President Joe Biden, photo: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
On the campaign trail in Philadelphia surrounded by the support of numerous members of the Kennedy family — American political royalty — President Joe Biden returned to one of his favorite themes: American Exceptionalism. Biden contends, as have presidents as different as the Republican Ronald Reagan and Democrat John F. Kennedy, that America is more than merely a country — that it is also an idea.
{snip}
“We’re the only nation founded on an idea,” Biden said, “Every other nation in the world is founded on geography, ethnicity, race, religion — except us. Think about it. The idea was we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, in the image of God, and deserve to be treated equally throughout their lives.”
In the passage Biden subordinates religion’s role in the founding of America — with the direct implication that the United States is not strictly a “Christian nation” as many claim, even if a majority of its citizens identify as Christian.
{snip}
Adding his “image of God” ad lib to a direct quote of the most famous line in the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”), the President also asserts that those acknowledged by law to have been created equal “deserve to be treated equally throughout their lives.”
* Original Article:
Biden Says U.S. Not Founded On Religion, People Are In “Image of God”
