A number of candidates vying for the Democrat presidential nomination are attempting to appeal to religious voters, despite their seemingly contradictory embrace of extreme positions.
Democrats are attempting to draw a moral distinction between themselves and President Trump, whom they believe is immoral and unethical.
“Part of it has grown out of the despondency after the 2016 election, when Christians who don’t normally get political decided they needed to be more open about it their faith in the context of politics,” Guy Cecil, chairman of the Democrats’ presidential PAC Priorities USA said, according to Politico.
“And it also grew out from Trump, who is entirely paradoxical to Christianity, and that opens up some voters to new candidates,” Cecil continued.
Although Trump’s Democrat critics view him as a tragedy in the faith realm, Trump has struck a notably different tone than his predecessor, particularly when it comes to issues important to faith-based voters.
The president kept good on the promise to appoint morally upstanding judges and has taken swift pro-life actions, even speaking at D.C.’s annual March for Life. He also signed an executive order aimed to “protect religious liberty.”
However, the faith appeal is taking a different form among Democrats.
The most notable efforts come from South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D). He– along with a number of other candidates– recently visited the Hawkeye State and drew a huge applause after dropping a line about faith during a speech.
“Faith isn’t the property of one political party,” he said, according to Politico.
In April, Buttigieg attempted to use his status as a Christian gay man to his advantage, arguing that his homosexual relationship is “one of the most conservative things” about his life, adding that it brings him “closer to God.”
Traditional marriage is a hallmark of the Christian faith, as is the belief in the sanctity of life– something Buttigieg was seemingly unable to stand up for.
MSNBC’s Willie Geist asked Buttigieg about the muddied waters during an interview on Morning Joe in April.
“Mayor Pete your candidacy has now peaked the interests of religious conservatives,” Geist said. “They like you. But they get to the point where they look down your resumé, and they say life is precious.”
“They talk about the sanctity of life, and they can’t get past your support of late-term abortion. What do you say to them?” Geist asked.
Rather than answering the question directly, Buttigieg criticized the “misleading” nature of the question.
“The premise of the question is very misleading,” Buttigieg said. “We’re talking about situations where the life and health of the mother is at risk and/or the child can’t survive.”
“Look, you only get to that stage, that late moment, if you had been planning to bring a pregnancy to term,” he added.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) is also making drastic efforts to appeal to religious voters. Instead of articulating long-held beliefs of the Christian faith, she is attempting to use religion as a tool jto ustify her far-left positions and ideals.
In May, she tried to use Christianity to defend her unrelenting support of abortion.
“If you are a person of the Christian faith, one of the tenants of our faith is free will,” she said during a press conference.
“One of the tenants of our democracy is that we have a separation of church and state, and under no circumstances are we supposed to be imposing our faith on other people,” she continued. “And I think this is an example of that effort.”
Gillibrand was recently spotted mixing drinks at a gay bar in Iowa and designing a “drag tater” with an LGBT advocacy group. How that will appeal to religious voters remains unclear.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden has also invoked his Catholic faith over the years. A recently resurfaced clip from a 2012 debate shows Biden saying, “My religion defines who I am. I’ve been a practicing Catholic my whole life.”
“Regard to abortion, I accept my church’s position on abortion as a de fide doctrine,” he continued. “Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life.”
The Democrat field’s religious embrace comes in wake of the progressives left’s general embrace of child drag sensations, late-term abortion, gender fluidity, and the removal of God in the public sphere.