SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg suspended his campaign on Sunday, making the announcement in his hometown of South Bend, Indiana, where he once served as governor, and being introduced by his “husband,” Chasten Glezman, whom he hugged and kissed before taking the podium.

Buttigieg was the first homosexual presidential candidate in American history, and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine last May alongside Glezman, with the large-lettered headline “First Family.”

“His youth is appealing to many voters, but it also means he’s green. The idea of electing the first gay president thrills liberals, but it also rallies opponents,” wrote reporter Charlotte Alter.

That same month, Buttigieg asserted during a fundraising event that those who take issue with his homosexuality rather have a problem with his Maker.

“You may be religious, and you may not. But if you are, and you are also queer, and you have come through the other side of a period of wishing that you weren’t, then you know … that this idea that there’s something wrong with you is a message that puts you at war not only with yourself but with your Maker,” he claimed.

“And speaking only for myself, I can tell you that if me being gay was a choice, it was a choice that was made far, far above my pay grade,” Buttigieg, pointing to Heaven. “And that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand: that if you have a problem with who I am, then your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir, is with my Creator.”

However, as previously reported, the Bible teaches that all men are in the same predicament: All are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various inherent inclinations that are contrary to the law of God, and are “by nature the children of wrath” and the enemies of God (Ephesians 2:3; Romans 5:10), being utterly incapable of changing themselves.

Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, and must have their very nature changed by the Spirit of God, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven.

Scripture also teaches in James 1:13-15, “Let no man say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted of God.’ For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”

Buttigieg again referenced his homosexuality during his speech Sunday evening.

“We sent a message to every kid out there wondering if whatever marks them out as different means they are destined to be less than,” he told those gathered. “To see someone who once felt that exact same way can become a leading presidential candidate with his husband at his side.”

Referencing Buttigieg’s homosexuality, President Trump was asked by Steve Hilton, host of Fox’s “The Next Revolution”, this past May, “Putting aside policy disagreements, don’t you think that it’s just great to see the guy there on the stage with his husband, and it’s normal?”

“I think it’s absolutely fine. I do,” Trump replied. “I think it’s absolutely fine.”

“Isn’t it a sign of great progress in the country?” Hilton inquired, continuing to prompt the president to concur that the development is positive.

“Yeah, I think it’s great,” Trump answered unflinchingly. “I think that’s something that perhaps some people will have a problem with, [but] I have no problem with it whatsoever. I think it’s good.”

The president also told Fox’s Geraldo Rivera last month that while some may oppose a candidate because of their homosexuality, “I wouldn’t be among that group.” He opined that many Americans would be open to electing a homosexual president.

“Yes, I think that it doesn’t seem to be hurting Pete Boot-edge-edge … It doesn’t seem to be hurting him very much,” Trump remarked. “There would certainly be a group — you know this better than I do — that there would be a group that probably wouldn’t [vote for a homosexual]. But you or I would not be in that group.”

In addition to rejection from some conservatives and evangelicals over his homosexuality, Buttigieg also drew concern over his views on abortion, declaring himself to be “pro-choice” and declining to even condemn late-term abortion due to his belief that it “shouldn’t be up to a government official to draw the line.”

In September, in speaking on the issue of abortion, Buttigieg told “The Breakfast Show” that some interpret the Bible to mean that life begins with breath as opposed to conception.

“[Republicans] hold everybody in line with this one piece of doctrine about abortion, which is obviously a tough issue for a lot of people to think through morally. Then again, there’s a lot of parts of the Bible that talk about how life begins with breath, and so even that is something that we can interpret differently,” Buttigieg said at one point during the radio show.

“No matter what you think about the kind of cosmic question of how life begins, most Americans can get on board with the idea of, ‘Alright, I might draw the line here; you draw the line there.’ But the most important thing is the person who should be drawing the line: … the woman making the decision,” he continued. “Since when should men be dictating what women ought to be able to do?”

In November, Buttigieg, who identifies as Episcopalian, told Rolling Stone that he doesn’t believe he’s “cherry-picking” the Bible by defending homosexuality and abortion, but that he just finds some aspects of Scripture to be “inconsistent internally” and “you’ve got to decide what sense to make of it.”

“Jesus speaks so often in hyperbole and parable, in mysterious code, that in my experience, there’s simply no way that a literal understanding of Scripture can fit into the Bible that I find in my hands,” he said.

However, as previously reported, Rhyan Glezman, an evangelical pastor who is also Buttigieg’s “brother-in-law” and who suffered division in his family when he became a Christian, has repeatedly spoken out against the Democratic candidate’s views on the Bible and morality.

“My brother-in-law needs to repent from this radical false teaching,” Glezman, the senior pastor of Clio Community Church of God in Michigan, posted to social media following Buttigieg’s “Breakfast Club” remarks. “God does not endorse this nonsense. Only false religion does.”

“Pete, I would really like to know one verse that supports the killing of God’s greatest creation. It’s outlandish to say that the Bible (God’s word) supports the killing of babies at any stage of life,” he also Tweeted on Sept. 22.

He also compared liberals to the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, as they came up with their own human rules and traditions, which superseded God’s commands and made the Word of God “of no effect” (Mark 7:13).

“In their eyes, if we don’t celebrate or endorse their marriage views or their abortion views, then all of a sudden we become the homophobic bigots, which is just not true. You can love people and have a disagreement,” he told the Washington Examiner.

“And that’s what I’m seeing with this false religion,” Glezman stated. “That’s why I compared them to the Pharisees of today, with their new laws that they’re trying to instill. And they’re saying, ‘If you don’t believe the way I do, then you’re a hateful, bigoted person; you’re homophobic, you’re anti-woman.’ It becomes this hostile division.”

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