Politics

Buttigieg’s Brother-In-Law Tells Him To ‘Repent’ For Using Bible To Justify His Abortion Views

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David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg’s evangelical brother-in-law says the South Bend, Indiana mayor needs to “repent” for finding a false Biblical basis to justify his abortion views.

Pastor Ryan Glezman told the Washington Examiner Friday that he believes Buttigieg is deliberately distorting scripture in an attempt to appeal to evangelical voters. He was especially shocked by Buttigieg’s assertion that according to the Bible, life does not begin at conception but only when the infant first breathes.

SOUTH BEND, INDIANA – JUNE 29: Democratic presidential candidate and South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg participates in a Peace Walk hosted by Christ Temple Apostolic Church on June 29, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Buttigieg made the remarks Friday morning during a rambling interview with  “The Breakfast Club” that included commentary about his homosexuality and his appeal to black voters.

Buttigieg has repeatedly made comments about Republicans not living up to their purported Christian beliefs — even saying that conservative Christians are hypocrites for not supporting a $15 minimum wage.

But Glezman said his brother-in-law’s latest comments forced him to speak publicly. (RELATED: Pete Buttigieg Was Asked If Third-Trimester Abortions Should Be Legal. Here’s What He Said.)

“I feel a sense of responsibility and stewardship of my faith to stand up and say something, to say, ‘No, that’s not true,'” Glezman told the Examiner. “God places a very high value on all human life. Everyone is created fearfully and wonderfully in the image of God with intrinsic value. That doesn’t start at the first breath, it starts when we enter our mother’s womb.”

Glezman dismissed Buttigieg’s appeal to the Bible to defend late-term abortion as simply “outrageous,” noting, “If we’re going to say we’re for all people and we love all people, but we don’t value human life in the womb, that’s being a hypocrite. You’re hypocritical if you don’t stand up for all life. So that’s why I’m speaking out.”

Pro-life and pro-choice protesters rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court waiting for the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra case, which remains pending, in Washington, U.S., June 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toya Sarno Jordan

Pro-life and pro-choice protesters rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court waiting for the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates v. Becerra case, which remains pending, in Washington, U.S., June 25, 2018. REUTERS/Toya Sarno Jordan

The pastor believes there is a method to Buttigieg’s apparent theological madness: a desperate appeal to evangelical Christians who might be looking for any reason to vote for the mayor.

“I think he’s just going along with the agenda of the Democratic Party: that if you want to be a Democrat, you have to be pro-choice,” he said. (RELATED: Buttigieg: I’d Like To Know What Republicans Think Of ‘Unplanned Parenthood’)

Glezman told the Examiner that he is concerned that Buttigieg is making increasingly outlandish claims about the Bible and Christianity all for political expediency.

“What we see is a modern-day Pharisee,” said Glezman, citing those followers of Judaism whom Jesus Christ repeatedly condemned in the Gospels for imposing false religion on the Jewish people.

“Buttigieg is a person who’s making up their own rules and regulations  and, basically, if we don’t celebrate and endorse their interpretation of Scripture, our religion is fallible. And that’s just not true.”