Currents News Staff
The pandemic moved the annual National Prayer Breakfast to an online event for the first time in its 69-year history. On Feb. 4, President Joe Biden addressed the lives lost to COVID-19, food disparities, racial justice and appealed for unity among Americans.
“We know this time is different,” Biden said. “Over 400,000 of our fellow Americans have lost their lives to a deadly virus. Millions are out of work. We see long lines for food at food banks that stretch for miles. We hear the call for racial justice some 400 years in the making and we know the dream and more important the reality of justice for all cannot be deferred any longer. We see the existential threat of climate crisis that poses to our planet and everywhere we turn with more severe floods, stronger hurricanes and more intense wildfires.”
The nation’s second Catholic president also addressed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as an “assault on our democracy” and referenced the “political extremism” that propelled the siege.
“We know now that we must confront and defeat political extremism, white supremacy and domestic terrorism,” he said.
Biden didn’t shy away from talking about his vision of faith as a force for good.
“Where do we turn? Faith,” Biden said. “For me in the darkest moments, faith provides hope and solace, provides clarity and purpose as well. It shows the way forward.”