Buttigieg: I Welcome Debate with Trump on Who Has a More Traditional Attitude on Marriage
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Saturday on MSNBC, South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a likely 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said he would welcome a debate with President Donald Trump over which of them holds a more traditional view of marriage.
Openly gay candidate Buttigieg said, “My emotions about this president is not what’s going to matter most. I’m not interested in expressing my anger about him as much as I am in defeating and ending this presidency. If we want to have a debate or fight over any number of things from the difference between how I approach service and the way he did. The fact that I was packing my bags for Afghanistan, as he was working on the seventh season of Celebrity Apprentice. We could have that fight. Or if somebody who wants to raise the question of which one of us has the more traditional attitude on marriage we can have that fight.”
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A Mississippi-based ministry is speaking up for Rev. Franklin Graham after a conservative columnist accused him of ignoring the moral failings of President Donald Trump and thus damaging the Church.
Wildmon
That description mirrors the views of Dr. Robert Jeffress, another prominent evangelical leader who surprised many by supporting Trump during the GOP primary, when Evangelicals were splitting their support among numerous rival candidates rather than the trash-talking real estate mogul.
In the op-ed, French called out Graham for opposing Bill Clinton's immorality but giving a supposed pass to Donald Trump.
AFA defends Graham over praise for Trump
A Mississippi-based ministry is speaking up for Rev. Franklin Graham after a conservative columnist accused him of ignoring the moral failings of President Donald Trump and thus damaging the Church.
An op-ed by National Review writer David French accused Graham of a “collapsing” public witness for seemingly ignoring Trump’s past as an adulterous, thrice-married man while praising the president’s policies that are pleasing to Evangelicals.
What word best describes the decision evangelical voters faced in 2016?
“So is this the ‘new normal’ for Evangelicals?” French writes. “Is politics entirely transactional now?”
The column frustrated Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, who himself has criticized Trump’s past but points out --- again --- that American voters had only two names on the ballot in 2016 and thus had to make a choice.
Wildmon
“In the case of Donald Trump,” Wildmon says, “he wanted to be our friend when Hillary Clinton wanted to be our enemy.”
Graham, in fact, stated publicly last year that he has never claimed Trump sets a good example of the Christian faith.
"I never said he was the best example of the Christian faith," Graham said in an interview. "He defends the faith. And I appreciate that very much.”
Trump, in fact, was handed the White House thanks largely to evangelical voters who chose him over Hillary Clinton 80-20 percent, a number slightly higher than evangelical support for George W. Bush.
French, meanwhile, emerged as a “Never Trumper” before Election Day in 2016 and claimed he didn’t vote for either candidate.
Wildmon tells OneNewsNow that French’s column is unfair and a “low blow” to Graham, because Graham remains faithful to the gospel message and the Great Commission just as his father did.
“When you vote for a president,” Wildmon says, “you're not voting for an elder of your church.”
That description mirrors the views of Dr. Robert Jeffress, another prominent evangelical leader who surprised many by supporting Trump during the GOP primary, when Evangelicals were splitting their support among numerous rival candidates rather than the trash-talking real estate mogul.
It didn't help when Trump stated he has never asked God for forgiveness, when repentance and redemption are basic tenets of the Christian faith.
But the reason for backing Trump, Jeffress has matter-of-factly explained, is that he viewed Trump as the only candidate who could keep Clinton out of the White House, thus protecting Evangelicals from her progressive agenda that runs counter to their world view.
In the op-ed, French called out Graham for opposing Bill Clinton's immorality but giving a supposed pass to Donald Trump.
“If President Trump did the same thing that Bill Clinton did while in office,” responds Wildmon, “then I think he should resign as well, and I think the Christian community would condemn that behavior and ask for his resignation.”
AFA is asking the public to sign an online petition to thank Graham for his ministry and publicly support him despite French’s accusations of hypocrisy.
Editor's Note: American Family Association is the parent organization of the American Family News Network, which operates OneNewsNow.
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