ATLANTA — President Joe Biden made a historic pilgrimage Sunday to “America’s Liberty Church” to commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., saying democracy was at a perilous time and life and legacy from the civil rights leader «they show us the way and we should pay attention.»
As the first sitting president to deliver a Sunday morning sermon at King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, Biden cited the revealing question King himself once posed to the nation.
“He said, ‘Where do we go from here?’” Biden said from the pulpit. «Well, my message to this nation this day is to move forward, move forward together, when we choose democracy over autocracy, loving community over chaos, when we choose believers and dreams, be doers, fearless, always guarding the faith.»
In a divided country just two years after a violent insurrection, Biden told parishioners, elected officials and dignitaries that “the battle for the soul of this nation is perennial. It is a constant struggle… between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, justice and injustice.”
He spoke out against those “trafficking racism, extremism, insurrection” and said the fight to safeguard democracy was taking place in the courts and the ballot box, protests and other forms. “At our best, the American promise wins. … But I don’t need to tell you that we are not always at our best. We are fallible. We fail and fall.»
The stop at Ebenezer came at a sensitive time for Biden after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate how the president handled classified documents after leaving the vice presidency in 2017. The White House revealed the Saturday that records were found at Biden’s home near Wilmington, Delaware.
Introducing Biden, the church’s senior pastor, Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock noted that the president was “a devout Catholic” for whom “this Baptist service could be a bit boisterous and lively. But I saw him there clapping.»
King, «the greatest American prophet of the 20th century,» as Warnock put it, served as co-pastor from 1960 until he was assassinated in 1968.
Warnock, like many battleground state Democrats who won re-election in 2022, stayed away from Biden during the campaign as the president’s approval rating lagged and the rate of inflation rose.
But with the election behind him and a full six-year term ahead of him, Warnock fully embraced Biden in the service. Near the end, he asked Biden to come to the front of the church and asked Ebenezer’s parishioners to pray for the president as he listed several of Biden’s legislative accomplishments.
“That, my friends, is the work of God,” Warnock said, adding that Biden “had something to do with it.”
As Biden begins to turn his attention to a re-election effort expected in 2024, Georgia will receive a lot of attention.
In 2020, Biden managed to win Georgia, as well as Michigan and Pennsylvania, where black votes made up a disproportionate share of the Democratic electorate. Getting black voters in those states will be essential to Biden’s 2024 hopes.
The White House has tried to promote Biden’s agenda in minority communities. The White House has mentioned efforts to encourage states to keep equity in mind in public works projects as they spend money from the administration’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill. The administration has also moved to end the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses, eliminating a policy widely viewed as racist.
The administration also highlights Biden’s work to diversify the federal judiciary, including the appointment of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court and the confirmation of 11 black female justices on federal appeals courts, plus of those installed in those powerful courts under all previous presidents combined.
The failure of Biden to pass a measure that would have strengthened voting rights protections, a central campaign promise, is one of the biggest disappointments of his first two years in office. The task is even more difficult now that Republicans control the House.
In his remarks, the president said that despite all the progress the United States has made, the country had now reached a critical point in its history. He said that democracies can go backwards, noting the collapse of the institutional structures of democracy in places like Brazil.
“Progress is never easy, but it is always possible and things get better as we march towards a more perfect union,” he said. “But at this tipping point, we know a lot of work needs to continue on economic justice, civil rights, voting rights, protecting our democracy. And I remember our job is to redeem the soul of America.»
This moment, he said, “is the moment to choose. … Are we a people who will choose democracy over autocracy? I couldn’t ask that question 15 years ago because everyone thought that democracy was settled. … But it is not.» Americans, he said, «have to choose community over chaos. … These are the vital questions of our time and the reason I am here as your president. I think the The life and legacy of Dr. King show us the way and we must pay attention.”
King, who was born on January 15, 1929, was assassinated at age 39. He helped push through the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. King’s family members attended the service, including his 95-year-old father. older sister, Christine King Farris.
“I have spoken before parliaments, kings, queens, world leaders… but this is intimidating,” Biden said as he opened his sermon.
The president plans to be in Washington on Monday to speak at the National Action Network’s annual breakfast on the King’s holiday.