Mayor Buttigieg and Senator Harris: The Good Cop and Bad Cop of the Coming Persecution

By John Zmirak Published on April 24, 2019

Mayor Pete “Angel of Light” Buttigieg took time away from the ministrations of his loving same-sex spouse to explain the Bible to us again. It’s nice to have such a leader volunteer his time and talent. 

Buttigieg informed American Christians that he can unite the church. That’s a tall order, you’d think, for a simple layman. But it doesn’t daunt Buttigieg. In a stage-managed piece of free publicity for Buttigieg, CNN staged a “listening session” with awestruck Buttigieg fans. As one-time news magazine Newsweek gushed:

Buttigieg, who is the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana, talked about his faith at the end of the hour-long question and answer session.

“You’ve talked openly about your strong Christian faith, as well as your identity as a happily-married gay man. I myself am a bi-sexual Christian woman,” Harvard freshman Camille Caldera told Buttigieg. “How will you challenge the right’s moral-monopoly on Christianity to unite conservative, moderate and liberal Christians alike behind you and your platform?”

Buttigieg responded to say that he felt the core of his faith is “regard for one another” and that in the tradition of his faith — the Democrat is a practicing Episcopalian — is “in the way we support one another, and in particular support the least among us.”

Could you find a more tepid definition of Christianity? It’s in fact insulting to other world religions. As C.S. Lewis noted in The Abolition of Man, compassion for the weak is not uniquely Christian. But Buttigieg is not speaking of private compassion or acts of charity. His thoughts all center on the coercive force of the State. So his program is not even Christian.

It’s not true that a political figure cannot unite American Christians. In fact, that would be simple. Just ramp up the level of legal harassment faced by faithful Christians. Then you will see it. The real Christians will stand with those who refuse to obey Leviathan. That will bring them together. The fake Christians will tut-tut and call the true believers “extremists.” Then go back to their comfortable lives.

A Post-Christian Heresy

It’s literally the program of Victimism. Philosopher Rene Girard smoked out that post-Christian heresy. Jason Jones and I wrote about it here at The Stream a year ago. The Victimist doesn’t use his own time or treasure to help the weak. (Think of persecuted Christians or unborn children.) Instead he

identifies himself with the forces of justice. He will right the old wrongs. He’ll avenge those whose ancestors suffered in the past. What’s more, he will punish those who represent the old, onetime oppressors. That is, their innocent descendants, or those who simply share their race or sex.

This is how U.S. elites can justify targeting all whites and especially white males. It’s how they feel good about themselves when they cackle at displaced blue collar workers — and seek to replace them with foreigners. It’s how post-Christians inside Christian churches rationalize their attacks on the orthodox. They reach back centuries and equate true believers with witch-burners and inquisitors. And they fancy themselves liberators.

Now you can see how Buttigieg justifies his pre-emptive attacks on Vice President Mike Pence. (Pence never said an unkind word about Buttigieg. Nor showed the slightest interest in his personal life.)

The Lavender Inquisition

The Victimist gains all the power and prestige that scapegoating persecutors once harnessed by picking on Jews or “heretics.” But he does so by pretending that innocent people (like Pence, or Christian wedding vendors) are themselves the face of persecution and cruelty. That gives him license to slander them, denounce them as “Pharisees,” and generally to … persecute them, cruelly. A handy end-run around the Golden Rule isn’t it? Nice work if you can get it.

Now it’s not true that a political figure cannot unite American Christians. In fact, that would be simple. Just ramp up the level of legal harassment faced by faithful Christians. Then you will see it. The real Christians will stand with those who refuse to obey Leviathan. That will bring them together. The fake Christians will tut-tut and call the true believers “extremists.” Then go back to their comfortable lives. If there’s any politician likely to accomplish such a winnowing, it’s the authoritarian leftist Kamala Harris.

Now, the latest piece of news about Senator Harris is that she wants felons to vote. She’d even consider letting terrorist murderers like the Boston bombers vote from the depths of American prisons. Perhaps pro-life journalist David Daleiden should take comfort in that. As California Attorney General, Harris tried to imprison Daleiden for daring to investigate Planned Parenthood. Who just happened, you know, to be huge Harris campaign donors.  

The Fellowship of the Gulag

Harris is doing her best to unite American Christians in the fellowship of the gulag. But a judge slowed her down a bit this week. The Thomas More Society defending Daleiden reports that his California trial

has now been delayed indefinitely. … The case … is being prosecuted by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, successor to current Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, both of whom have been closely allied with, and supported by, Planned Parenthood.

Daleiden’s lawyer hopes the California Supreme Court will weigh in on a crucial issue. Namely,

whether a prosecutor may exercise his or her powers to enforce the criminal laws on a selective, politically discriminatory basis.

Becerra and Harris have each proclaimed, repeatedly and outspokenly, that they “stand with Planned Parenthood.” Both received considerable campaign support from the abortion industry. Becerra’s election victory party was sponsored and hosted by Planned Parenthood.

Daleiden’s defense attorney explained why we might see the collapse of Harris’s old case. He noted that the court “had entered an unprecedented order allowing private counsel for the complaining witnesses to participate in this criminal trial.” But “criminal prosecution is reserved for public officials, namely, state prosecutors whose duty is to represent all of ‘the people.’ Not private parties or their partisan interests.” Furthermore:

The abortion industry representatives have also been allowed to proceed anonymously. The court was set to prohibit the video evidence from being shown in public, after its viewing in open court. Any photographs, broadcast or publication of the proceedings was barred. This curtailed Daleiden’s and Merritt’s rights to a public trial and to confront and cross-examine their accusers. Worse, exonerating evidence favorable to the defense has been withheld and barred from use in the criminal case.

Good Cop/Bad Cop

Put together Buttigieg’s one-sided feud with Pence, and Harris’s legal persecution of Daleiden. Remember that each of the aggressors is in the same line of business. That is, Democrat presidential politics. Each serves the same agenda — snipping out the spine of the American church. Demanding that Christians surrender counter-cultural beliefs that block the onward march of the Sexual Revolution.

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Then you can start to see how Buttigieg and Harris are working together. Harris is the “bad cop” who roughs us up and crudely reminds us of the fact of prison rape. Buttigieg is the “good cop” who rushes into “rescue” us. Then he offers us what seems like a sweet deal. If only we’ll turn on our fellow defendants. All we must do is offer some false testimony. It’s really very simple. The words are easy to say: “Crucify him. Give us Barabbas.”

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