Sam Stroud
Opinion Editor
It has actually been a quite bizarre phenomena that America, as religious as it still is, despite how secular it has become, has had leaders in recent history who are not incredibly religiously inclined.
Barack Obama was a not a regular church goer, and Donald Trump’s imitation of “faith” was almost a mockery of Christianity. A small example of this being the former President’s spiritual advisor, a part time mega-church pastor and a full-time quack who teaches the prosperity gospel, one of the best pranks played on Christianity.
Our new President presents a stark contrast to his predecessors, as Joe Biden enters the White House with a religious identity he has been careful to build over the decades of being in politics. In particular, Biden has conveyed himself to be a devout Catholic.
As a practicing Catholic, I take great exception to this claim that both the mainstream media and the President have been and continue to push.
On a purely technical level, Biden is Catholic. He was baptized into the Catholic Church and confirmed at the appropriate age. Sacramentally speaking, he is in fact Catholic.
However, on a spiritual and moral level, the President finds himself out of line on multiple church teachings, which are core beliefs of Catholics in communion with the faith.
The most obvious case of this being true is on abortion. The Catholic Church has made their position known for decades that abortion is a grave evil that should be eliminated. The United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has deemed the preeminent issue in America.
Now that the country has a Catholic president, Joe Biden, one would think that access to abortion would be curtailed. That is not the case. Biden has claimed that he is personally against abortion, but believes that it should be allowed to persist in society. This in itself is not an uncommon belief among American Catholics, but for President Biden, that is a distinction without a difference. Biden has already reinstated the Mexico City Policy, which allows for federal spending to be directed toward overseas abortion. His Vice President voted against a bill, which would make killing survivors of botched abortions illegal. His Health and Human Service secretary pick is almost militantly pro-choice. In almost every aspect of his week-old administration, Biden has already taken steps to promote abortion.
This is thoroughly against Catholic morality and teaching. While many Catholics can disagree with these teachings, Biden is actively working against them, which makes the distinction meaningless.
It is not just this area either. Catholic Theology of the Body maintains that there are only two genders, while in the White House Joe Biden has aligned himself with the identity of intersectionality and has promoted the idea that gender and sex are fluid concepts. The contact forms for the White House now have a list of pronouns for an individual to pick from.
It’s not much, but its another denial of Catholic teaching from a man who either doesn’t believe in them or doesn’t care to uphold them. Either way, Joe Biden is not in communion with the Catholic Church through these actions, as his administration actively supports policies which the Church stands against.
To call Joe Biden a “Devout Catholic,” as NPR has in the past, is not only a complete joke, it is slander to all the men and women who struggle to virtuously pursue Christ in the Catholic faith day in and day out. Biden is not a Catholic leader. He is a part of the church, but is not one with the Church. There is a reason he was denied communion over the summer in South Carolina, and it is that.
When the media, or Joe Biden, tout his faith, do not buy what he is selling. Joe Biden is no devout Catholic, the USCCB has already issued a statement warning that the President may advance moral evils in America. With the conduct the Biden Administration has already taken, it is not hard to believe that warning will come to fruition in the very near future.
