Pete Buttigieg at First Baptist Church in James Island, S.C. (Screen Capture)

Pete Buttigieg, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke at a Sunday service at the First Baptist Church in James Island, South Carolina, yesterday and cited a verse from Proverbs 3 in his address to the congregation.

“My point in standing before you is not to claim that I understand more than I do, but rather to promise—as the Scripture says--not to lean on my own understanding too much, but to do a lot of listening along the way.”

Verses 5 and 6 from Proverbs 3 say:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart/ and lean not on your own understanding/ in all your ways submit to him/and he will make your paths straight”

Proverbs 3 closes—in a part that Buttigieg did not quote—with a statement that “the Lord detests the perverse.” It says:

“For the Lord detests the perverse/but takes the upright into his confidence/ The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked/but he blesses the home of the righteous/He mocks proud mockers/but shows favour to the humble and oppressed/The wise inherit honour/but fools get only shame.”

In his speech at the church, Buttigieg went on to say: “Not to say that I get it, but to promise to always surround myself with people who will let me know when I don't.

“Because we have a president right now, who when he took office said, remember, he said: I alone can fix it,” said Buttigieg. “And if there’s one thing that I know, one thing that you are humbled in the knowledge of when you are put in charge of anything is that nobody this side of Paradise can fix anything alone.

“And we’ve got a lot that needs fixing right now,” he said.

After his address, Buttigieg sent out a tweet with a picture of him in the pulpit. In the tweet, he said: “Running for president doesn’t allow much time for reflection, but this morning at First Baptist Church of James Island in South Carolina came the chance to reflect on the humbling awareness of what is at stake for so many in this election.”

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