Religious faith and Biden’s presidential situation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/07/2024 (450 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Should Joe Biden use his faith to decide whether to stay or go? Do faith groups have anything to say about the increase in hate in Canada? And how long should a sermon be? Those are a few of the questions that crossed my mind recently.

When it comes to President Biden, there are surely a lot of factors he is weighing right now about whether to stay or go. Will his strong Roman Catholic faith be one of them? That’s the question asked by Michael Higgins, a Canadian Catholic scholar, author and commentator on current events.

In a recent posting on his Pontifex Minimus blog, Higgins noted the speculation surrounding the U.S. President’s future following the disastrous debate in June. Will he or won’t he step aside because of his age and declining physical and mental abilities?

If Biden needs a model and inspiration for leaving, Higgins suggested the example of Pope Benedict XVI — a leader who had to make a similar difficult decision.

Faced with his frailties, Benedict “discerned after much thought and prayer that the office of Supreme Pontiff would be better served with someone else in charge,” Higgins said.

With his physical and emotional energies depleted, Benedict, then 85, decided “he had become an obstacle,” Higgins went on to say, adding he also took into account the scandals that had dogged his time as Pope.

After resigning, his physical health actually improved and “he recovered his intellectual energy and wrote a steady stream of works,” Higgins said, noting that Benedict established a respectful and affectionate relationship with his successor, Pope Francis.

“Likewise, should Biden decide to resign, he could marshal his formidable experience, acquired wisdom, and the reservoirs of goodwill that he enjoys across the partisan spectrum, to support a successor pledged to renew the country’s political health,” Higgins said.

Of course, there are differences between the two situations. And Biden, as Higgins noted, has a personal history of upending the expectations of those who count him out. Resignation may strike Biden “as capitulation at best or as betrayal at worst,” he said.

But that’s where Christian humility plays its part, Higgins went on to say. “Benedict also felt the competing emotions of sorrow and disappointment, but knew that he served the office and not the office him, that leadership sometimes requires self-abnegation, and leaving the stage is not a failure but an ultimate act of service,” he said.

Will Biden see it that way? So far, there’s no hint that’s the route he will take. But the model is there, if he wants it.

Closer to home, does religion have anything to say about the increase in hate in Canada? It did in June when representatives of Canadian faith groups came together through the Canadian Interfaith Conversation to take a stand against it.

At an event in Ottawa, representatives from various faith groups noted that Canada is home to a vast diversity of people of different national origins, ethnicities, religions, and heritage.

While the faith groups hold different beliefs, “there is more that unites than divides us,” they said, adding that “rather than viewing religion as a source of conflict and contention, we know that faith traditions can be the basis for deeper conversations and increased cooperation, greater understanding, and shared activity for a common good.”

As part of the event, the group presented a document titled a Statement of Faith Communities Standing Against Hate Based on Religious Identity that was signed by 68 representatives from Canadian faith communities.

In the Statement, they called on the federal government to ensure faith communities have the proper resources for the security of their houses of worship, schools and other buildings and to introduce a comprehensive strategy to foster understanding about online hate based on religious identity.

They went on to commit themselves and their members to work for understanding, justice and for peace and to stand against hate of any kind in Canada. “No one should be subject to racism, violence, silencing, or retaliation because of religion, indigeneity, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender, or nationality,” they said.

Finally, what’s the ideal length for a sermon? That would vary by faith tradition, but for Catholics the maximum should be eight minutes. That was the advice offered by Pope Francis last month when he said priests should keep their homilies short to prevent members of the congregation from nodding off.

The homily “must be short: an image, a thought, a feeling,” the Pope said, adding that after eight minutes “attention is lost and people fall asleep.”

“Priests sometimes talk a lot and you don’t understand what they are talking about,” he added, suggesting he doesn’t blame people if they can’t stay awake.

And with that, I hope you were able to make it to the end of this column, and stayed awake, too!

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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