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Thread: Biden and the Bible

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    Default Biden and the Bible

    In his speech addressing the attack on the Kabul airport President Biden said:

    “Those who have served through the ages have drawn inspiration from the Book of Isaiah, when the Lord says, “Whom shall I send…who shall go for us?” And the American military has been answering for a long time: “Here am I, Lord. Send me.” “Here I am. Send me.”
    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-...ional-airport/

    Biden’s appeal to Biblical authority is curious, particularly as he doesn’t seem to understand the import of his reference. Taken by itself, Biden uses the language to praise the American military for answering the call to service. But neither combat nor humanitarian aid is the subject of the text. Instead, Isaiah is being sent as a spokesman for God, a prophet:

    Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
    And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
    9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
    “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
    be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
    10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
    make their ears dull
    and close their eyes.[a]
    Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage...+6&version=NIV

    “Go and tell…” Not go and fight, not go and rescue, but go and tell this people God’s message. Isaiah is told to be God’s prophet, to speak on God’s behalf. To listeners familiar with the full text of Isaiah Chapter 6 Biden’s quotation struck a discordant note, as being a misreading of the text.

    How did this happen, that the speechwriters or Biden got this wrong?

    One possibility is that it was a simple mistake. In searching for a catchy phrase someone remembered “Here am I. Send me.” Plugging that phrase into a search engine provided the source and citation and it was plugged into the text of the speech. No one thought to read the verses before and after the quotation to understand it. Neither the team or the President had familiarity with phrase to catch the mistake. It went to the teleprompter and then to the world.

    Assuming it was a mistaken use of the text, citing the Bible was not. Referring to the “Book of Isaiah” makes it clear that it was a knowing reference to the Bible. Why would the President rely on the authority of the sacred text of Jews and Christians to bolster his message?

    Another possibility is that it was a knowing misuse of the text. If so, that changes consideration for the reference to the Bible from the Biden team not knowing it was taken out of context to knowing and not caring about the portion of the audience that would.

    In either case, Biden’s use of Isaiah’s call to be a prophet of God seemed discordant to me.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    With every passing day I am finding more and more Biden voters / supporters who are expressing remorse about what they helped enable to happen.
    Such expressions will never be posted here because our cadre of anti-Trumpers haven't got the capacity to admit there is a huge problem with Biden; they remain too obsessed with continuing their anti-Trump rants.

    The problem is simple. What now?? Given that Biden's own people are contradicting & criticizing AND that there are some Democrats calling for him to be removed one must look at the "trickle-down" of that scenario, unlikely as it is.........
    President Kamela? It is hard to believe that there could be anything worse than what we are now experiencing but that scenario would be way worse. Even the Democrats see this now; VP Harris is desperately looking to find anybody to support her but there are few to none who remain. Even her own staff have bailed.

    Ok, then, what would be next?? None other than President Pelosi. OMG!! Enough said.

    To all those who went to such great efforts to suppress the well documented & widely acknowledged negative information about Biden, his mental capacity, his record of inexcusably poor judgment and improper his family dealings I have one simple question. Are you happy now???

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Biden sent his son.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    I find it so very hard to see that a country of over 330 million inhabitants with a good education system for many, with good economic and social development opportunities for many, with a relatively high level of freedom to chose one’s own life’s destination for many, that such a country can’t come up with a multitude of intelligent, polite, caring, civilized, well spoken, well mannered, inspiring candidates to chose from.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by 724Seney View Post
    With every passing day I am finding more and more Biden voters / supporters who are expressing remorse about what they helped enable to happen.
    Such expressions will never be posted here because our cadre of anti-Trumpers haven't got the capacity to admit there is a huge problem with Biden; they remain too obsessed with continuing their anti-Trump rants.

    The problem is simple. What now?? Given that Biden's own people are contradicting & criticizing AND that there are some Democrats calling for him to be removed one must look at the "trickle-down" of that scenario, unlikely as it is.........
    President Kamela? It is hard to believe that there could be anything worse than what we are now experiencing but that scenario would be way worse. Even the Democrats see this now; VP Harris is desperately looking to find anybody to support her but there are few to none who remain. Even her own staff have bailed.

    Ok, then, what would be next?? None other than President Pelosi. OMG!! Enough said.

    To all those who went to such great efforts to suppress the well documented & widely acknowledged negative information about Biden, his mental capacity, his record of inexcusably poor judgment and improper his family dealings I have one simple question. Are you happy now???
    I am personally very happy with my decison not to have ever supported Trump. I have no regret.

    Leaving a nation after 20 years is not easy. I was surprised two years ago the negotiations was with the Taliban and not the Afghanistan government. You did't hear much about it, but Pompeo is the one who made the deal. So, leaving would have occured whether Biden or Trump were in office.

    More than anything Milley must have been asleep at the wheel as well as other advisors during several administrations.

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    welch (September 2nd, 2021)

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Naill View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by 724Seney View Post
    With every passing day I am finding more and more Biden voters / supporters who are expressing remorse about what they helped enable to happen.
    Such expressions will never be posted here because our cadre of anti-Trumpers haven't got the capacity to admit there is a huge problem with Biden; they remain too obsessed with continuing their anti-Trump rants.

    The problem is simple. What now?? Given that Biden's own people are contradicting & criticizing AND that there are some Democrats calling for him to be removed one must look at the "trickle-down" of that scenario, unlikely as it is.........
    President Kamela? It is hard to believe that there could be anything worse than what we are now experiencing but that scenario would be way worse. Even the Democrats see this now; VP Harris is desperately looking to find anybody to support her but there are few to none who remain. Even her own staff have bailed.

    Ok, then, what would be next?? None other than President Pelosi. OMG!! Enough said.

    To all those who went to such great efforts to suppress the well documented & widely acknowledged negative information about Biden, his mental capacity, his record of inexcusably poor judgment and improper his family dealings I have one simple question. Are you happy now???
    I am personally very happy with my decison not to have ever supported Trump. I have no regret.

    Leaving a nation after 20 years is not easy. I was surprised two years ago the negotiations was with the Taliban and not the Afghanistan government. You did't hear much about it, but Pompeo is the one who made the deal. So, leaving would have occured whether Biden or Trump were in office.

    More than anything Milley must have been asleep at the wheel as well as other advisors during several administrations.
    You may have missed it but the question was not whether you were happy with the decision(s) you made to not support Trump. It was about whether or not you were happy with the outcome you got by supporting Biden.

    I think the one thing we ALL agree upon was the fact that we would have left Afghanistan regardless of whether Trump or Biden was President. That's a no brainer. The real issue is whether it would have been this ugly and bungled so badly by Trump (or Obama or Bush). You'll never admit it, but the answer is hell no!

    Biden's advisors were not asleep at the wheel, they are on the record stating they urged him to not go about the exit in the manner he did........both military and senior civilian advisors have said so.....he, as always, did not listen and took the wrong approach. This is on him and not on his advisors.

    So, let's leave Trump out of this thread and focus instead upon our current President. Are you happy with him? Are you proud to have voted for him??

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Milley said he was surprised.

    A mature person understands that their support of a person is not predicated upon always being happy with every action. To play the opposite is a fools game.

    Trump cannot be left out because you want him left out for he brokered the deal.

    Don’t be a dumb ass, kaz.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Chuck, 724Seney-
    I started this topic with a quote from Biden, and specific points, in an attempt to focus on specific questions to avoid generic pro- and anti-Biden discussion.
    I encourage your attempts to stay on point.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Naill View Post
    Milley said he was surprised.

    A mature person understands that their support of a person is not predicated upon always being happy with every action. To play the opposite is a fools game.

    Trump cannot be left out because you want him left out for he brokered the deal.

    Don’t be a dumb ass, kaz.
    I may be, but Milley, Trump, deal brokering, and your point all belong in a different topic.
    Did you have a comment about Biden's use of Isaiah?

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by kazoolaw View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Naill View Post
    Milley said he was surprised.

    A mature person understands that their support of a person is not predicated upon always being happy with every action. To play the opposite is a fools game.

    Trump cannot be left out because you want him left out for he brokered the deal.

    Don’t be a dumb ass, kaz.
    I may be, but Milley, Trump, deal brokering, and your point all belong in a different topic.
    Did you have a comment about Biden's use of Isaiah?
    I’ve got decades of experience of people’s Biblical interpretations. As an aside, I’ve never read that you are concerned about Trumps use of Christianity.

    The passage in question revolves around personal acknowledgment of being unworthy. A personal witness is God’s glory and his sin.

    So, I have to ask why you’re more concerned about one man and little concerned about another.

    I’m game if you are.😉😉

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Chuck,
    Trump's not here.
    Start a thread on Trump and Christianity and I'll see you there.
    Would you say Biden was acknowledging his own unworthiness and sin, or that of the American military?

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by kazoolaw View Post
    Chuck,
    Trump's not here.
    Start a thread on Trump and Christianity and I'll see you there.
    Would you say Biden was acknowledging his own unworthiness and sin, or that of the American military?
    Stop pretending you’re a moderator, bro.

    Biden is catholic and I suspect he has a history of Christianity.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Naill View Post
    Biden is catholic and I suspect he has a history of Christianity.
    Do you think that explains him not understanding the context of Isaiah 6?

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by kazoolaw View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Chuck Naill View Post
    Biden is catholic and I suspect he has a history of Christianity.
    Do you think that explains him not understanding the context of Isaiah 6?
    Well, do you mean your interpretation of the passage?

    Scripture is abused all the time.

    Are you sure you want to go here? I’ll blister your ass if you do.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Chuck,
    I'll go with your interpretation from post #10.
    How does that fit with soldiers going to war?
    q

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    An example of a White House speech writer liking the sound of the words, and taking a text out of its real context and making it a pretext for saying what he wants it to say!

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    TSherbs (August 29th, 2021)

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by 724Seney View Post
    This is on him and not on his advisors.
    Yes, I agree. And it was an error of judgment (although I don't understand all of the particulars).


    So, let's leave Trump out of this thread and focus instead upon our current President. Are you happy with him? Are you proud to have voted for him??
    1) yes, he's not Trump and he is trying to do things that I agree with
    2) yes, he's not Trump and he is trying to do things that I agree with. But please understand, I am "proud" of every vote that I have made since I was 18, in every election at every level. The pride comes from participating in one of the greatest of human activities on the planet: representative democracy.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    TS,
    Any comment on the topic itself?

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Quote Originally Posted by kazoolaw View Post
    Chuck,
    I'll go with your interpretation from post #10.
    How does that fit with soldiers going to war?
    q
    I don't see that it does, but for Biden a case could be made that since his son went and he, as a father, had to struggle through the possible loss. So, it fits in that context that a father would suggest that he is no better to send a child than anyone else. Being the VP didn't provide him with a pass. The Isaiah passage does have a political context.

    Conflict is a constant Biblical theme. We see the Nathan having to tell David that he was "that man". Makng horrible mistake is a thing people can do with power. Owning those mistakes is what makes them legendary. Having to capacity to repent is rare, but when it occurs, great healing is possible.

    It has been an issue with my over the years how people interpret a passage for their own interests including religious leaders and politicans. Not to change your OP, but it has bothered me to see people like Jerry Falwell, Jr and Franklin Graham contaminate themselves with politics and suggest that the scriptures support them. For me, that is a greater stretch than Biden's interpretaton, but we can disagree and still continue.

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    Default Re: Biden and the Bible

    Chuck,
    Your first phrase, "I don't see that it does..." is right on the mark. The remainder is a stretch to let the speechwriters and the speechmaker off the hook.
    Your second paragraph is true. I hold out little hope of repentance. I think such a concept has little or no traction in the secular world.
    Third paragraph: misuse of Scripture is not limited by religious or political affiliation.
    Have you found it curious, Chuck, that those who clamor for a wall between religion and government haven't commented on Biden's quote?

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