An anthem from a new U.S. president.
MY WHOLE SOUL IS IN THIS: BRINGING AMERICA TOGETHER, UNITING OUR PEOPLE, UNITING OUR NATION. — JOE BIDEN
u.s. President Joe Biden’s inaugural address called for boldness in a “time of testing,” when democracy and truth are under attack. By quoting an ancient Catholic philosopher, a Biblical King of Israel and Judah, and a modern American composer, he urged Americans to “join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature. For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury.”
“Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path. every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war,” he said.
“And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated, and even manufactured.”
As the second roman Catholic president after John F. Kennedy, there was expectation he would quote a prominent Catholic thinker, or poet, or at least a Christian philosopher such as Soren Kierkegaard, whose observation, “Faith sees best in the dark,” Biden has previously quoted in the context of his son Beau’s 2015 death from brain cancer.
For example, in Biden’s acceptance speech in November, he quoted the modern traditionalist hymn On eagle’s Wings, which is common at funerals and was sung at Beau Biden’s funeral.
For the inaugural address, Biden settled on the Catholic church’s foundational thinker, Augustine of hippo, a fifth-century bishop from what is now Algeria. Biden referred to the insight that a unified people are defined by what they hold dear.
“many centuries ago, St. Augustine, a saint in my church, wrote that a people was a multitude defined by the common objects of their love. defined by the common objects of their love. What are the common objects we as Americans love, that define us as Americans? I think we know. Opportunity, security, liberty, dignity, respect, honour and, yes, the truth,” Biden said.
“The recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders, leaders who have pledged to honour our Constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”
he also quoted from the Bible, from Psalm 30, said to have been written by King david in thanks to god for the construction of his palace, and known in hebrew as “a song for the dedication of a house.” Curiously for a Catholic, he quoted the archaic phrasing from the King James Version of the Church of england.
“Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning,” Biden said. “We will get through this together. Together. Look, folks, all my colleagues that I served with in the house and the Senate up here, we all understand, the world is watching, watching all of us today. So here’s my message to those beyond our borders. America has been tested, and we’ve come out stronger for it. We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again. Not to meet yesterday’s challenges, but today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. And we’ll lead not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. We’ll be a strong and trusted partner for peace, progress, and security.”
Biden then invited a moment of silent prayer for the lives lost to the pandemic, an unusual change in tone from the previous president whose public talk about the pandemic tended to be either dismissive or optimistic.
Biden did not mention former president donald Trump, who broke with tradition and left Washington for Florida before the inauguration began.
he did mention the recent violence that “sought to shake the Capitol’s very foundation,” for which Trump was impeached for his incitement of the mob.
Biden thanked his “predecessors of both parties” in the audience, george W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton.
he also quoted a song, American Anthem, by gene Scheer, notably performed by denyce graves and Norah Jones: “The work and prayers of centuries have brought us to this day. What shall be our legacy? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you.”
his most prominent quotation, however, came early in his speech when he quoted Abraham Lincoln, who said as he signed the emancipation Proclamation: “If my name ever goes down into history, it’ll be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.”
“Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation,” Biden said. “And I ask every American to join me in this cause.”