Buttigieg family member calls on him to ‘repent’ after abortion remarks

The brother-in-law of Democratic White House hopeful Pete Buttigieg said Friday that the South Bend, Ind., mayor should “repent” for invoking the Bible to justify late-term abortions and accused him of being “a false teacher.”

Rhyan Glezman, 34, an evangelical pastor who serves a small-town Michigan church, told the Washington Examiner in an interview that Buttigieg’s claim that the Bible talks about how life begins with breath is “outrageous” and is an example of the presidential candidate “weaponizing” Christian beliefs.

“If we’re going to say we’re for all people and we love all people, but we don’t value human life in the womb, that’s being a hypocrite,” Glezman, the brother of Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten, told the Examiner. “You’re hypocritical if you don’t stand up for all life. So that’s why I’m speaking out.”{mosads}

He added, “I feel a sense of responsibility and stewardship of my faith to stand up and say something, to say, ‘No, that’s not true.’ God places a very high value on all human life. Everyone is created fearfully and wonderfully in the image of God with intrinsic value. That doesn’t start at the first breath, it starts when we enter our mother’s womb.”

Glezman’s comments come after Buttigieg gave a wide-reaching interview on the morning radio show “The Breakfast Club” and accused Republicans of putting “a party label on God.” 

“Right now, [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,” Buttigieg said. “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.

He added, “No matter where you think about the kind of cosmic question of how life begins, most Americans can get on board with the idea of, all right, 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 is the woman making the decision.”

Glezman emphasized to the Examiner that “I love Pete, I love all people, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to change my beliefs.”

Glezman has spoken out before since Buttigieg launched his Democratic presidential bid, with the pastor telling The Washington Post earlier this year that he wants “the best” for his brother but that “I just don’t support the gay lifestyle,” despite the couple’s marriage.