The problem with Trump’s $60 Bible and Biden’s rosary – By Peter Laffin (Washington Examiner) / April 7, 2024
Former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden are salesmen — historically great ones, in fact. It’s not a knock. Waging a successful run for the White House, an achievement both men can boast, is a sales job of epic proportions. Successful presidential campaigns don’t just sell a laundry list of policy items, nor do they merely pander to individual identity groups, as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton learned the hard way in 2016. Instead, they craft and promote a cohesive overarching vision capable of bringing together disparate parts and forming a majority coalition.
So, it’s no surprise that both men have attempted to incorporate Christian symbols and themes in their campaign efforts despite having a tenuous relationship with the faith. After all, 68% of Americans still identify as Christian, according to the most recent Gallup survey. And as part of a sales tactic for their overarching vision, Biden and Trump strive to appear welcoming to Christians of various stripes.
Biden, for one, regularly brandishes his rosary in front of cameras and fondly recounts his Irish Catholic upbringing to justify his political philosophy. However, his self-presentation as a working-class “Catholic Democrat” in the mid-20th century mold is suffused with exaggeration and artifice. Biden may have been born in blue-collar Scranton, Pennsylvania, but he was raised in a Boston suburb and attended Archmere Academy, an elite Catholic prep school.
And while Biden describes himself as a devout Catholic, he has, for decades, flouted church teaching from the highest public perch, particularly on matters of life. In 2019, the formerly pro-life Democrat announced opposition to the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funding for abortion. Today, Biden supports codifying Roe v. Wade. In both cases, he could not possibly be more at odds with his church. Last week, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C., rightly described his most famous parishioner as a “cafeteria Catholic” who picks and chooses which church teachings fit his fancy.
