Christian Right Protestant complains that Joe Biden is a bad Catholic

Richard Land, former head of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), had to step down from that position after comments he made after Trayvon Martin's murder. Morgan Feddes reported for Christianity Today in Richard Land's Comments On Trayvon Martin Investigated By SBC 04/20/2012:

Land, the president of the ERLC, accused black political leaders, including President Obama, of trying to "gin up the black vote" on his radio show on March 31.

"Instead of letting the legal process take its independent course, race mongers are anointing themselves judge, jury, and executioners," Land said. "The rule of law is being assaulted by racial demagogues, and it's disgusting, and it should stop."

Land also stated a black man is "statistically more likely to do you harm than a white man."

But Land is still considered downright respectable among the Christian Right, with his commentaries regularly appearing in the conservative Christian Post, including this recent one, Ask Dr. Land: What does President Biden’s pro-abortion blitz say about America? 02/05/2021. No, I hadn't heard about this "pro-abortion blitz," either.)

Land is currently president of Southern Evangelical Seminary and Bible College in Charlotte, North Carolina. Which is basically a fundamentalist Protestant institution. Some not insignificant number of conservative American Protestants think Catholics aren't "true" Christians and are therefore going to Hell.

Land's column includes some thinly-concealed disdain for Catholics in politics. Just so his readership understands that Biden is a Catholic - excuse me, a Roman Catholic:, he writes:

President Biden is the second Roman Catholic to be elected president. However, as JFK so cleverly put it 61 years ago in his appearance before the Protestant ministers gathered in Houston to hear him address the then controversial subject of his Catholicism —controversial because a Catholic had never been elected to the presidency to that point in the nation’s history.

With a hint of irritation which can be both seen and heard on the video recording of the speech, JFK said, “for contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic party’s candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic.” JFK then proceeded to expand by stating, “I do not speak for my church on public matters — and the church does not speak for me.” [my emphasis]

He then flips his perspective to make one of those points that conservatives seem to think are very clever and criticize both JFK and Biden for not being good Catholics by his own conservative Protestant perspective: "That was true for JFK and by now as it is crystal clear for anyone with eyes to see, Joe Biden has completely broken with his church’s bedrock beliefs in the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death."

This because Biden does not support legislation banning abortion. Although as far as I know, Biden has never said he disagrees with the Church's position on abortion being bad, he does support mainstream Democratic pro-choice political positions. Which conservative Christians understand - correctly in this case - as being a key issue in the defense of women's rights. Which is not something that the Christian Right wants to embrace.

Citing poll numbers from unidentified sources, Land tries to create the impression that most American voters agree with the Christian Right that abortion should be banned, which is very far from accurate. And argues from there:

So, why then, 48 years after the Supreme Court attempted to “settle” the troublesome issue of abortion on behalf of the American people in Roe v. Wade, are we now confronted with a pro-abortion Trojan horse like Joe Biden. I, like many Americans, thought America was supposed to be about government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” Clearly a bipartisan cultural political elite in this country believes it has the right to ignore the will of the people and to impose on the people the policies they believe should hold sway and to force the American people to subsidize such policies. And, they have successfully implemented such anti-democratic policies for nearly five decades.

This is a mild, clean-shaven version of the argument. But he portrays the US is a country following "anti-democratic policies" due to abortion being legal under the principle established in Roe v. Wade. And the Christian Right portrays abortion as an absolute moral issue involving the killing of millions of babies, as they frame it. And it is common to hear from anti-abortionists that this makes the US morally much worse than Hitler Germany.

So for people sharing the Christian Right view of abortion, Land's statement very much reinforces the notion that the current democracy in America is radically evil and illegitimate. In other words, it supports the attitude of the seditionist lynch mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6.

But in a mild, clean-shaven way, of course.