Though my vote goes for the tough-guy stare down of Eric Swalwell after the Congressman criticized his handling of a police shooting, many are saying that Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s strongest moment of last week’s Democratic presidential “debate” was this rant on religion:

“The Republican Party likes to cloak itself in the language of religion. Now, our party doesn’t talk about that as much, largely for a very good reason, which was we are committed to the separation of church and state and we stand for people of any religion and people of no religion. But we should call out hypocrisy when we see it. And for a party that associates itself with Christianity to say that it is OK to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages, has lost all claim to ever use religious language again.”

Now, for an unthinking party loyalist looking for mindless strawman decimation to cheer, this was great stuff.  For a discerning mind, it’s a mess.

First, I admit I tend to agree with Buttigieg’s criticism of the Republican Party cloaking itself in the language of Christianity.  I think that’s dangerous for the universal appeal of the Christian faith and its also patently anti-Biblical to use the holy name of God to give authority to any manmade agenda that is not in His revealed Word. 

But if Buttigieg thinks that anyone believes the Democrat Party avoids talking about religion because they’re committed to the separation of church and state, he’s read one too many Marianne Williamson books.  Shoot, Mayor Pete himself told an audience last month that God wouldn’t be a Republican. 

Not to mention that it’s kind of embarrassing to boast of your loyalty to the separation of church and state in the very same rant where you advocate a public policy preference on border families based on your interpretation of what God would condone. 

I wouldn’t bother pointing that out, but Mayor Pete said himself, “We should call out hypocrisy when we see it.”  If that’s the case, anyone watching Buttigieg’s mini-sermon should have been shouting at their screen.  And not just because he managed to contradict himself in the same paragraph, though that’s quite a feat.   

Mr. Mayor, I struggle coming up with much that is more hypocritical than a presidential candidate who pretends to have the compassion of heaven for “children in cages” while simultaneously supporting the physical dismemberment of children in wombs.

Maybe clean up your own house of hypocrisy before worrying about others’?