Pete Buttigieg said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he and his husband Chasten want to be fathers one day – but 'maybe' he'll have to finish his historic run for president first.

And he told a 'Today' show audience that he plans to keep emphasizing his religious faith in the face of hecklers who berate him for being a gay Christian.

The 37-year-old Democrat takes the almighty seriously, and claimed that while God isn't likely a partisan, he would never be a Republican in the mold of Donald Trump.

He said it's 'important that we stop seeing religion used as a kind of cudgel, as if God belonged to a political party.'

'And if he did, I can't imagine it would be the one that sent the current president into the White House.'

South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg says God would never be a Republican, but Americans should stop making religion a partisan political issue

Buttigieg and his husband Chasten want to be parents, he revealed in an interview broadcast Tuesday

Buttigieg says no one can beat President Donald Trump at his own game, so he'll take a softer approach to campaigning; Trump is pictured on Monday listening to head coach Jeff Monken during the presentation of the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy to the US Military Academy (Army) football team in the Rose Garden at the White House

Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, rules the roost in a college town that owes its place on the map to the University of Notre Dame. Donald trump campaigned there in May 2016, seeing an opening among conservative Catholics.

But Buttigieg and his Rhodes Scholar, Army veteran soft-spoken Democratic Party brand are well-loved there. And he is comfortable enough in his own skin to talk openly about breaking a Catholic taboo against gay parenthood.

'I don't know exactly when and how we're going to pull that off, but Chasten is made to be a dad,' he said of his husband, 29.

'And I'm looking forward to it too, as soon as we can figure it out.'

Figuring it out will also mean navigating the politics of his in-laws, a familiar family dynamic with an unusual twist in his case.

Chasten's brother, a pastor, says he can't 'support the gay lifestyle.'

The Buttiiegs visited with former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday, sitting in on the Sunday school class he has taught for decades.

'Mayor Pete,' as he's known in Indiana, praised the man he married last June.

The sit-down with 'Today' revealed that the pair are willing to side-step a Catholic taboo on gay parenthood in a town whose centerpiece is the University of Notre Dame

The Buttigiegs visited with former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday, sitting in on the Sunday school class he has taught for decades.

'He's just an example of somebody who will make a great dad one day. He's a great husband and he'll make a great first spouse for this country too,' he said.

'He cares about other people. He's a teacher. He cares about education, cares about kids. And he's somebody who I think is really alive to the ways that being in public office can allow you to help other people.'

But will he have to get through the presidential campaign cycle before thinking about adding a child to his family?

'Yeah, maybe,' he allowed.

Buttigieg said he's 'as surprised as anybody' that his unconventional candidacy has catapulted him into the top ranks of Democratic White House hopefuls, trailing only former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in some polls.

'I think our party is certainly ready to lift up leaders from a new generation,' he said, with a hat tip to the elder statesmen who are roughly twice his age.

'The exciting thing is I think this race will create a fair playing field, where people who've been in the public sphere for longer than I've been alive and people like me get to compete on the basis of our ideas.'

Buttigieg, 37, says he's as surprised as anyone that his dark-horse campaign for the White House has taken off so fast

DailyMail.com interviewed Rev. Al Sharpton on Sunday; he said Buttigieg was more impressive than he had expected

Democrats won't pick their 2020 nominee for more than a year, but Buttigieg is already thinking about how to beat Trump and what strategies will lead to dead-ends.

'If you're playing his game, you're losing,' he said Tuesday, reflecting on Trump's high-decibel, take-no-prisoners style.

'Nobody's going to play his game better than he does, and so we've got to do something completely different. The good news is Americans as a rule tend to go for the opposite of whatever they just had in a presidential election.'

Asked if he's worried about the president branding him 'low energy,' a nickname that stuck to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2015, he gave a boyish shrug.

'Eh, that's fine,' said Buttigieg.