Speaking on the tarmac at the Cleveland airport, President Donald Trump warned that, if elected, Democratic presumptive-nominee Joe Biden would “hurt God”—an arresting thing to say, and worthy of some consideration. While it is possible that Mr. Biden will in some sense be able to hurt God—as we all do with our sinfulness—he is more likely to hurt the Catholic Church, the church Christ founded, which is His Mystical Body on earth. And Joe Biden’s selection of Senator Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential nominee makes that even more of a possibility.
In response to the president, Joe Biden issued a “statement on faith,” saying, “My faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life… my faith has been a guiding light for me and a constant reminder of the fundamental dignity and humanity that God has bestowed upon all of us… My faith teaches me to care for the least among us…”
Mr. Biden’s spiritual life is between him, God, and his confessor. Nevertheless, it’s getting harder for him to pass himself off as a man who puts the teachings of the Catholic faith before politics, as his statement intimates. His choice of Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate is further evidence of how disconnected Mr. Biden is when it comes to touting his faith in an effort to win the Catholic vote. Catholics simply can’t be so naïve as to be duped by this Cheshire Cat of a politician.
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Senator Kamala Harris is certainly no charlatan. She more or less openly wants to hurt the Church, holding a clear anti-Catholic sentiment, if not animus. As a Californian progressive, she is dead set against any institution that denies a woman’s right to choose whether or not to kill her unborn child, or that discriminates against women by barring them from the priesthood, or that teaches that homosexuals cannot be married. Kamala Harris is a Baptist, but she is also a religious bigot. In 2018, she made herself quite clear when she vigorously opposed and even attacked Brian Buescher, President Trump’s judicial nominee to a Nebraska District Court. This is taken from Harris’s written questions:
Since 1993, you have been a member of the Knights of Columbus, an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men. In 2016, Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus, described abortion as “a legal regime that has resulted in more than 40 million deaths.” Mr. Anderson went on to say that “abortion is the killing of the innocent on a massive scale.” Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?
Senator Harris then went on to ask: “Have you ever, in any way, assisted with or contributed to advocacy against women’s reproductive rights?”
Harris’s questioning was not about the Knights of Columbus. It was about the religious institution of which the Knights are members and to which they are dedicated to serve through works of charity. The sanctity of life is a principle of the Catholic faith and it is a principle that Harris rejects in her embrace of abortion. And in rejecting the sanctity of life, she rejects the Church. “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when you joined the organization?” she asked Judge Buescher. Again, it’s not the Knights she was talking about. It’s the Catholic Church. And this perversion, which the Church rejects, Harris embraces. And in so doing, she rejects the Church. It would seem that to her the Church is a backward, despotic, illiberal institution that is against the democratic foundations of America.
In fact, Mrs. Harris represents the anti-Catholic bent that has caused Joe Biden to relinquish his once “moderate” views, especially regarding abortion. When Roe v. Wade gripped the nation in 1973, Mr. Biden protested that the law went too far. “I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body,” Biden said in a 1974 interview. But, being a bad politician and a good Democrat, he soon fell in lockstep with his party’s iron-fisted position that sanctified abortion rights in the leftist canon. Just last year, he finally relinquished his support for the Hyde Amendment (the legislative provision preventing the application of federal funds for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother). Kamala Harris is a member of that political mob rule that brought Biden to heel with their ominous coaxing.
Interestingly, the name Kamala means “lotus,” evoking the strange and seemingly innocent lotus-eaters from Homer’s Odyssey, who seduce people into a trancelike apathy under the narcotic influence of the lotus plant. The same might be said of the liberal ideology, which seduces the victim into surrendering their rational powers, falling in line with the crowd, and abandoning the sacred fulfillment of humanity. Lost in the woolgathering of the lotus-eaters, Odysseus and his crew are threatened in their ultimate purpose of returning home to their wives and families and homeland. Joe Biden has certainly fallen under their navel-contemplating spell and suspended his journey as a Catholic. With Kamala Harris at his side, Mr. Biden has raised his hand to be the king of the lotus-eaters, giving President Trump’s nickname “Sleepy Joe” new meaning.
In the end, faith in Jesus Christ is, and must be, more important than securing positions of power on the American stage. Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris may believe that their faith is a private matter that has no bearing on their public office, but this is nothing more than the infamous “JFK fallacy.” Politics is about a person’s grasp on truth, justice, ethics, and all those matters of human interaction that are determined by personal wisdom, virtue, and faith. Faith must matter in the political sphere. But, somehow, for these people, it doesn’t matter. Black lives matter, though, as Harris reminded us in her acceptance speech, thereby maintaining racism as a central intoxicant in this election. But religious discrimination and profiling can get a pass on the Senate floor. Such psychedelic delusions rewriting the history books can only hurt the country and the Catholic Church. The disorienting fumes are thick.
Another lotus, anyone?
Photo credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images News