Donald Trump on Easter

Barack Obama Questions Christian Love at White House Easter Breakfast

As Christians continued to celebrate the miracle of the Resurrection at a Tuesday Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House, President Barack Obama could not resist poking at the Nazarene's faithful. While Mr. Obama's remarks does echo some of the Paschal message, he flippantly questioned some perceived deficiencies in Christian Love (presumably an oblique reference to Indiana's RFRA law controversy).



It seems rather rude for the President to turn a prayer breakfast of the most important holiday into a partisan punch line.  Unfortunately, this is not uncharacteristic of the Obama Administration. Last year, President Obama "spontaneously" called on the controversial gay Episcopal Bishop Vichy "Gene" Robinson for a closing prayer.

What was striking about President Obama's 2015 Easter Prayer Breakfast remarks is that he failed to acknowledge the massacre and martyrdom of 148 Christians at Garissa University College in eastern Kenya on Maudy Thursday by Islamist terrorists.  Of  course, when Mr. Obama did address the latest Kenyan atrocity, the President failed to mention the faith of both the "folks" who were slaughtered as well as the creed which inspired the dastardly deed.  In addition, when President Obama spoke about the bloody beheadings of 21 people in Libya by ISIS he referred to them as "Egyptian citizens" rather than as Coptic Christians which prompted their martyrdom.

Icon of the "New Martyrs" by Tony Rezk.  Coptic Pope Tawadros II declared Feb. 15th their feast day  

Of course, clearly identifying victims of the contemporary jihad by radical would wreck the impression that Christianity is about the Crusades and the Inquisition as President Obama alluded in his 2015 National Prayer Breakfast remarks.

Still Digesting President Obama's Easter Prayer Breakfast Remarks

President Obama's remarks for the 2014 Easter Prayer breakfast ranged from a somber recounting of a deadly attack on a Kansas Jewish Community Center, a summing up of the Christian Easter message, touting the President's meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican and POTUS' playful prayer.

 

Was President Obama's Prayer at the Easter Prayer Breakfast:
	Charming
	Scandalous
	Sounds more anticipatory of an Easter feast
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Sharpton Frames Easter Message Through Obama Crucified and Rising Again

The Reverend Al Sharpton gave an unusual Easter message on the Tom Joyner Show.  Sharpton tried to be ecumenical to reach out to Christians, Jews and atheists with an anti-materialist message to remember the reason for the season.

Sharpton alluded to every man challenges where people feel crucified. Sharpton encouraged folks to rise above their suffering and not become like the disease they fight. Sharpton closed his secular preaching by alluding to an alleged crucifixion of Barack Obama.  The Reverend claimed that he was not comparing Obama to Jesus but for every crucifixion there is a resurrection for those who believe.

So the question is on the orthodoxy of Reverend Al Sharpton's Easter message that to every crucifixion there is a resurrection for those who believe, so rise above your unearned suffering.

Did Rev. Al Sharpton correctly convey the Easter Message?
	Yes
	No
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For those who want to hear more of Reverend Sharpton's preaching, you will not find him in church but on PoliticsNation, 6 PM et on MSNBC. 

Political Peeps

Now that people in the District of Calamity have recovered from their Easter basket sugar comas as well as the elation over Bryce Harper hitting two homers to secure the opening day win for the Washington Nationals, it is a good time to consider Easter epicurean art in the form of political peeps.

Peeps are a marshmallow confection produced by Just Born candies from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania since 1953.  The Peeps are formed in the shape of chicks and bunnies and are often associated with Easter.

Had the creators of Occupy Peeps have watched Occupied Unmasked, their take on the protest might not have been so sweet. 

Since 2007, the Washington Post has sponsored a contest challenging budding artists to make dioramas with Peeps.  This year a few of the outstanding entries had playful yet poignant political themes.  

Nicholas Burger and  Radga Iyenger honored the heroics of Seal Team Six in administering justice to Osama bin Laden in Diorama of Zero Dark Thirty (with Peeps).

It is unclear what exactly was inside the wrapper. Assuredly, it was not kosher. 

Others took a more whimsical approach to governance in the District of Calamity.  A group from the Siemens Technology Team in Beltsville, Maryland satirized Sequestration by splicing it with imagery inspired by Despicable Me in their creation: DesPEEPable Congress.

Despite the demagoguery of the Obama Administration, Sequestration was not the bomb that the White House expected.  The 2.3% reduction in the rate of growth for the federal government did not not blow up between the beltways.  The White House did hold the annual Easter Egg Roll but decided to cancel school tours of the White House, blaming it on Secret Service funding.  Maybe if the First Family cut down on their jet setting (first daughters surf and ski spring break at Paradise Island, the Bahamas and Sun Valley, Idaho,  the President taking Sunday Golf jaunts to Florida to have a round with Tiger Woods), they could avoid the damage. 

h/t: The Washington Post

An Easter Message for Obama's Ears

President Obama and his family walked across Lafayette Square to attend Easter Sunday service at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC.




The presider was the Reverend Luis Leon, who also gave the closing benediction at President Obama’s second inauguration. 

Mr. Obama & Rev. Luis Leon at DC's's St. John's Episcopal Church 

Unlike at the ceremony on the Mall, where Leon’s stated goal was to bring people together, Leon chose to preach politically partisan on the holiest day of the Christian calendar.  Leon preached from the pulpit:

The captains of the religious right are always calling us back, back back. For blacks to be back in the back of the bus, for women to be back in the kitchen, for gays to be in the closet and for immigrants  to be on their side of the border...What you and I understand is that when Jesus says you can’t hang onto me, he says you know it’s not about the past, it’s not about the before, it’s not about the way things were but about the way things can be in the now.

Really? Please cite some contemporary examples of captains of the religious right calling blacks to be at the back of the bus.  Leon failed to do so during his Easter sermon.

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The Easter message can be understood with its  parallel to the Jewish Passover. The children of Israel were freed from their slavery in Egypt by Yahweh’s power and they were put on the path to the Promised Land.  Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross conquered the ultimate wages of spiritual slavery to sin–death.  

It might be worth considering if Rev. Leon’s sermon  was truly uplifting or perpetuating continued political bonds dressed up in Easter finery or spurious scriptural sanction.  The answer may be found in Rev. C.L. Bryant's documentary Runaway Slave.   Alas, the message might not be a revelation as much as a lamentation.

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