Why I can't support Mayor Pete

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I have no problem with it. I also agree that religion and government shouldn't mix,

but the reality is that many if not most politicians (Obama, for example) do ascribe to some religious faith and that it will influence their personal values. Buttigieg's position is that the right wing doesn't own religion and that they are hypocrites when they talk about it.

“I don’t think religion belongs to one political party,” the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said when asked how his Episcopalian faith informs his values.

“When I go to church, the scripture I heard has to do with protecting the poor, and spending time with the prisoner, healing the sick, and caring for the stranger, which, to me, is another word for immigrant," he continued. "It has a very clear set of moral and policy implications, none of which are things I would associate with the right wing.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/446682-buttigieg-weighs-in-on-religion-in-politics-reveals-his-pop-culture-hot

The hypocrisy of the evangelical conservatives is really the main reason he talks about religion.

As Buttigieg himself pointed out, “Our party doesn’t talk about [religion] as much.” The reason for this, he said, is that Democrats are committed to the separation of Church and state, and that the party wants to stand for all people, regardless of their religion. But it may also be a reflection of the growing irreligiosity of the Democratic base: The party’s most politically engaged voters tend not to be affiliated with any particular faith. Buttigieg’s knack for speaking in the language of God makes him exceptional within his generation, but it may also be a strength in reaching the swing voters and voters of color whom Democrats so badly need. Of all the candidates onstage, he spoke most directly to the anger that many Americans seem to feel at the way religion has been co-opted by the Trump administration, at odds with the faith they deeply hold.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/06/pete-buttigieg-religion/592897/

Religion in politics is a problem when the power of the state is used to enforce the beliefs of a particular religious group, which is what the evangelicals are trying to do. The fact that a candidate for office speaks of his religion to point out the hypocrisy of those who would use their religion to do harm doesn't bother me at all.