Joe Biden Under Fire For Blasphemy: ‘I Mean, Jesus, God…’
Joe Biden is facing criticism for a remark at the Human Rights Campaign Conference, but it’s not because he spoke approvingly of LGBTQ rights or because of what he thinks about those who oppose marriage equality. Instead, it’s for a single exclamation that many say was blasphemous: speaking about certain anti-gay statements in the news recently, he said, “I mean, Jesus, God!”
Christian News reports on the controversy, noting that Joe Biden was specifically discussing commentary from Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson, who recently explained that being gay must be a choice since men who entered prison defining themselves as straight engage in gay sex during incarceration, and according to Carson, leave as gay men.
Though Carson apologized for those statements, Biden used them as an example.
“Every ridiculous assertion from Dr. Carson on — I mean, ridiculous. I mean, Jesus, God. Oh God. I mean, it’s kind of hard to fathom, isn’t it?”
Joe Biden’s words carry the appearance of a man who, as he says, finds a situation simply so unfathomable that he has no idea what to say about it.
However, he has offended a number of people, it appears. The official Joe Biden Facebook page (run by Obama for America, the Obama-Biden 2012 campaign, not by Biden himself) is littered with commentary on the offense.
“Cry out to JESUS CHRIST to save you Biden, you’re going to need HIM”
“You are a dumb man, Joe Biden…’I mean…Jesus,God!'”
Other comments that are longer and less appropriate to reproduce here warn Biden that he is going to Hell, and accuse him of adopting the tactics of Satan.
Notably, the page hasn’t been updated since 2013, so it’s unlikely many of these comments are getting through.
The criticism of Biden comes, ironically, at a time when Americans are calling for a stop to the criminalization of blasphemy in other countries. Take, for example, the Saudi Arabian blogger who may be facing the death penalty for internet comments that spoke in opposition to Islam.
Fortunately for Joe Biden, in America, blasphemy is currently not an offense punishable by law, nor is supporting LGBTQ rights or speaking out against inaccurate declarations about a minority group. Biden is facing a surprising amount of public criticism for the words, but that’s probably the worst consequence he can expect.
Is Joe Biden’s casual blasphemy more offensive and harmful than the casual dehumanization of minority groups and the stripping of rights from an entire demographic of citizens?
[Photo by: Win McNamee/Getty]
