Mayor Pete Buttigieg, an Episcopalian who has discussed his faith extensively during the Democratic primary, affirmed the Christian belief that faith in Jesus is required for salvation and questioned whether conservatism is consistent with Christianity.
MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough asked Buttigieg if he accepts orthodox Christian teaching during an interview Thursday. Scarborough specifically asked about the Christian beliefs that include that Jesus Christ is the son of God, who died for man’s sins, was buried, then rose, and that “your salvation depends on your faith in Jesus Christ.”
“Yes, and what we do, what I do, the steps that I take —” said Buttigieg, before being cut off.
In asking the question, Scarborough stated an abridged version of the ancient Christian creeds. The Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed are considered foundational expositions of Christian teaching, one of which is recited every week at Catholic liturgies around the world. Episcopalians recite the Nicene Creed during their Sunday liturgies.
The Nicene Creed states that Jesus is “the Only Begotten Son of God” who came down from heaven “for us men and for our salvation,” and “he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day.”
Buttigieg has made his faith a key part of his campaign, and was the first candidate to hire a national faith outreach director. The mayor’s use of religious language and acceptance of credal Christianity echoes that of President Obama, who spoke of Jesus as “our Saviour, who suffered and died [and] was resurrected, both fully God and also a man,” during the 2013 Easter Prayer Breakfast.
The orthodox Christian view that Jesus is essential to salvation has proven controversial among Democrats in other contexts. For example, in 2017, Bernie Sanders accused Russell Vought, President Trump’s nominee to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, of bigotry over Vought’s claim in a blog post that Muslims “stand condemned” for rejecting Jesus. Conservative Christians argued that Vought’s remarks were simply a restatement of the belief that salvation requires belief in Jesus.
Buttigieg did not explain his views on salvation for people of other faiths, even as he agreed with the statement that “salvation depends on your faith in Christ.”
Buttigieg took aim at Republicans later in the interview, accusing them of failing to uphold scriptural calls to serve the poor.
“For the party and the movement known for beating other people on the head with their faith or their interpretation of faith, it makes no sense to — we’ll literally vote to take away food away from the hungry, to essentially be practicing the very thing, not just the Christian scriptural tradition, but so many others tell us we’re not supposed to do in terms of harming other people,” said Buttigieg.
“I do think there’s going to be a reckoning over that because there are a lot of people I think in the pews sitting and hearing political conservatism all around them, wondering whether that really matches what we’re being told to do, not to mention how we’re supposed to do it,” he said.
Buttigieg has gone after conservative Christians for hypocrisy on matters of faith in the past, recently targeting Christian politicians for defending or looking the other way on the issue of family separations at the border.
He has also said the Republican Party likes “to cloak itself in their language of religion.”
[Also read: Buttigieg hits Pence for ‘hypocrisy’]
