The God factor was even more pronounced during the recent Democratic primary season, when presidential hopefuls seemingly scrambled to see who could be more overtly religious. Ilhan Omar has insisted that her Muslim faith drives her belief in religious freedom. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another Catholic, explained in January that Jesus’ call to “love thy neighbor” undergirds her support for progressive polices and Rep. Democratic lawmakers from across the liberal spectrum appear to be in the midst of a spiritual revival of sorts: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Catholic, referenced prayer repeatedly this year, especially during impeachment proceedings Rep. In fact, the Biden era is rapidly shaping up to be a political second coming for religious liberals, building on the recent successes of a resurgent Religious Left that spent the last four years passionately challenging Trump and his conservative Christian supporters.Īnd all the while, Biden has dutifully attended Mass at least once a week within sight of his press pool, who typically record him slipping into church late and leaving early (the Catholic equivalent of “celebrities-they’re just like us!”).īut it’s not just Biden who is leaning into religion these days.
It’d be easy to dismiss this embrace of the spiritual as a sort of formality, a throwback declamation of traditional God-talk so common in American presidential rhetoric that scholars have their own fancy name for it: “civil religion.” But as Inauguration Day draws ever closer, the soon-to-be second Catholic president is giving the distinct impression that he’s up to more than just metaphysical nostalgia: He’s preaching an unapologetic-and unapologetically liberal-form of public faith rooted in traditions that have thrived throughout American history but have rarely seen their messages proclaimed so fervently from presidential podiums. May God bless America and may God protect our troops.” To drive his point home, he dedicated his final paragraph to a story about when his grandparents used to tell him not just to “keep the faith,” but to “spread the faith.” He concluded: “God love you all. “He will raise you up on eagles' wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, and make you to shine like the sun and hold you in the palm of his hand,” Biden said. He then invoked a Christian hymn written by a priest-“On Eagles Wings,” a favorite among Catholics like himself-insisting it speaks to a faith that has sustained both himself and the country at large.
The newly minted president-elect only made it about midway through his address before dropping in a Bible reference, reading from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. 7, it was more than a declaration of victory in the 2020 election. When Joe Biden spoke before a small fleet of parked cars in Wilmington, Delaware, on Nov.
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