Former President of the 39th President of the United States said on Sunday (July 8) that Jesus would approve of gay marriage and certain abortions. In his interview with HuffPost Live, the ex-President added that in his career as a politician he never ran across “any really serious conflicts between my political obligations and my religious faith.”
Asked about gay marriage, he replied that it is “no problem with me. I think everybody should have a right to get married regardless of their sex. Regarding whether he thinks Jesus would approve of gay marriage, Carter replied “I don’t have any verse in Scripture,” but added, “I believe that Jesus would approve of gay marriage.”
“I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else,” he said.
Carter did add a caveat about religious liberty and the right to “opt out” of same-sex marriage.
“The only thing I would draw a line on. I wouldn’t be in favor of the government being able to force a local church congregation to perform gay marriages if they didn’t want to. But those two partners should be able to go to a local courthouse or to a different church and get married.”
He admitted that abortion has always been a struggle for him, because he does not believe Jesus would be in favor of most abortions.
“I have had a problem with abortion. This has been a long-time problem of mine. I have a hard time believing that Jesus would approve abortions unless it was because of rape or incest or if the mother’s life was in danger. So I’ve had that struggle.”
Contentious issues like abortion and gay rights have been placed at the forefront of November’s midterm election battle for control of the U.S. Congress. A spokesman for Planned Parenthood said recently that it sees a public debate about abortion as a winner for Democrats.
Democrat bigwigs like Obama abandon candidates in lead up to crucial American midterm elections