Here's Why Media Calls Biden A 'Devout Catholic' According To Theologians, Commentators
Mary Margaret Olohan
February 02, 2021
Here’s Why Media Calls Biden A ‘Devout Catholic’ According To Theologians, Commentators | The Daily Caller
Those who call President Joe Biden a "devout Catholic" may do so in attempts to suggest that "Catholicism is indistinguishable" from liberal ideology, a professor of theology told the
Daily Caller News Foundation.
"When a U.S. President cloaks himself in the outward signs of Catholic identity in order to expand access to abortion, or to use executive power to enforce a gender ideology that will inevitably threaten the freedom of the Church in this country,
what you have before you is a Trojan Horse," Dr. Chad Pecknold, an associate professor of Theology at the Catholic University of America, told the
DCNF.
An examination by the
DCNF found that major media outlets and reporters
frequently celebrate Biden's Catholicism as "devout"
without noting the significance of his divergence from Catholic teaching. Yet outlets and reporters also
criticized the Catholicism of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett for her adherence to certain Catholic principles.
"What we are seeing is not something new, but something very old, and very ugly," Dr. Patrick Deneen, a professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, told the
DCNF.
Redefining Catholicism To Match Liberal Beliefs
According to Deneen, Roman Catholic Americans have long found themselves at odds with non-Catholic, predominantly Protestant countrymen since Catholics look to the pope for ultimate direction — a figure who "commanded an allegiance that transcended national boundaries," Deneen said.
American Catholics eventually sought acceptance in two ways, Deneen said:
they either accepted that religious beliefs were private and had no bearing on public order, or they redefined their faith "in accordance with dominant liberal beliefs."
"While often at odds with Catholic teaching, such beliefs could be called 'Catholic' because it accorded with
the widely accepted liberal view that religious belief was entirely a matter of private conscience," Deneen said.
Biden and many other Catholic Democrats have "gravitated" to this idea, according to Deneen, who said it is n
ot surprising that the press celebrates this conformity since
most media conforms "entirely to the dominant assumptions of liberalism."
The New York Times sparked a backlash on Jan. 23 when it claimed that "President Biden is perhaps the most religiously observant commander in chief in half a century," and tweeted that
"a different, more liberal Christianity grounds his life and his policies."
The
Times story
also suggested that Biden's policies mirrored those of the Holy Father, writing that "Mr. Biden's policy priorities reflect those of Pope Francis, who has sought to turn the church's attention from sexual politics to issues like environmental protection, poverty and migration."
The publication did not mention Biden's apparent departure from Catholic teaching on abortion or note that Pope Francis has repeatedly condemned abortion.
'It's Not Catholic To Be Catholic'
The Times piece "perfectly encapsulates the liberal lie that 'it's not Christian to be Christian,'" Pecknold told the
DCNF, "or rather, in this case 'it's not Catholic to be Catholic, but it is Catholic to be a Woke Democrat.'"
"For the next four years, as they expand abortion and prosecute nuns, we'll be hearing this neat fiction that Democrats aren't anti-Catholic, but the beloved community itself," Pecknold said. .....