President Joe Biden is under fire for a faith-related matter yet again, this time because he made the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion speech delivered by Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried during a Biden campaign event in Tampa. Exploding about the matter online, people argued that the president’s use of the symbol was sacrilegious.
As background, the Catholic Church, of which President Joe Biden claims to be a part, strictly condemns abortion. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, for example, provides, “Given the scientific fact that a human life begins at conception, the only moral norm needed to understand the Church’s opposition to abortion is the principle that each and every human life has inherent dignity, and thus must be treated with the respect due to a human person.”
That USCCB teaching continued, “This is the foundation for the Church’s social doctrine, including its teachings on war, the use of capital punishment, euthanasia, health care, poverty and immigration. Conversely, to claim that some live human beings do not deserve respect or should not be treated as “persons” (based on changeable factors such as age, condition, location, or lack of mental or physical abilities) is to deny the very idea of inherent human rights. Such a claim undermines respect for the lives of many vulnerable people before and after birth.”
Biden, for his part, claims to be a Catholic, though many, such as Roman Catholic Cardinal Wilton Gregory, have cast doubts on the president’s faith. Gregory, commenting on it, said, “I would say that he’s very sincere about his faith. But like a number of Catholics, he picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.” He continued, “There is a phrase that we have used in the past, a ‘cafeteria Catholic,’ you choose that which is attractive, and dismiss that which is challenging.”
In any case, Fried attacked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ stance on abortion and when it should be disallowed, saying, as Biden stood beside her, “And then we come back here to the state of Florida where [Gov.] Ron DeSantis felt like he needed to run for president and so 15 weeks wasn’t good enough. We had to go to six weeks.”
It was as Fried said that “15 weeks wasn’t good enough” that President Joe Biden made the sign of the cross, an ancient gesture from the early church that is “a reference to Christ’s redemptive death on the cross.” The president’s timing with the gesture made it appear to many that he was using the ancient gesture to mock Gov. DeSantis’ stance on abortion.
Watch Biden make the gesture here:
Predictably, Biden’s use of the gesture led to an immense amount of online backlash. Bishop Strickland of Texas, for example, wrote, “Absolutely vile, pray for the soul of our president, he is a feeble old man, he needs to prepare to meet his maker…” A commenter added, “Excommunication seems to be the reasonable next step.”
Marc Thiessen, a Catholic former White House speechwriter and columnist for The Washington Post wrote, the Christain Post reports, “This is truly sacrilegious.” He continued, “Our ‘Catholic’ president making the sign of the cross at an abortion rally.”
Similarly, CatholicVote President Brian Burch said, the New York Post reports, “Biden’s decision to make the sign of the cross in support of abortion extremism is a despicable charade that attempts to co-opt a sacred practice in support of his new abortion religion.” Burch continued, “His gesture openly mocks the Christian belief in the sanctity of life.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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