To a nunnery, go, and quickly too. Farewell, Joe Biden.
Our Democratic Vice President is a self-proclaimed Catholic. Yet unlike former President John F. Kennedy, also a Catholic Democrat, Joseph R. Biden consistently exploits his political power to control his church. JFK respected the separation of church and state. JRB embraces blurred lines.
For the sake of the common good, Biden should model Kennedy. He should also take a cue from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and conceal himself in a cloister instead of prying into our personal lives.
Ironically, Biden has been spending a great deal of time with nuns—without getting himself to a nunnery. Instead of praying for peace in a quiet chapel, Biden has partaken in the boisterous 10-state “Nuns on the Bus” tour. Certainly, our Vice President is free to associate with whomever he pleases. The concern is the strong dissonance between the Nuns’ message and the First and 14th Amendments.
Reason or natural law tells us that all humans have an innate right to free speech, and thus the free exercise of religion. The First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution acknowledge these natural rights. JFK respected these rights. Obama and Biden do not.
In the spring of 1960, a college student asked then-Senator Kennedy if he would ever sign a bill that would place birth control under the purview of the federal government. The New York Times reported: "Senator Kennedy responded by asking the student if he meant Congress might make birth control compulsory. The audience joined in the laughter. The Senator went on to say that he did not think Congress would ever interfere with present birth control practices or make birth control compulsory."
Unlike Biden, JFK didn't seek to liberalize the Church. He violated certain tenets of Catholicism in his personal life, but he always respected the U.S. Constitution, which is silent on sex and marriage. As a Catholic, JFK also respected the authority of the Holy See. JFK neither took orders from the Pope—nor used his political prestige to order the Pope around.
Recommended
Biden is doing the opposite: plying his political stature to change the Catholic Church and thereby restrict the constitutional rights of Catholics who wish to fully practice their faith.
“The Nuns fought like the devil for health care,” Biden excitedly told the crowd at the “Nuns on the Bus” tour stop in Iowa on September 17. (I assume the gaffe-prone Biden did not intend to make ObamaCare sound demonic.) One of the main reasons why Biden joined the bus tour is because the White House tasked him with the mission of convincing American Catholics to embrace ObamaCare. The latest Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that the majority of Americans oppose ObamaCare. Indeed, when Biden switched from sanctioning the sisters to singing the praises of the President’s healthcare plan, The New York Times reports: “When he did so, the crowd’s energy waned.”
“Nuns on the Bus” is the brainchild of a group called “Network,” which has been chastised by the Vatican for its rogue tactics. Network nuns do not revere humans’ natural right to private property or understand that capitalism glorifies God. The Old Testament frowns upon theft, but the sisters apparently believe that pilfering from the one group to give to another (which they call “social justice”) creates more jobs than it sends overseas.
The Nuns also insist that women should be allowed to be Catholic priests; that gays should be able to receive the Catholic sacrament of marriage; and that American Catholics should be head over heals for ObamaCare. Which makes you wonder why these women decided to become Catholic nuns in the first place.
Network nuns should have formed their own alternative religion instead of trying to dictate how others express their religious beliefs. Their mission is irrational, anti-freedom and anti-equality. Gays and women have nothing to gain from a group that attacks free speech. Yet Biden cheers them on.
JFK declared in 1960: "I have no desire to impose my [Catholic] views on others." 54 years later, we have a Catholic vice president who is touring the country for the express purpose of imposing his warped interpretation of Catholicism and natural law on all Americans.
Get thee to a nunnery, Joe Biden. Spend time in reflection and prayer—and leave the rest of us in peace. We have no need for a national pastor. Go.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member