Obama to Christians: Forget you

Posted by White House

President Obama delivered authorized messages for Passover, Ramadan and Diwali. But for Easter? Not so much. The White House came under fire this week for neglecting to issue official statements for moreover Easter or Good Friday, though Mr. Obama did take time Friday to address Earth Day, a celebration experiential by tens of thousands of pagan worshippers of the earth goddess Gaia.

Mr. Obama clearly didn’t simply forget Easter. He and his family attended an Easter service. He presided over the annual Easter egg roll, a White House ritual dating back to the administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. Mr. Obama also hosted his second yearly Easter prayer breakfast, at which he said “as busy as we are, as many tasks as pile up, during this season, we are reminded that there’s something about the resurrection - something about the resurrection of our savior, Jesus Christ, that puts the whole thing else in perspective.” His brief breakfast address could well have served as the official Easter declaration, if the White House had consideration of it.

Mr. Obama has had a hard official relationship with Easter. His 2010 Easter proclamation was criticized because he attempted to comprise other faiths in what is a uniquely Christian holiday. This was not equal-opportunity multiculturalism; his Ramadan message did not take in a shout-out to American Jews, for example, even though his 2011 Passover message strangely related the holiday to the current Arab uprisings. Likewise, Mr. Obama’s 2009 message stated that, “while we worship in different ways, we also remember the shared spirit of civilization that inhabits us all - Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, believers and nonbelievers alike.” He also quoted passages from a historic 1945 sermon delivered by a chaplain in the wake of the fierce fighting on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima but shortened out any mention of Jesus.