Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
Why Excommunicate Biden Now?

Why Excommunicate Biden Now?

Last updated on: November 7, 2024 at 3:46 pm by Rebecca Hamilton

Why Excommunicate Biden Now? 2024-11-07T15:46:21-07:00 Rebecca Hamilton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo Source: Flickr Creative Commons, by Andy/Andrew Fogg https://www.flickr.com/photos/ndrwfgg/

President Joe Biden has been out-front and publicly pro choice for decades. In all that time, the American Catholic bishops have never excommunicated him.

Now that he is president, they are suddenly making noises about how Joe Biden is causing “scandal” and, for that reason, should be denied the Eucharist. They are huffing and puffing and winding themselves up for a really big political blow in which, at long last, they fire their spiritual cannon at the president.

In normal circumstances, and if it is handled in a pastoral way that reflects genuine concern for the salvation of the soul of the person in question, I have zero objections to withholding the Eucharist from someone who publicly participates in abortion.

President Joe Biden is pro choice. He has said so without equivocation. The problem is that he’s been saying so for decades of public life, including decades in the United States Senate, and the bishops did nothing.

It is only now that he is president that they are making all this noise. I don’t think the bishops have any concern for Joe Biden’s soul. I don’t think they even see him as a human being. I think their motivations are entirely political, and that the politics which motivate them have very little to do with the lives of unborn babies.

It would be an outrageous abuse on the part of the bishops if they were using the Eucharist as a weapon to try to force a head of state to change public policies. But that is in fact the most positive spin I can put on their behavior in this matter.

If I thought they were trying to use the Eucharist to force Joe Biden to switch his position on abortion, I still would not support them in what they were doing even though I dearly wish he would do exactly that, for the simple reason that it would be sacrilege. The only way I would support them is if I thought they had real concern for Joe Biden as a human being and were acting out of that. But they aren’t even claiming that as their motivation.

I would understand, although I would still regard it as sacrilege, if I thought they were trying to use the Eucharist as a weapon to save the lives of unborn babies. But I don’t believe that is what they are doing.

The bishops aren’t stupid enough to think that the fate of legal abortion is in Joe Biden’s hands. They’re plenty smart enough to know that we have six supposedly pro life justices on the United States Supreme Court. After all, they’ve spent a lot of their moral capital coercing Catholics to back the right wing’s choice of attempted rapists, racists and corrupt corporate shills for the Court to get this majority.

They sat around with their fingers up their clerical noses while the people they backed for the Supreme Court have gutted the Voting Rights Act, declared that corporations (as opposed to the unborn) are people, and gave billionaires the right to buy our government by spending limitlessly on campaigns.

The bishops have, despite their much ballyhooed “preferential option for the poor,” consistently backed the billionaire class in their decades-long activities which have almost destroyed this country. I think they are well aware that we should, unless we’ve been lied to, have the votes on the Court to overturn Roe.

The bishops are attempting to excuse their action against Biden by claiming that Biden’s pro choice stance is causing scandal. That makes me think of Lily Tomlin’s old joke: I try to be cynical, but I can’t keep up.

Do the bishops seriously believe that Joe Biden is the cause of scandal in the Church? Really?

Really???????

Somebody needs to buy the bishops a mirror. They have subjected us to a twenty year … let me repeat that … a twenty-year-long clergy sex abuse scandal of priests and, yes, bishops, raping, molesting and sexually abusing every young person of every description that they could get alone. They’ve raped little boys, little girls, teenagers, and their own seminarians. They’ve engaged in group rapes, gang rapes, repeated rapes and serial sexual predation that goes on as far back as we have records and that circles the globe.

From pole to pole, dateline to dateline, there doesn’t appear to be any Catholic diocese anywhere that is free of sexual predator priests and bishops who will cover for the predators and enable them to continue in their predation. There is also quite a number of prominent bishops and cardinals who have proven to sexual predators themselves.

That, my friends, is scandal.

Yet, these same bishops are now trying to sell the idea that mild-mannered, grandfatherly Joe Biden is the cause of scandal in our Church. If causing scandal is cause for excommunication, the bishops need to excommunicate themselves, not Joe Biden.

I know that there are Catholic bishops who are good and sincere people. I hope that they prevail in this upcoming meeting.

Catholic

Christian Leadership

Christianity

Previous Post

May 3, 2021

Caitlin Jenner Opposes Allowing Transgender Biological Males Compete in Women's Sport. I Agree with Her.

Next Post

May 12, 2021 The Church and Misogyny

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Commandments 2012 Election 2016 Election 2020 Election 2022 Election 2024 Election Abortion Addiction Adult Day Care Advent Africa AI Alcoholism Alex Pretti Renee Good America American Citizenship American Fascism Announcement Anti Semitism Anti-Semitism Apologetics Archbishop Coakley Argentina Armenian Genocide Ash Wednesday Ballot Box Salvation Biden Big Beautiful Bill Bishop Black Mass Blasphemy Boko Haram Book Review Brainwashing Breast Cancer Bribery Calling Evil Good calling good evil Cancer Canonize Caregiving Catholic Catholic Vote Cause for Sainthood Chaos child abuse Child Labor Child Rearing Child Sacrifice Christian Bashers Christian Leadership Christian Persecution Christian Solidarity Christianity Christmas clergy Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal Climate Coakley Common Good Communion Communism Computers concentration camps Conclave Confession Consecration to Our Lady Conversion Coptic Christians Coronavirus Corporatism Corruption COVID Crisis Pregnancy Centers Culture D Day Death Death Penalty Dementia Democracy Designer Baby Destruction of the Family Dictator Dignity of Work Divine Mercy Novena Divine Mercy Sunday Divorce Doubt Drug Addiction easter Ebola Economics Education Egg Harvesting El Salvador Elderly Epiphany Epstein Eternal Life eternal life Eucharist Eugenics Euthanizing Children Euthansia evangelization Excommunicate Biden Extraterrestrial Life Failed Clergy Faith False Gods Family Fascism Fatherhood Feast of the Assumption First Amendment Flood the Zone Following Christ forced conversion Forgiveness Fortnight4Freedom fourth amendment Fr James Altman Fr Stanley Rother free press Freedom Freedom of Conscience freedom of religion Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship vs Religious Freedom Geek Stuff Gender Theory Genocide God the Father Good Friday Gossip GQP Greenland Grief Gun Control Gun Violence Hate Blogs Health Health Care Heart Attack Heaven Hell Herod HHS Mandate History of the Crusades Holy Father Holy Father' Holy Father's Tweets Holy Matrimony Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Holy Thursday Holy Week Home Homeschooling homosexual Hospice Human Dignity Human Rights human trafficking Humor ICE Idolatry Immaculate Conception Immigration Incest Infertility Inspiration Iran War ISIS Islam Islamic Brotherhood Israel JD Vance Jesus Jobs Jordan Judas Judicial and Legislative Murder Judicial Murder July 4 Just War Justice Kavanaugh Ketanji Jackson Brown Laity Latin Mass Leadership Lent Less of Me Lying Lying for Trump Mad King MAGA Magnifica humanitas Mama Marriage Marriage Protection Amendment Martyr Media Bias Medicaid Men and Abortion Mercy Military Dictatorship Misogyny Motherhood Movie Review Murder Music National Catholic Register Nazi Clergy Neo Nazis New Category New Evangelism New Evangelization News Headlines Nigeria No Kings Novena for the Persecuted Church Nuns Obama Oklahoma Oscar Romero Our Lady Our National Embarrassment Pakistan Palm Sunday Papal Conclave Papal G8 Pedophile piano political priests Political Whore Clergy Politics Polygamy Pope Francis Pope Francis Visit United States Pope Leo XIV Pope's Prayer Intentions Pornography Post Christian West Poverty Prayer Prayers for the Persecuted Church Pro Life Prophecy Prostitution Purgatory Putin Quack Medicine Racism Rape Religious Freedom Renee Good Republican Republican priests Rerum Novarum Retirement Risen Lord Roe v Wade Rosary Sacrament Sacred Heart Sacrilege Saints Salvation Same Sex Marriage Sanctity of Human Life Satan Save Our Democracy scandal Scripture Shroud of Turin Sisters Slavery Social Justice Social Security Solidarity Cross St Michael the Archangel stations of the cross Stop Late Term Abortion Stroke Suicide Supreme Court Surrogacy Surveillance State Synod Syria Taliban Tariffs Taxes Technology Thanksgiving The Ascension The Cross The Locust Class The Political Heresy The Resurrection The Tomb The Transfiguration The Trinity The War on Girls Tornado Trauma Trump Trump Coup Trump Destroying America Trump's Coup Trump's War on the Rule of Law Trumpism Ukraine Uncategorized USAID USCCB Vatican Vatican Reform Violence Against Women Violence in America Vocation Voting Rights Wages Walk for Life War Weight Loss White House Why Aren't You a Feminist Too? Woke Women Leaders Women's Rights Worker's Rights World Hunger World War I World War III World Youth Day Worship Writing Year of Faith

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 August 2016 May 2016 April 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was the primary trade route in Biblical times?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Spice Route Royal Road Silk Road Mediterranean Route