'A devout Catholic' President Joe Biden on Thursday omitted any reference to Almighty God or divine providence in his annual proclamation about the US spiritual holiday of Thanksgiving.
In his memorable 1863 presidential declaration Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday and urged his fellow Americans to observe the last Thursday in November as a “day of thanksgiving and praise to our gracious Father who dwells in heaven.”
Even in the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln remembered the many blessings and favors bestowed on the nation and attributed them all to the Almighty.
“No human lawyer devised these great things, nor did mortal hands devise them,” Lincoln declared. “These are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, though he deals with us with wrath for our sins, remembers his mercy.”
He thus commanded his fellow citizens to give “their due due to God for such a singular deliverance and blessing.”
And lest anyone forget to thank Almighty God for these gifts, Lincoln also said that these benefits are “enjoyed so constantly that we tend to forget where they come from.” “Yes,” he warned.
US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters during a visit to the Nantucket Fire Department in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on November 28, 2024. Biden and his family are in Nantucket, Massachusetts, for the Thanksgiving holiday. (Mandel Gann/AFP via Getty Images)
Shortly thereafter, 19th U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes issued a similar statement. declaration“Retiring from worldly cares and labors, the people of the United States shall on that day assemble in their places of worship, offer thanksgiving and praise to the mercies of Almighty God, and make their prayers devout.'' Continued. ”
But Biden seems to have fallen into the trap that Lincoln warned us about. express It expresses gratitude “to the American people,” omitting any reference to the ultimate “Source” from which all blessings flow.
Even as we remember our military and veterans, our first responders, our firefighters and police officers, our labor and union leaders, our public servants and teachers, our doctors and scientists, somehow Biden's Thanksgiving proclamation calls out divine providence. You won't be found out.
Although Biden did not publicly thank God, he followed in the admirable footsteps of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who similarly snubbed God in 2016 by excluding him from the feast.
So while Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump all explicitly acknowledged Almighty God in their annual Thanksgiving proclamations, Biden He joined Obama in the notoriety of secularizing the country's most religious local holiday.
