There is nothing outside of the sovereign providence and care of God, including Mayor Pete, but when Buttigieg implicitly invokes the providence of God to justify his homosexuality he assumes some facts that are in dispute and he fails to distinguish between those things we may attribute to God directly and those things we may not.

Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, it is a day on which Christians set aside time to pray, to gather for corporate worship, and to think and speak about God. So, in that regard, the remarks this past Sunday by Pete Buttigieg, the Mayor of South Bend, IN and an announced candidate to become President of the United States. “Mayor Pete,” as he is known, professes Christian faith and has publicly identified himself as a homosexual with a husband. This past Sunday Buttigieg gave a speech at the LGBTQ Victory Fund Champagne Brunch where he attacked the current Vice President of the United States (and the former governor of Indiana, with whom he reportedly had an amicable working relationship) and announced that he did not choose to be gay.

Then he said something that has gotten some attention. He added:

If me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade…And that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand. That if you got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me—your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.

In the 1970s, comedian Flip Wilson used to say, “The devil made me do it.” Mayor Pete has turned that adage on its head. According to Buttigieg, the devil is not responsible for his sexual orientation, God is.

This claim warrants examination. This claim is already being affirmed by some in the media (I heard talk show hosts on KFI in Los Angeles doing so today) and will doubtless be affirmed by many others but is it true? Is God responsible for Mayor Pete’s sexual orientation? To address this question we need to ask another question: in what sense?

In What Sense?

The Scriptures teach and the historic Christian faith has always taught that God spoke creation into existence and he upholds and governs it by his providence. This is the ecumenical doctrine of creation and providence. It is not peculiar to Reformed theology. All Christians confess, “I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” This is the first article of the Apostles’ Creed. In the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) Reformed Christians confess that by this article we mean to say:

That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who of nothing made heaven and earth with all that in them is, who likewise upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence, is for the sake of Christ, His Son, my God and my Father, in whom I so trust, as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul; and further, that whatever evil He sends upon me in this vale of tears, He will turn to my good; for He is able to do it, being almighty God, and willing also, being a faithful Father.

The first thing it means is that God is my Father, for Jesus’ sake, and I can trust him to care for me. By it we also mean to say:

The almighty, everywhere present power of God, whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds heaven and earth with all creatures, and so governs them that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things come not by chance, but by His Fatherly hand.

There is nothing outside of the sovereign providence and care of God, including Mayor Pete but when Buttigieg implicitly invokes the providence of God to justify his homosexuality he assumes some facts that are in dispute and he fails to distinguish between those things we may attribute to God directly and those things we may not.

Buttigieg assumes that homosexuality is approved by God. As a Christian he must know better than to attribute sin or evil to God. To be sure, the problem of evil is a great one—perhaps the most difficult problem in the Christian faith—but Christians are agreed that we may not say that God is the author of sin.

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