Kirsten Powers on Obama's Inability to Recognize Christian Persecution

During the summer of 2014, liberal commentator Kirsten Powers became convicted that President Barack Obama was not a humanitarian for his flaccid response to the Yazidi and Mosul Christians of being the expropriated, enslaved and threatened with extermination by ISIS. 

Unfortunately, in the ensuing nine months, the 44th President has done nothing to burnish his mantle of being a humanitarian. Powers pointed to the recent joint press conference between Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and President Obama at the White House.  Renzi's reaction to the news that Muslims on a refugee boat from Africa threw  twelve Christians overboard into the Mediterranean for their faith was that it was a "one off event" and that it did not reflect a clash of religious. Mr. Obama remained mute.  

When jihadist terrorists do slaughter the innocent, President Obama has shown himself unwilling to acknowledge their Christian faith.  Mr. Obama referred to the slaughter of 148 Christians by Al Shabaab in Kenya on Maundy Thursday were just folks, whereas the 21 Coptic Christians executed by ISIS in Libya were simply "Egyptian citizens".  Even Britain's Prince Charles, who occupies a primarily non-partisan role as Prince of Wales, has lamented the violent persecution of Christians in Iraq.

Perhaps it was no mistake that early in the Obama Administration, the Chosen One seemed congenitally incapable of echoing the Declaration of Independence correctly and invoking the Creator as it was written. But then again, those were the days when we expected Mr. Obama to follow the law and the Constitution as written,

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.