Pete Buttigieg: The end of the culture war?

In the late 1970s the anti-gay movement took hold in America, with singer Anita Bryant's campaign against anti-discrimination statutes in Miami. Eventually it became a key component of the religious right's "culture war," with conservative Christians trying to paint gays and their sympathizers as "anti-God" freaks out to destroy America's moral fiber.

Thanks to Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind. who is running for president, those days are likely over.

Buttigieg's resume, if you ask me, is pretty darn impressive. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard, won a Rhodes scholarship and also served in the U.S. Navy as an intelligence officer. He's a former Roman Catholic who now is active in an Episcopal church.

Here's the thing, however: He's married ... to another man. Indeed, he says that he decided to "come out" as gay when Vice President Mike Pence, whom he does know, pushed a "religious freedom" bill when Pence was governor of Indiana.

Some have suggested that Buttigieg's candidacy, which often uses the language of religious faith, would mark a dawning of a "religious left" that would challenge the right on its own turf. I get that to a certain extent, given that President Donald Trump has consistently violated Scriptural norms with his constant lying and adultery but still retains unwavering support from key religious leaders.

But, down the road, I suspect it will actually take religion and its role in public discourse off the table if used as the "will to power." The trouble is that the religious right has always used such issues for the sake of raising funds against the latest outrage; thing is, Buttigieg's presence — more reasonable and stabilizing — is putting the lie to the idea that supporting a gay man as a political candidate automatically makes you a radical. Indeed, he himself doesn't stress his sexual orientation.

That last item is what might doom the culture war. Basically he seems to be saying, "I'm gay — so what?"

I have never truly believed in gay rights and don't support same-gender matrimony. I would say, however, that Buttigieg's performance in the public square should tell us evangelicals that we've been barking up the wrong tree for some time now.