'Devout Catholic' Joe Biden Holds Easter Egg Event at White House, Makes No Mention of God
The president’s deep, abiding faith is always a given for the mainstream media when the president is a Democrat. Never mind what they do: They’re men of religious conviction.
Perhaps Jimmy Carter could rightly lay claim to the mantle of devout Christian conviction, but this couldn’t wallpaper over the fact he was a micromanager who couldn’t ably manage much.
Bill Clinton, on the other hand, was quite a bit more … worldly than Mr. Carter — but, when it came to playing for the cameras, he could usually find a welcoming Christian congregation whenever a scandal hit, usually one that involved his extramarital assignations.
Barack Obama’s faith was a more complicated matter for the media after two campaign disasters involving religion, one where his politically connected ex-pastor turned out to be a rabid anti-American ranter and another in which Obama lamented Americans who “cling to guns or religion.”
Nevertheless, Obama’s blue-checkmarked enablers muddled through somehow, projecting him as a man undergirded by a low-key, unspoken piety. (The headline on a 2015 Washington Post piece on the matter: “The quiet impact of Obama’s Christian faith: Why the president’s convictions led him to believe he could unite a divided country — and why he failed.” To think someone wrote that with a straight face.)
But Joe Biden! That’s an easy sell. He’s a — say it along with me! — devout Catholic.
(Here at The Western Journal, we’ve noted from the beginning of the president’s campaign that there’s a divergence between what Biden professes to believe and what his politics are. That divergence is important — and we’re going to keep making sure voters of faith know about the Biden administration’s attack on core Christian values. You can help us bring America the truth by subscribing.)
Here’s some representative claptrap from NPR White House correspondent Asma Khalid in September of 2020:
“Biden, who carries a rosary in his pocket and attends Mass every Sunday, is known as a deeply devout person of faith, and his campaign sees electoral implications in that — in part because Biden has tried to frame this election as a clear moral contrast between Trump and himself.
“Some Democrats would go so far as to say that Biden is running perhaps the most overtly devout Democratic presidential campaign since Jimmy Carter in 1976.”
There’s plenty where that come from, mind you, but I’m not writing a thesis on the matter and you’re not here to read one. I just mention it because, on Easter Sunday, the ardent Catholic who ran what NPR called “perhaps the most overtly devout Democratic presidential campaign since Jimmy Carter in 1976” gave brief remarks at the Easter Egg Roll at the White House on Sunday … and didn’t mention God once.
The president began by saying his job was “to keep it from raining for another two minutes.” Interesting, because I can think of another Being who has more control over the weather, and the resurrection of His Son is why everyone was there on Sunday.
“Jill and I are excited to have you at the White House,” he continued.
“We weren’t able to host this Easter Egg Roll last year because of the pandemic. But this year — this year, we’re finally getting together again, and it’s so special. It means so much to see and hear the children and all the families show up to be here today.
“The joy, the laughter, and the occasional — at least with my young grandson, who’s only 2 — the occasional, ‘There’s the Easter Bunny,'” he continued. “A little startled sometimes.”
“But the joy and the laughter is something that has been a wonderful tradition here at the White House for a long, long time.”
After two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, Pres. Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome families to White House Easter Egg Roll.
“This year, we’re finally getting together again and it’s so special.” https://t.co/JO9Fanflwe pic.twitter.com/TlytUdVNwb
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 18, 2022
“To all of you, have fun today and welcome to the White House,” he said. “Welcome to your house. Welcome to the South Lawn. Thank you and happy, happy Easter”
And thus did the devout Catholic president’s comments conclude.
No one’s asking for a Bishop Fulton Sheen sermon here and the Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn is hardly the Stations of the Cross.
However, if this is a president so overtly faithful that it’s basically like if Jimmy Carter didn’t buy into the Reformation, a solitary acknowledgement of why everyone was there might have been expected.
After all, colored eggs don’t make their way across the White House lawn every week, so a short mention of why they were doing it this particular Monday — the resurrection of Jesus — shouldn’t have been out of place for a devout Catholic.
In the mainstream media’s coverage of Biden’s faith, so-called journalists seem to credulously confuse a diligent Catholic with a devout one. While the depth of any politician’s faith wouldn’t normally be an appropriate matter for examination, this president’s purported religiosity has been used by his defenders in politics and punditry to great effect.
During the 2020 election, Biden’s performative Catholicism was contrasted with Donald Trump’s personal shortcomings, despite the fact Biden’s policies were antithetical to core Christian values. Now that he’s president, Biden’s ostentatious faith is used as a cudgel by liberal media outlets against conservative Catholics who have chastised the president for failing to uphold church teaching or biblical values.
Now, as the saying goes, what’s in Biden’s heart is above our pay grade. And it’s worth acknowledging here that then-President Trump also omitted a reference to the Almighty in his Easter Egg Roll welcoming speeches — in 2017, 2018 and 2019. (The 2020 roll was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic, of course.)
However, when a politician’s faith becomes an advertisement for his personal brand — and that “when” is unquestionably now in Biden’s case — then yes, we can question how serious it is.
The Easter Egg Roll, secular though it may be, is still the highest-profile White House event on the holiest day in the Christian calendar. But a president whose religion is a matter of ostentatious public record — thanks to his mainstream media sycophants and his professional public relations handlers — couldn’t bring himself to mention God once.
Mainstream media outlets can puff Joe Biden’s faith up all they want, the same way they did for Carter, Clinton and Obama. Actions speak louder than words, however — and in this case, Biden couldn’t even find time for the words.
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