Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg on Thursday said that Republican leaders who advocate policies he says contradict basic Christian values will face a "reckoning" for their actions.
"I do think there's going to be a reckoning," the South Bend, Indiana, mayor told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Because there are a lot of people sitting in the pews hearing political conservatism all around them, wondering whether that really matches what we're being told to do."
Buttigieg, 37, who is Episcopalian, told host Joe Scarborough that for a party that claims to defend religious values, Republican policies appear to contradict major Christian teachings about caring for others.
"For the party and the movement known for beating other people on the head with their faith or their interpretation of their faith," Buttigieg said, "it makes no sense to literally vote to take food away from the hungry, to essentially be practicing the very thing that not just the Christian scriptural tradition but so many others tell us we're not supposed to do, in terms of harming other people."
Earlier in the conversation, Scarborough, asked Buttigieg about his relationship with Jesus.
Buttigieg responded, while he does believe in Jesus, he has not had a "road to Damascus" experience, referring to the New Testament experience of the apostle Paul while traveling to Damascus from Jerusalem.
Before the encounter, Paul was known as Saul, a Pharisee who persecuted followers of Jesus.
Buttigieg, who has questioned the faith of both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, said he came to his faith through an "appreciation of mystery" and through understanding that he had limits to what he can comprehend.
The mayor said he understood salvation by looking at the sacrificial love shown by Jesus, adding that he still struggled with "a lot of doubt and ambiguity."
"I don't know how well that aligns with how others view their encounter with Christian faith, but I know that in my life, it has certain implications," Buttigieg said.
"And I also know that it has certain moral implications that I think I can be responsible to, without saying that anybody else has to believe what I believe or has to believe anything."
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