The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: mystery-ak on April 05, 2021, 06:10:33 pm
-
Joe Biden’s Liberal American Catholicism
The president’s first faith, like that of most American Catholics, is in liberalism.
April 5, 2021|
12:01 am
Ben Hachten
There have been many articles written about President Joe Biden’s Catholic faith. And understandably so—Mr. Biden has made his Catholic faith a central talking point of his campaign and presidency. A recent and insightful Time article takes an in-depth look at President Biden’s “personal faith†and the ongoing debate between “liberal†and “conservative†(the use of quotes will soon become apparent) Catholics about the authenticity of this faith.
This debate almost always takes on the same form. Blue-leaning Catholics laud President Biden’s more progressive display of Catholicism, which they see as the future of the Church in a world that is growing increasingly secular. To them, Biden is evidence of the need to change Church doctrine. For red-leaning Catholics, “Biden embodies a more liberal version of the faith that poses a threat to the future of the church in America.†They see his outward displays of faith and his policy positions on abortion and gender ideology, which directly contradict longstanding Church teaching, as scandalous at best, downright heretical at worst. To this camp, it is not the doctrine that needs changing but Joe Biden himself.
I have nothing to add to the ongoing debate about whether Joe Biden is a good Catholic, a bad Catholic, or not Catholic at all. Enough ink has been spilled on this point. What I do think is useful, though, is looking at the major point that both sides of the Joe Biden faith debate miss: Joe Biden’s liberal American Catholicism. Without question, Joe Biden is a liberal American Catholic, and it is exactly because of his liberal American Catholicism that his outward actions are sometimes so hilariously inconsistent with Catholic orthodoxy, while at other times they are not so much. Most of those who end up on either side of the Joe Biden rock-throwing experience are liberal American Catholics, too.
more
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/joe-bidens-liberal-american-catholicism/