President Donald Trump sparked an outpouring of support among Christians this week as he publicly celebrated Jesus Christ, the Savior’s Resurrection, the Passover feast, and the key role of God in securing both human liberty as well as eternal life. The latest remarks follow a number of speeches in the United States and overseas in which the American president, who was elected thanks to overwhelming support from American evangelical Christians, has openly thanked God, celebrated the Bible, and emphasized America’s undeniable Christian heritage. The contrast between Trump and former President Barack Obama, who regularly attacked and ridiculed Christians and the Bible, could not have been clearer.
In a video on Good Friday posted by the White House, Trump sounded almost like a Christian minister. “At this holy time of the year, families across our nation gather in homes, churches, and synagogues to light candles and to praise God,” Trump declared, addressing his fellow Americans. “For Christians, we remember the suffering and death of God’s only Son and His glorious resurrection on the third day. On Easter Sunday, we proclaim with joy that Christ is risen. Both of these sacred celebrations remind us that God’s love redeems the world.” Trump also spoke to Jewish families around the world by recognizing Passover, a sacred holiday celebrating Israel’s liberation from bondage in Egypt.
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Trump also quoted Scripture. “Almost 3,000 years ago the prophet Isaiah wrote, ‘Darkness covers the earth, but the Lord rises upon you, and His glory appears over you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light’,” Trump said, reading from the Bible’s book of Isaiah, chapter 60. “In America, we look to the light of God to guide our steps. We trust in the power of the Almighty for wisdom and strength. And we praise our Heavenly Father for the blessings of freedom and the gift of eternal life.” The president then closed his brief remarks with the traditional “God bless you, and God bless America.” Barely a word was said about it in the press.
Despite the media rarely reporting it, the latest remarks were hardly out of character for Trump, who has made a conscious effort to regularly acknowledge God in his public speeches and pronouncements. Indeed, at his Inauguration speech, Trump acknowledged Almighty God as the source of America’s protection and blessings. Specifically, Trump referred to Psalm 133:1, which tells of “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.” Last May, speaking at Liberty University, Trump emphasized that God — not government — is the source of the inalienable human rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
The next month, delivering a historic speech in Poland, Trump recognized the centrality of God and the Christian faith in Western civilization, and the importance of faith in resisting tyranny. “We put faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, at the center of our lives,” he said, noting that we “cherish inspiring works of art that honor God.” “And above all, we value the dignity of every human life, protect the rights of every person, and share the hope of every soul to live in freedom. That is who we are…. So, together, let us all fight like the Poles — for family, for freedom, for country, and for God.”
The contrast between President Trump and former President Barack Obama is like the difference between night and day. Yes, it is true that Obama claimed in public to be a Christian, and even attended a “church” that specialized in spewing hatred and calling on God to damn America. But Obama also regularly ridiculed and demonized Christianity and Christians — also in public. Among other remarks, Obama infamously ridiculed everyday American who “cling to guns or religion.” In a 2015 interview, Obama claimed that, “sometimes Christian interpretation seems to posit an ‘us versus them [mindset].’” He also displayed incredible ignorance when he demonized Christians for the Crusades, which were in reality Christendom’s defense against the advancing armies of Islam.
It seems that Obama even viewed himself as the man to usher in a post-Christian era in America. “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation,” he told CBS in 2007, claiming America was also a Buddhist nation and a Muslim nation and a nation of non-believers. Two years later, speaking in Turkey, Obama falsely declared that even Americans “do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.” Of course, even the Supreme Court that Obama and his fellow travelers love so much when it lawlessly tries to redefine marriage or authorize the slaughter of unborn babies has recognized that Obama’s comments were false, ruling in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States that “this is a Christian nation.”
Incredibly, Obama also openly ridiculed the Bible, which Christians consider to be God’s inspired and inerrant revelation to mankind, while revealing his own ignorance of Scripture and its proper interpretation. “Even if we did have only Christians in our midst,… whose Christianity would we teach in our schools? And which passage of Scripture should guide our public policy? Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination?” Obama asked, smirking. “How about Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount — a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application. So before we get carried away, let’s read our Bibles.”
If Americans examine the fruit of Obama’s policies, the anti-Christian nature is also impossible to ignore. For instance, as this magazine documented extensively, Obama’s actions contributed to the mass slaughter of Christians across vast swaths of Africa and the Middle East. In the Ivory Coast, Obama sided with Muslim jihadists, who used machetes to slaughter thousands of innocent Christians on their march to replace the duly elected Christian President of that country with a Muslim central banker. In Syria, the Obama administration knowingly backed jihadist groups that openly vowed and worked to exterminate Christians, too.
In more mundane matters, the anti-Christian fruit of Obama’s policies was evident everywhere as well. For instance, an “Equal Opportunity” training program foisted on U.S. troops by the Obama administration featured a presentation that included Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and Orthodox Jews on a list of “religious extremists” — alongside al-Qaeda, the Ku Klux Klan, Hamas, and other genuinely troubling groups. Apparently much of the propaganda was taken from the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, which enjoyed a strong relationship with the Obama administration despite its reputation among mainstream Christian organizations as an “anti-Christian hate group.”
Obama appointees proudly displayed their anti-Christian bigotry in all sorts of reports and documents. A fringe leftist appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights even claimed “religious liberty” and “religious freedom” are actually “code words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance.” Obama himself later bragged about lying to the American people on the campaign trail about his true views on marriage, boasting that one of the reasons he entered politics was to advance the anti-Christian notion of “homosexual marriage.”
Some Christians were delighted to hear Trump’s remarks, but less than enthusiastic about a few other elements of the White House Easter celebration. Prominent Brazilian evangelist and writer Julio Severo, who has been targeted by anti-Christian forces for his defense of marriage and the Bible, had mixed feelings about it all. “After years of paganism and anti-Christian attitudes in the U.S. government under Obama, it was fresh air to hear Christian words from President Trump,” wrote Severo, who blogs in English and Portuguese at Last Days Watchman. “Yet, at the same time Trump celebrated Easter and Passover, he also celebrated the Easter Bunny at the White House.”
In particular, Severo expressed concerns about the reported pagan roots of the Easter Bunny and some of the symbolism associated with it. “The Easter Bunny is not a modern invention. The symbol originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess Eastre was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit,” explains a document by the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), which also describes how the traditions reportedly made their way to America and became more widespread after the Civil War. “As with the Easter Bunny and the holiday itself, the Easter Egg predates the Christian holiday of Easter. The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians.”
Severo, who has been very pro-America despite his concerns about its government’s embrace of homosexuality and abortion, was even more critical about other comments made by Trump on important occasions. For instance, on October 31, Trump celebrated Halloween at the White House. At Christmas, meanwhile, Trump celebrated the birth of Christ, but he also included a celebration of what Severo described as the “Marxist” pseudo-holiday known as “Kwanzaa.”
Obviously, anti-Christian activists were outraged and despondent. Self-styled “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel, who oversaw the least-viewed Oscars in history, ridiculed the White House celebration. He also poked fun at First Lady Melania Trump’s accent, sparking confusion and outrage even among his followers. Another far-left political propagandist posing as a comedian, Seth Meyer, used foul language to attack the Trump family and its Easter celebrations. “I bet every kid who found an egg on the White House lawn is getting a bill within the next week,” Meyer said, apparently an attack on Trump’s perceived efforts to be a good steward of taxpayer funds.
Of course, Christians were instrumental in Trump’s election to the White House, and the president and his advisors have all recognized that. So it is no surprise that the president would go out of his way to celebrate the Christian community in the United States, a nation that is still overwhelmingly Christian despite a highly organized campaign to de-Christianize the nation that has infected the education system and the media for generations now. Hopefully, the Christian language used by the president will translate into policy that respects the biblical foundations of America and Western civilization.
Photo at top: screen-grab from White House video
Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, education, politics, and more. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ALEXNEWMAN_JOU or on Facebook.
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