By Ben Johnson

Nearly two years after launching a “whole-of-government approach” to support the abortion industry, President Joe Biden has now invoked a Higher Power. At a campaign stop in Florida on Tuesday, Biden made the sign of the Cross in an apparent attempt to ward off pro-life legislation, mocked the notion that miracles happen in politics, and wondered aloud about “what the Hell is in” the Bible.

During a pro-abortion speech in Tampa, the purportedly “devout Catholic” Biden lashed out at former President Donald Trump for allegedly being a pro-life extremist. The 46th president seemed incredulous that the 45th president “described the Dobbs decision as a ‘miracle.’ Maybe it’s coming from that Bible he’s trying to sell. Whoa. I almost wanted to buy one just to see what the hell is in it.”

It seems curious Joe Biden wouldn’t have picked up some of the fundamentals of the Bible from attending daily Mass before going to “the black church” every Sunday, between stops in the Greek Orthodox and Puerto Rican communities, all after attending synagogue on Shabbat. (Perhaps he should sign up for FRC’s Stand on the Word Bible devotional.)

That was but one facet of Biden’s inversion of Scripture. At a meeting with volunteers in Tampa, Biden invoked the power of our Lord’s precious and life-giving Cross as a guest speaker discussed abortion.

Biden made the holy gesture as Nikki Fried — the current chair of the Florida Democratic Party and former state commissioner of agriculture, who lost the 2022 Democratic gubernatorial primary to a former Republican by 14 points — belittled Governor Ron DeSantis (R) for signing a bill that halted abortion once babies have a detectable fetal heartbeat. “Ron DeSantis felt like he needed to run for president, and so [protecting unborn life at] 15 weeks wasn’t good enough. We had to go to six weeks,” inveighed Fried. As Fried uttered those sentences, Joe Biden made the sign of the Cross, apparently trying to ward off the heartbeat bill from becoming law. But as it turns out, Jesus is pro-life, Ron DeSantis is a leader, and on May 1 the Heartbeat Protection Act will become the Heartbeat Protection law. (You can see video of the incident here.)

Making the sign of the Cross at an abortion rally would be entirely appropriate … for an exorcist. One of the foremost figures of the early Church wrote, “By the sign of the Cross all magic is stopped, and all witchcraft brought to nothing, and all the idols are being deserted and left, and every unruly pleasure is checked.” But for the nation’s second Catholic president to make a sacred gesture of his faith to mock the sanctity of life — a teaching of his church, the Bible, and his Savior — is sacrilegious.

The Bible — in any translation, with or without any individual’s endorsement — makes abundantly clear the Cross is the preeminent Christian sign, reconciling a holy God with sinful mankind. For that reason, Christians have always embraced, cherished, and clung to the Old Rugged Cross. The sign of the Cross is an ancient Christian prayer. Scripturally, the Christian makes the sign of the Cross to show he plans to fulfill the Great Commandment to love God with all his mind (forehead), heart, and strength (shoulders). Early church writings seem to indicate that originally, it was traced on the forehead with the thumb, perhaps calling to mind Bible verses about God sealing the faithful by placing His mark on their foreheads. (See Exodus 13:16, Ezekiel 9:3-6, and Revelation 14:1 and 22:4.) Over time, it became standard to make the sign of the Cross over the whole body. The exact method varied geographically, but eventually all traditional Christians — Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Copts, Armenians, Ethiopians, Anglicans, Lutherans, and others — came to begin all their prayers with this sign, asking the blessing of the Holy Trinity.

Early Christians took their role as the people of the Cross so seriously — and placed such trust in Christ crucified — that they used this holy sign to sanctify, and drive demons out of, everything. The early church leader Tertullian (160-240 A.D.) wrote, “At every step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign [of the Cross].” St. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386) told those preparing for baptism that making the sign of the Cross is how Christians “confess the Crucified.” It is “our seal, made with boldness by our fingers on our brow and in everything; over the bread we eat and the cups we drink, in our comings and in our goings out; before our sleep, when we lie down and when we awake; when we are traveling, and when we are at rest.”

The one thing early Christians did not do is use the sign of the Cross as a joke, much less to bless demonic activity. Joe Biden has a strange history of using Christ’s Cross as a punchline. In a 2019 campaign speech, then-candidate Biden responded to claims that he was too friendly to Republicans by crossing himself while mouthing the first words a Catholic says in confession: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.” Biden bizarrely made the sign of the Cross during a joint press conference last September with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when Netanyahu mentioned the two had been “friends” for “over 40 years” — an apparently playful reference to the octogenarian’s longevity.

Some have indicated that Biden intended his latest mockery of Christ’s Cross as a requiem for the DeSantis presidential campaign. Or he could have indicated that he intends for his Justice Department to challenge one or both of the pro-life protections. Others may say Biden’s continual invocation of this faithful sign shows his desire to sanctify even banal statements of politics. But perpetually making the sign of the Cross does not indicate piety. Our soul inclines toward the actions our bodies commit and the words our mouths speak. To use holy things flippantly falls under the category of taking the Lord’s Name in vain.

When the president — during a visit to secure his position as the leader of the nation — applies this classical mark of the Christian to abortion, which Christianity has taught for 2,000 years is murder, it rises to the level of calling “evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). That notion is heightened by Nikki Fried who, one day after her joint appearance with Biden, declared Republicans who passed pro-life laws protecting babies from abortion “have blood on their hands.”

Politicians who support dismembering innocent children in the womb have blood on their hands — the same hands they use to make the sign of the Cross over the abortion industry. Joe Biden has repeatedly said he believes he is fighting “a battle for the soul of this nation.” He has repeatedly invoked spiritual powers while promoting immoral policies and jailing pro-life advocates. In his 2023 State of the Union address, he called on Congress to “restore the soul of this nation” by expanding abortion. And Biden has declared, “Transgender Americans shape our [n]ation’s soul.” 

With each day, the spiritual warfare lurking below the surface of our political discourse manifests itself more fiercely. Christians must remember “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore, “we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds” (II Corinthians 10:3-4). But the president making the sign of the Cross over the blood-drenched abortion industry should serve as a wake-up call that the spiritual combat is all-too real. And the spiritual battle must be joined with the spiritual weapons of prayer, fasting, and complete faith that “the battle is the Lord’s.”

As Biden blesses the unthinkable, Christians must pray, vote, and stand.

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.