Unity, God and country were the themes of President Joe Biden’s Wednesday inauguration. For those who treasure the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious liberty and fear that much of the political left seeks to drive religion from the public square, the day’s events likely came as a welcome relief.
Michael Rosenwald reports in the Washington Post:
Joe Biden’s first stop Wednesday morning before becoming president was a Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, one of the most prominent Catholic churches in Washington.
Biden, just the second Catholic to become president of the United States, attends Mass every Sunday and refers to his faith as “all about hope and purpose and strength.”
At the inauguration ceremony, Mr. Biden crossed himself when Father Leo J. O’Donovan III began to deliver the invocation.
Shortly afterward, President Biden explicitly called for toleration of religious belief in his inaugural address:
I understand that many Americans view the future with some fear and trepidation…
But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you do, or worship the way you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do.
We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.
We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.
If we show a little tolerance and humility.
As luck would have it, President Biden has just been blessed with a wonderful opportunity to show his commitment to religious tolerance. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty reports on its Tuesday courtroom victory:
