Liberals will go to great lengths to defend “devout Catholic” President Biden from criticism for his pro-abortion beliefs. On MSNBC’s PoliticsNation, host Al Sharpton brought on Dr. Obery Hendricks, a Professor of Religion at Columbia University, to go beyond the typical defense of the president the media usually give, and actually claim that Biden was on “firm moral ground” because supporting abortion was consistent with Christianity.
Sharpton set up the discussion referencing the Texas abortion law condemned by the president: “Many Catholic leaders are cheering the new anti-abortion law. They face criticism, though, from a fellow Catholic, President Biden. The second president in U.S. History to be of the same faith,” he noted before turning to his guest, the author of Christians Against Christianity, How Right Wing Evangelicals are Destroying our Nation and our Faith.
Worrying about the “religious bind that President Biden may feel that he is in,” Sharpton asked his equally left-wing guest to explain how Biden can “navigate” this tension between his pro-choice politics and his Catholic faith.
Even Professor Hendricks admitted that Biden had contradicted his Catholic teaching. But not the Bible, apparently. He actually put forward the ridiculous argument that because the word “abortion” isn’t mentioned in Scripture, it must be okay to God. In fact, the president was on “firm ground:”
First, Catholic moral teaching teaches that abortion is a sin, and therefore is murder. But that's their doctrinal and ideological position. Biblically, it doesn't say anything about abortion is a sin or murder. Anyone who teaches differently is not telling the truth.
And so, even though he is contradicting the teaching of his faith, biblically, which is supposed to be the most important thing, he is on firm ground.
Not only was abortion approved by God, but it was also allowed in the Constitution, according to the radical left professor, who equated not killing babies to enslaving women. Again, he hailed Biden for being on “strong moral ground” by supporting abortion:
But not only that, he has taken an oath of defending the Constitution, and the Constitution, particularly with the 13th Amendment says no one has the right to enslave anyone else's body, to lord over them, to transgress their sovereignty over their own body. So when we get down to it, Biden is on strong moral ground.
Afterward, Sharpton cited some polls from the Pew Research Center showing that Democrat voters were less religious than Republicans and Republicans had more Evangelical Christian voters. He asked his guest to explain the differences between the two parties’ religious makeup. This time, Hendricks attacked pro-life Evangelicals and Catholics as not real Christians because they didn’t necessarily support government-funded liberal “social justice” ideology and policies: [click expand]
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, the question is, what Christianity are these people talking about? Because right-wing Evangelicals, they seem to -- like Paul says in his letters in the Bible, they seem to cleave to another Gospel. You know, the right wing is not concerned about looking out for the least of these. They are not concerned with taking care of poor people. They are not concerned about fighting for justice. They are not evening mentioning justice.
So many people, particularly young people are becoming disenchanted with it, with Christianity. They don't want anything to do with the religion that is presented to them as so mean-spirited. And the right wing has allowed its voices in the public sphere right now. So the hatred that they spew, the divisiveness, the xenophobia that they spew and the support that they support a walking melange of the seven deadly sins in Trump turns these young people off. I think that's the reason why we are seeing people turn away. Now, people are not turning away from the Gospel itself, they’re not turning away from love and justice, they’re turning away from the hatred of the right-wing.
While Hendricks argued Biden was following the Bible, he bashed anyone who supported the former president as supporting hate. “But those who are leaving him, Catholics and Jews, are leaving him because they're seeing through him. They're seeing he is anti-Catholic. The smart folks are the ones who left. The ones who aren't as smart are the ones still following his lies and foolishness and divisiveness and hatefulness,” he added.
PoliticsNation is sponsored by Jeep, contact them at the Conservatives Fight Back Page here.
Read the transcript below:
PoliticsNation
MSNBC
9/13/2021
AL SHARPTON: Texas's restrictive abortion law has brought one of America's longest-running tensions in the spotlight. Religion and politics. Many Catholic leaders are cheering the new anti-abortion law. They face criticism, though, from a fellow Catholic, President Biden. The second president in U.S. History to be of the same faith. But as the current president faces tension with members of his own religion, former president Donald Trump, a man who has always been cagey about his own religious beliefs, is complaining that not enough Catholics and Jews voted for him in 2020. Joining me now to help unpack this all is Dr. Hendricks professor at Columbia university, visiting lecturer at Yale university, and author of the book “Christians against Christianity, How Right Wing Evangelicals are Destroying our Nation and our Faith.”
Dr. Hendricks, I want to start with this religious bind that President Biden may feel that he is in. On one hand, he has spoken out about giving women the right to choose. On the other hand, he identifies as a man of faith. And now is feeling heat from some fellow Catholics who say that being pro-choice is anti-Catholic. Talk about the tension you see there, and how the president can navigate it.
PROF. OBERY HENDRICKS: Yeah. Thanks, Reverend Al, and good to be back with you again. There are some things -- a couple things we have to keep in mind. First, Catholic moral teaching teaches that abortion is a sin, and therefore is murder. But that's their doctrinal and ideology. Biblically the Bible doesn't say anything about abortion is a sin or murder. Anyone who teaches differently isn't telling the truth. Even though he is contradicting the teaching of his faith-- Biblically, which is supposed to be the most important thing, he is on firm ground.
But on top of that he has taken an oath of defending the Constitution and the Constitution particularly with the 13th Amendment says no one has the right to enslave anyone else's body, to lord over them, to transgress their sovereignty over their own body. So when we get down to it, Biden is on strong moral ground.
And more -- even more than that, he's doing the things that are most important for a Christian. He is looking out for poor people, for the least of these. He is looking out for workers and for the children of immigrants. So I think President Biden is on firm ground here. And he should not really be attacking --
SHARPTON: You know -- it's funny because I remember when I was a kid and we had the first Catholic president, John Kennedy, the question was, are you going to listen to your religion and the Pope, or are you going to uphold the Constitution? Now the reverse is being asked of President Biden. Let me go into this. Republicans in the Trump years seemed to coalesce around their base of Evangelical Christian voters while the Democratic party is much more religiously diverse including groups of many faiths and many Americans who aren't religious at all according to a study conducted by the Pew Research people, 64% of registered voters considered themselves to be Christian, a number that has steadily declined since 2008. In 2019, 30% of those who identified as Democrat or left leaning said they were not affiliated with any religion, whereas only 15% of Republicans or right-leaning voters said the same thing. How do you think these different faith makeups affect the politics of our two political parties?
HENDRICKS: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, the question is, what Christianity are these people talking about? Because right-wing Evangelicals, they seem to -- like Paul says in his letters in the Bible, they seem to cleave to another Gospel. You know, the right wing is not concerned about looking out for the least of these. They are not concerned with taking care of poor people. They are not concerned about fighting for justice. They are not evening mentioning justice. So many people, particularly young people are becoming disenchanted with it, with Christianity. They don't want anything to do with the religion that is presented to them as so mean-spirited. And the right wing has allowed its voices in the public sphere right now. So the hatred that they spew the divisiveness, the xenophobia that they spew and the support that they support a walking melange of the seven deadly sins in Trump turns these young people off. I think that's the reason why we are seeing people turn away. Now, people are not turning away from the Gospel itself, they’re not turning away from love and justice, they’re turning away from the hatred of the right-wing.
