child.

Now, this next comment I wrote down because I just want you to hear how outrageous the liberal side can be.

And this was from a person on Twitter actually had over a thousand followers. I'm fairly certain his name is

Jeremy in Portland, Oregon. And he made this comment. 3000 babies simply isn't enough.

We must call upon the devil himself for an extra 7000 babies to abort. That's a real comment, folks.

That's a real dark heart on that individual to even joke about this if he was just kidding.

But it is incredibly sick and wicked and shows you the kind of depravity that our world has fallen into when you can joke about the slaughter of unborn children like that.

He may as well be standing at the gates of Auschwitz, making fun of the Jews being led into the ovens.

Next comment comes from Sue. And I suppose you are for the murder of millions of Americans due to gun violence.

Do you actually care about those babies once they're born into poverty? Or do you support Trump taking away food stamps?

Well, let me answer those three things in order. First of all, last year, there were less than 10000 homicides involving a gun, not millions.

Less than 10000 homicides involving a gun, which, you know, those homicides, that's also wicked.

But you need to consider this. More children will die by abortion in four days than the number of victims who will be murdered by a gun in one year.

Abortion is America's Holocaust. Where is your outrage over that statistic?

You're saying that I need to be outraged about gun violence. Where's your outrage over the murder of unborn children?

Next comment. So you said, do you actually care about those babies once they're born into poverty? I am an adoptive parent.

I married a single mom. There you go. The third comment that you made in there, do you support

Trump taking away food stamps? Trump didn't take away food stamps. Food stamps are still a thing.

Trump did not take them away. The USDA rule change that just happened affects people between the ages of 18 and 49 who are childless and not disabled.

They should not be getting food stamps. And I support that. But the food stamps were not taken away from people who need them.

Again, this is that creating a straw man argument just for Sue to justify herself in not having to recognize the serious horror that is going on in our nation right now.

The bloodbath of the killing of unborn children. This next comment from Marcia.

No one wants people to have abortions, but people do have a right to make decisions. Very difficult decisions, by the way, about their bodies and for their families without your input.

The Bible says, judge not lest ye be judged. In other words, mind your own business. Marcia, take a little bit of your own advice and mind your own business.

You have just offered your input and you have just judged me. So it's hypocritical for you to say that.

By the way, no one who believes in the death of unborn children has any moral ground to therefore pass judgment on another person.

As soon as you're ready to accept the inalienable right to life, then

I'll give you some moral ground to start making some moral judgments consistently and not hypocritically.

This next comment from Alaticus in New York. Do you know what pro -choice means or are you just purposely daft?

Actually, Alaticus, do you know what pro -choice means? What about the baby's choice? See, if you're really for choice, then you need to be you need to actually give the child a choice here.

And the child doesn't have a choice in an abortion. Alaticus went on to say, being pro -choice doesn't mean you want babies murdered.

It means you don't want to make decisions for other people, not your place. We have autonomy.

Who are you to decide? What does the Bible say about judging others? Get a clue and practice what you preach.

We hear this argument all the time. My body, my choice, right? The government regulates your body in all kinds of ways.

For example, how we heat our homes. The government actually tells you how you can heat your home, how we light up a room, what food we buy and how we cook it.

Those things are decided by our government. What kinds of toys our kids play with, all kinds of regulations that those toys have to pass before they end up in your child's possession.

What kind of car you can drive, how loud a television commercial is allowed to be.

Yeah, there's a government organization for that. That determines a commercial can only be this loud and no louder.

I used to be on that side of the media before, and I had to follow those rules in those regulations.

What drugs are illegal and which drugs are legal? The government decides that.

How many legal drugs you're allowed to consume legally. That's how the government regulates your own body.

Where you are allowed to go. Which property you're not allowed to be on.

What times of the day you're allowed to be on certain property. These are just a few examples of how the government does indeed regulate your body.

It is not always your body, your choice. Now, let me put this before you.

I want the right to own a gun so I can defend myself if someone breaks into my home to harm me or my family.

The liberals are saying that I don't deserve that right. Why not? My body, my choice, right?

Don't I have the right to own a gun to be able to defend myself? I can apply that exact same principle to owning a gun.

In fact, my body, my choice makes way more moral sense. When I apply it to wanting to protect myself than when the pro -abortionists want to apply it to the right to dismember a defenseless child.

My body, my choice makes no sense in the defense of abortion because you're destroying another person's body in order to have this choice that you say that you are protecting.

But for my right to own a gun, I can say my body, my choice.

And that slogan applies to the Second Amendment more so than it does apply to Roe v.

Wade. So those are just an example of some of the comments that I was getting as a result of that statement that I made about the fact that Nancy Pelosi hates people.

She hates these unborn children and will do nothing to protect them even though she's been elected for that purpose.

I pray that she repents and comes to a knowledge of Christ, our Savior, who will indeed forgive her even though there is much blood on her hands as an elected official of this country.

We're going to continue on in the theme of politics here as we go to this next question, but still a theological one.

This is from Clint in North Carolina. Dear Pastor Gabe, I have family members whom I always consider to be solid

Christians, but lately they've been demonstrating some really poor judgment, especially when it comes to politics.

Most of my family does not like Donald Trump. I don't have a problem with that. He does some things that I don't agree with either, but their dislike of Trump borders on the obsessive so much that they're beginning to entertain the possibility of voting for a

Democrat in 2020. All of these Democrats have openly confessed to being socialist, anti -constitutional, abortion loving,

LGBTQ sympathizing crazies. OK, maybe they haven't confessed to being crazy, but you'd have to be.

You'd have to be crazy to be a Christian and vote for any one of them. I do agree with you there, Clint.

One of the candidates they're really beginning to show interest in is Pete Buttigieg. My brother says he's just a really nice guy, and my mother has gone as far as saying he says he's a

Christian. How can I show my family? It's fine if you don't like President Trump, but don't make the serious, godless error of voting for a

Democrat. Well, first of all, Clint, both your brother and your mother are actually right.

Make sure I qualify those statements for anybody shuts me off. So your brother said of Pete Buttigieg, Mayor Pete from South Bend, Indiana, he's an openly gay mayor, by the way, and running for president of the

United States, the Democrat ticket in 2020. And Clint's brother says that Mayor Pete is just a really nice guy.

That's true. What your brother says is true. Mayor Pete is a nice guy.

I mean, the stuff that I see him say on television and how he responds to questions, he comes across rather charming and very well mannered.

And it's honestly, it's a breath of fresh air in the political realm right now where everything is.

I mean, you can't let your kids watch because of how vile they can be to one another sometimes.

And Trump is no exception. He's one of the worst, quite honestly. So your brother is right when he says that Mayor Pete is just a nice guy.

And then your mom has gone as far as saying he says he's a Christian. Your mom is right. Mayor Pete has said he's a

Christian. He's said that. That doesn't mean that he is. As I mentioned to you already,

Mayor Pete is openly homosexual. He claims to be married to another man.

This guy is not a God fearing man. He is not a Christian. He is living a life of wicked sinfulness that God has promised that he will judge, leaving nothing to assumption.

I come back again to 1 Corinthians 6, starting in verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

But then you have a gospel proclamation that Paul makes in the next verse. 1 Corinthians 6, 11.

And such were some of you. You were walking in these sins and these transgressions that God has promised that he will judge.

But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And by the spirit of our God. But that isn't Mayor Pete.

He has not been justified. He's still walking in his wicked sinfulness. He's a smooth talker, though.

He knows how to talk the talk. He can say all the buzzwords and speak the Christianese. And he can say it in just such a way and just vague enough that people will fill in the blanks with their own theology and their own things that they like about him.

So they will actually hear him saying something that he is not saying. They will hear him making a biblical profession of Christianity when he's not doing anything of the sort.

And that's what I want to do here. I'm going to play some clips from Mayor Pete, the way that he talks about religion and then critique some of the things that he's saying here.

I think that he is going to lead a lot of people astray, and it's going to be with just enough

Christianese. That's not orthodox. He's not a believer. But there are going to be people just like members of Clint's family who will be

Christians, but they dislike Donald Trump so much they're willing to compromise on Christian values so they don't have to vote for him.

And instead, they'll vote for a guy like Mayor Pete, insisting that he is a Christian. One of the things that Mayor Pete likes to say is that religion is not exclusive to the

Republican Party, but that he's a Christian, even though he's a Democrat. And what we're going to hear in this first clip is exactly that.

Him saying that and then talking about his faith. This is a series of clips in a news report that was done about him.

Good stuff. Pete Buttigieg wants Democrats to reclaim the faith. I think we've just been too susceptible to this path where the right has tried to claim religion as though it's a partisan cause.

Buttigieg, the 37 -year -old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, a Democrat, Afghan veteran and Episcopalian, married his husband in their church last year.

We're very mindful that a day like this was not even possible not very long ago. Now exploring a run for the

White House, he told CNN's Van Jones his faith and family keep him grounded.

You know, the imagery of Christ when the divine comes to earth as being in a servant mode.

It comes from my community, a community that I think just wants you to keep your feet on the ground. It comes from my relationships, my husband, who will never get, let my head get too big because we got laundry to deal with at home.

His faith is in stark contrast to that of many conservatives who oppose gay marriage on religious grounds, including

Vice President Mike Pence. Please don't judge my state by our former governor. Buttigieg openly questioned

Pence's faith during a CNN town hall earlier this month. Is it that he stopped believing in scripture when he started believing in Donald Trump?

I don't know. He says he draws from his faith a sense of humility and commitment to community.

What could be more different than what we're being shown in Washington right now, often with some people who view themselves as religious on the right, cheering it on.

White evangelicals and regular churchgoers have been a key part of the Republican base in recent elections and are largely supportive of President Trump.

Buttigieg is trying to appeal to people who may feel left behind. If you were conservative and you're from an older generation and you were brought up by people you trusted to believe that it was morally wrong to be, for example, in a same sex marriage, and then the pace of change has happened so quickly,

I've benefited from the pace of that change. But I also understand how disorienting it must be for people to have gone through that.

His message of unity doesn't stop there. It even extends to Chick -fil -A, whose president has voiced opposition to same sex marriage.

You like Chick -fil -A? I do not approve of their politics, but I kind of approve of their chicken.

You my kind of guy, man. So maybe there's nothing else I can build that bridge. So there you go.

There's kind of the hodgepodge of religious statements that's been made by Mayor Pete, none of which were biblical.

You heard that statement that he made there about how his husband keeps him humble. This man that he's playing house with does not keep him humble.

He keeps him full of himself and his own sin, which he loves while shaking his fist at God, saying to God, you're the unrighteous one.

I'm the righteous one. That's exactly what it doesn't matter that he sounds nice.

He sounds like such a nice guy. This man hates God. And he is choosing to walk in sin that is abominable in the eyes of God.

Sin that God judged with fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah. And is said is talked about in Jude chapter one, verse seven, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued a natural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

You know, we're kind of in a day and an age right now in which the tone police are out in full force.

If you say anything passionately or anything with even the hint of anger in your voice, well, then the tone police are coming after you.

They're going to say that you're hateful and spiteful, and therefore everything that you're saying is wrong. Facts don't matter.

I just don't like your tone. And so everything you're saying is wrong. Well, that also works the other way in the sense that the tone police are listening to the tones of certain people and saying, see,

I like his tone. So therefore, everything that he's saying is right. And that's what these tone cops are saying in reference to Pete Buttigieg.

I like his tone. He sounds like a nice guy. Listen to Trump and how brash he is and how much of a braggart he is, how much he boasts about himself.

My friends, Mayor Pete is very full of himself, and his tone has nothing to do with whether or not the guy is humble.

He is choosing to walk in sin and encouraging other people in that sin that will exclude a person from the kingdom of God.

And this man looks to be the first openly gay president of the United States, and he wants to do it not by claiming to be a gay man, but claiming to be a gay

Christian. He is attempting to woo religious the religious over to his side.

No, look at Trump. He's not a Christian man. Christians don't behave like that.

But look how good and nice I am. I'm faithful to my husband. That's literally going to be a talking point regarding Pete Buttigieg that Trump has been a braggart and a misogynist and an adulterer and a pornographer.

Buttigieg has already used that term to describe Trump, that he was that he's the porn star president.

That's the way that Buttigieg is referred to him. And so he's trying to say, well, Trump is the one who is sexually immoral.

Look at me. I'm faithful to my husband. He's really going to try to spend that, folks, and there are people who are going to buy it and they will say

Trump is the immoral run, the immoral one. But look at what a moral, nice guy, a moral, nice guy

Pete Buttigieg is. Listen to what Mayor Pete says here about what

Christianity means to him. Christianity to me is about humility. You know,

I don't think religion belongs to one political party. And when I go to church, the scripture

I hear has to do with protecting the poor and spending time with the prisoner and healing the sick and caring for the stranger, which to me is another word for immigrant.

It has a very clear set of moral and policy implications, none of which are things

I would associate with the right wing. Christianity to me is about humility. It's about love. And if we want to put those values into political practice, at least by my lights, they lead us in a very progressive direction.

Surely you've seen the clip of Donald Trump saying, I'm the most humble guy there is.

No one's more humble than I am. I don't know anybody more humble than me. Have you seen that? It's so hilarious because of just how hypocritical it is.

He's bragging about how humble he is. But Mayor Pete was doing it, doing the same thing right there.

He may not have sounded as brash as Donald Trump does. It may not have sounded as ironic as Donald Trump makes it sound.

But Mayor Pete was doing the same thing when he's talking about Christianity being about humility. But Mayor Pete does not humble himself before God.

He does not come to God and say, I am a wicked, awful sinner who deserves judgment. And it is only by your grace that I could be saved from the judgment of God.

Please forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Mayor Pete doesn't do that.

He doesn't even understand Christianity that way when he says that that Christianity to him is about humility.

He's talking about humility on his terms, not God's terms. The God that Mayor Pete worships is the

God that allows him to practice his homosexuality and to play house with this other man that he calls his husband.

That's the God Mayor Pete worships. It's not the God of the Bible. It's a God of his own making.

You heard him defining his own terms there in that little segment. He makes a reference to something Jesus said in Matthew 25 at the great white throne of judgment when all the nations are gathered before him and he separates.

He separates the nations as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and the goats go on his left hand and the sheep go on his right.

To those on his right come you who are blessed by my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.

I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me and those the righteous who are on his right are going to answer him saying

Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked and when did we see you sick or in prison and the king will answer them truly

I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of mine. You did it also unto me.

This passage is in reference to the way that we treat one another in the kingdom of God.

Those who are the followers of Christ. It's not about the charity that we give to any and all people or voting

Democrat or picking the right party that would help the persons with these things.

This is specifically about how we treat our fellow believers in the body of Christ.

That's what Jesus was referring to. But Mayor Pete is manipulating that again to create a

God that is best presented for his political platform and allows him to be the man that he wants to be in the sin that he lives in.

This is not a humble man, even though it sounds like it. He might sound like a humble guy and he knows how to use that word.

But this is not a man of humility. This is a man of great pride who does not humble himself before God.

Here he is defining Christianity his own way in this short clip.

I belong to a faith tradition that teaches that salvation has to do with lifting up those who are most in need, most marginalized.

I think of the scripture that says that whoever oppresses the poor taunts his maker.

Which is Proverbs 14 31 that he's referencing toward the end there. But you heard him say that he believes salvation is how we lift up those who are most in need.

That's not salvation. Salvation is all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Salvation is our default state is hell bound.

But God, by his grace, gave us his son to pay the debt that we owed him because of our sin.

And all who believe in him, we've been transferred from being bound for hell to instead being bound for his eternal kingdom.

By the grace of God, that salvation, we stand before God condemned because of our sin.

In Christ, we stand before him as justified. Jesus is our savior who died for our sins so that by faith in him, we would not perish in our sins, but we would have everlasting life.

That's not the gospel that Mayor Pete believes. He twists the gospel into this thing where we're supposed to be helping the more the marginalized and the poor.

And that's what salvation really is. Incidentally, at the most recent

Southern Baptist Convention that was held in Birmingham, Alabama earlier this year, President, the

Southern Baptist Convention, President JD Greer said this about the gospel. At its core, the gospel that you and I preach is about God's commitment to protect the vulnerable, unquote.

Does that not sound really close to what Mayor Pete Buttigieg just said?

That's not the gospel. What JD Greer defined there as the gospel is not the gospel. Let me read it again.

Quote, at its core, the gospel that you and I preach is about God's commitment to protect the vulnerable.

No, it's about God's commitment to save sinners. That's the gospel. But JD Greer has twisted it.

Now, I don't think JD Greer is a heretic, but when he plays so carelessly with definitions of the gospel like that, he is setting up immature

Christians to listen to a guy like Mayor Pete and hear him say something about the gospel like that and go, oh, you know what?

I've heard JD Greer say that or I've heard another preacher somewhere say something like that about the gospel.

And now they're more easily led astray by Mayor Pete's redefining of the gospel because those who are supposed to be

Orthodox couldn't define it correctly. Careless statements like that are going to lead people astray.

And very unfortunately, when JD Greer says things like that, he's got a lot of apologists defending him going, no, no, no.

He knows what the gospel is. I know he knows what the gospel is, which makes statements like that all the more inexcusable.

And there will be consequences for it. If we are not careful with our Orthodoxy, friends,

Mayor Pete is going to grab those people who will be convinced by statements like that, that the gospel is our commitment to help the vulnerable or to help those who are most in need when that's not the gospel message.

The gospel message is that we are in need of a savior and Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness, all those who believe in him.

Now, this next clip that I'm going to play for you here is Mayor Pete. We're going to come back to the abortion topic here because he's talking on a podcast called

The Breakfast Club, and he'll mention some various religious topics with these guys as they're talking.

So what's the reckoning between the GOP and Christianity? Well, GOP's got to deal with the fact that they have come on board with a president that is completely against not just our values, but their own, right?

I mean, if you're in Mike Pence's world where, you know, being Christian has a lot to do with, you know, kind of rigid, traditional sexual ethics, like that's not how

I come at Christianity, but he does. And yet he thinks that this president ought to be the moral as well as political leader of this country.

And you got an entire Republican Party coming on board with this, but I think deep down they know that this isn't right. Meanwhile, you got religious traditions that teach us about the importance of lifting up the stranger, the importance of lifting up the poor, of healing the sick, that, you know,

I mean, you go through the New Testament for sure. And every other word that comes out of the mouth of Christ is about things like helping those in need.

And you got a Republican Party dedicated to its opposite. There will be a reckoning over that. So let me jump in for a moment here.

Remember, I said that he's going to spin all kinds of Christianese statements he's never going to qualify.

He'll never qualify them with actual scripture references. He just says enough that kind of triggers something in a person's mind that goes, oh, yeah,

I remember a scripture about that or something, but he never actually tells you what the text says there.

He made a statement about how every other word from Christ was about helping those in need.

Let me ask you this. This is important. This is important to think about. What topic did

Jesus speak the most about? Was it helping those in need?

Was that actually every other word that came from the mouth of Christ? The topic that Jesus spoke the most about was

God. He talked more about God and his father in heaven.

He talked about himself, talked about the Holy Spirit, talked about his unity with the father.

He talked about this more than any other topic that he discussed, almost double any other topic that he discussed.

He talked about God because Jesus reveals the father. John makes that plane in the very introduction to his gospel.

No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known.

Jesus reveals to us the father. We know God through Jesus Christ. John 14, six.

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father, but by me. That's the one topic

Jesus talked about more than any other. What's the second topic that Jesus talked about?

Second most common topic. You probably know this. The kingdom of God, heaven, the city of God in my father's house, the throne that he will ascend to the life that is promised us to come that next age, eternal life and how to find it.

That was the second most common thing that Jesus talked about. What was the third third most common topic?

Hell. Second most common was the kingdom of God. Third most common talked about subject was hell.

Jesus warning about hell, that it is our default destination because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We are only turned from our direction to hell when God gives grace to us, regenerates our hearts, turns us from wickedness to righteousness, turns us away from hell to the kingdom of God.

And that becomes our desire. And we're worshiping God and exalting Christ. And when that transformation has happened in our hearts by the grace of God, we're no longer hell bound, but we're heaven bound.

That was the third most common topic that Jesus talked about. After that, then he starts talking about things like making disciples and praying and having faith.

Those are the next most common topics somewhere down the list around eight, nine or ten.

He talks about love and compassion and charity for one another. It was not among the most common topics that Jesus talked about, even though Mayor Pete is spinning this without making any reference to scripture whatsoever.

He's just making general statements. And people who have enough Christian is bouncing around in their head are going to be attuned to that.

Oh, yeah. See, I think of the Bible as saying love others also. So what

Mayor Pete says really makes sense to me. Donald Trump isn't doing that. Mike Pence isn't doing that.

But Mayor Pete is doing that. No, he's not. He's just spinning enough talking points for you to make it sound like he knows how to talk the talk and walk the walk, but he's doing neither one.

He does not know how to speak scripture. He does not. He certainly does not know how to follow it.

So we continue on with the talk here in this podcast. Now, right now, they hold everybody in line with this one kind of piece of doctrine about abortion, right?

Which is obviously a tough issue for a lot of people to think through morally. Then again, you know, there's a lot of parts of the

Bible that talk about how life begins with breath. And so even that is something that we can interpret differently.

I'm pro -choice. Pick up me too. But I think no matter where you think about the kind of cosmic question of how life begins, most

Americans can get on the board with the idea of, all right, I might draw the line here. You might draw the line there.

But the most important thing is the person who should be drawing the line is the woman making the decision. The one who draws the line is

God. And Mayor Pete makes this statement about how the Bible says that life begins at first breath.

No, it doesn't. Where does it say that? Again, he's just making talking points, but he never actually makes any reference to scripture.

What the Bible does say over and over again is that a life inside the womb is just as much a life as one outside of the womb in Luke chapter one, where Mary goes and visits

Elizabeth. Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leapt in her womb.

That's John the Baptist. As much a child in the womb as outside of the womb.

We have this law in Exodus 21, 22, that when men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, if her children come out, but there is no harm, the man is supposed to be fined.

But if there is harm upon that child, it says in verse 23, you shall pay life for life.

If a man hits a pregnant woman and the child inside her dies, he's committed murder and you are to treat him as a murderer.

That's what the Bible says about how precious that life is inside the womb.

It is as much a life as a person who is outside of the womb.

Now, we've got one last clip here to play. This is from the Equality Town Hall that was held on CNN this past October.

This is Anderson Cooper of CNN asking Pete Buttigieg if God made him gay.

You sort of had an exchange with Vice President Mike Pence. You said, if you've got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me.

Your quarrel, sir, is with my creator. Do you believe God made you gay? Well, the decision was definitely made way above my pay grade.

And if you belong to the Christian tradition that I belong to, then you believe that God loves you.

And you look around and you notice that you're gay. And those two things exist at the same time. And I would also say that nothing has made me feel more connected, more able to be true, however imperfectly, to my faith, than the experience of putting myself second that came with committing my life to my husband,

Chaston. And I really feel that that marriage moved me closer to God.

And I wish the VP could understand that. That is an astounding blasphemy for him to say that this abomination that he is practicing brings him closer to God.

It brings him closer to the judgment of God. It brings this nation closer to the judgment of God.

This is not humility that he is demonstrating. It is pride, LGBTQ pride, to be exact.

And voting for somebody like Pete Buttigieg, any of these Democrats, is a vote for more abortion, more murder of the unborn, more taking away the rights of Christians because of the

LGBTQ movement and oppression that is going on. It would be a vote for socialism.

It would be a vote for anti -constitutionalism. Just like Clint said, all of these things that the

Democrats represent, it doesn't matter that Mayor Pete's tone is softer than President Trump's.

Mayor Pete is full of himself. And there are going to be many people who will be led astray just because he's got a different tone than Donald Trump.

Clint has been experiencing this in his own family. So back to his question, how can I show my family, it's fine if you don't like Trump, but don't make the serious, godless error of voting for a

Democrat. Well, my advice to you would be 1 Peter 3 .15. In your heart, set apart

Christ as holy. So as you are talking about this with your family, how are they in their hearts, setting apart

Christ as holy when it comes to the voting decision that they're making? And then that passage goes on to say, always be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you.

But do this with gentleness and respect. So talk about why you believe the way that you do, why voting for a

Democrat would be very, very deadly. But as you talk about these things, then do this with gentleness and respect.

And remember, the focus first and foremost is Christ. How is Christ being honored in this?

How is he being honored in this discussion? How is he being honored by your vote?

May we do any and all things because in our hearts, we have set apart Christ as holy.

Ultimately, what you want for your family is not that they would vote a certain way. That's not your ultimate objective.

Your ultimate objective should be to glorify Christ. And you're helping your mother and your brother whom you mentioned in this letter and other family members there,

I'm sure as well. But you're helping them to look to Christ and honor him and glorify him and advance his kingdom.

Sometimes it feels like with our votes, especially when we get around to voting season, it feels like we're just kind of like trying to slow down the rapid decline of our nation into depravity.

And that may be what we're doing with the vote. We're just trying to slow things down from sliding right into hell so we can share the gospel with more people and they will turn from their sin and be saved before the judgment of God comes upon this nation.

That may be what we're actually doing with our vote. And that's why it tends to feel that way. But our main pursuit as Christians is to advance the kingdom of God through the preaching of the gospel.

So let's do that. Even in our political conversations, there are ways that we can bring this discussion back to the true politics here, which is the kingdom of God.

That's the politics that reigns over all other politics. Politic, that word means it has it.

It's those things that pertain to government, how to govern, the science of governing. And as it comes to Christ, he is governor over all.

He is king of kings and Lord of lords. He rules over all the nations. Philippians 2, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. So may we point all people to Christ and glorify

God in our discussions and even with our vote. Thank you for your question,

Clint. If anybody else has questions you would like to submit to the broadcast, send them to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

And as I mentioned, God willing, Becky will be back on with me next week. Let's conclude with prayer.

Our heavenly father, we thank you for the elected officials that have been positioned over us and the respective countries that we live in.

How crazy things would be if there was not government, this God ordained system that has been established, that keeps order and keeps things from going just into absolute disarray with wicked and evil men having their own way and oppressing and setting up their own systems.

But we have government that has been established by God and these persons in these respective positions that have been appointed by God.

And may we respect those persons and the positions that they hold, knowing that these persons have been appointed by you to carry out judgment on the wrongdoer and to exalt those things that are good.

And so we pray for godly men and women to be positioned around these elected officials so that they might guide them in truth and in righteousness.

And that we will be able to utilize those rights that we have of these respective governments on earth to advance the gospel of your kingdom in heaven, preparing hearts and souls for the judgment that is to come against all nations.

For it is only those who believe in Jesus Christ, when that judgment comes, who will be saved.

And may we in all things glorify God with our words, our deeds, everything we say and do.

We pray all of this in Jesus name. Amen. This is

When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web, and we thank you for selecting ours.

But this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family. Find a good gospel -teaching,

Christ -centered church to worship with this weekend, and join us again Monday for more Bible study, When We Understand the