Just Another Obama Easter: No Easter Proclamation to Nation from POTUS This Year, Insensitive Passover Message… But, Don’t Forget the Dinosaurs! (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on April 25, 2011
It was just another Obama Easter… sans an Easter proclamation from the president to the nation. He’s been, uh, busy.
But he did find time to honor Earth Day .
Here’s a quick recap of our three Obama Easters…
2009 big Easter Bunny at the White House:
2010 big Easter Bunny at the White House:
This year’s big Easter Bunny at the White House:
Three years in a row… big bunny, big bunny, big bunny. Oh, and egg rolls. And dinosaurs.
Stunningly, actress Geena Davis was invited to read about DINOSAURS at this year’s White House Easter Egg roll. Because nothing quite captures the miracle of Easter for Christians than dinosaurs.
From the White House website:
During last year’s Easter message to the nation from POTUS, Jesus Christ’s name was removed from Obama’s excerpting of an Easter sermon that had been given by a military chaplain on Iwo Jima on Easter Sunday 1945 — the original comparing what the president chose to cut from it is posted at Townhall.com:
The rites of Passover, and the traditions of Easter, have been marked by people in every corner of the planet for thousands of years. They have been marked in times of peace, in times of upheaval, in times of war.
One such war-time service was held on the black sands of Iwo Jima more than sixty years ago. There, in the wake of some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, a chaplain rose to deliver an Easter sermon, consecrating the memory, he said “of American dead – Catholic, Protestant, Jew. Together,” he said, “they huddled in foxholes or crouched in the bloody sands…Together they practiced virtue, patriotism, love of country, love of you and of me.” The chaplain continued, “The heritage they have left us, the vision of a new world, [was] made possible by the common bond that united them…their only hope that this unity will endure.”
Their only hope that this unity will endure.
[...]
Instead of providing separate messages to Jews and Christians on the observance of Passover and Easter, President Obama said in this holiday greeting that “while we worship in different ways, we also remember the shared spirit of humanity that inhabits us all – Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, believers and nonbelievers alike.
Obama then went on to say that “on this Easter weekend, let us hold fast to those aspirations we hold in common as brothers and sisters, as members of the same family – the family of man.”
The problem is that when you start to water down what people actually believe in an attempt to construct a religion of the “family of man”, you start to misrepresent fundamentally the nature of the hope that is at the center of lives of believers.
In the case of Christians, Christ is our hope. Our hope is in the risen Christ, which we celebrate on Easter Sunday.
But if a president wants to water down religious beliefs in an attempt to find a synthesized religion of the ‘family of man’, you end up removing Christ from Easter, which is, strangely, exactly what President Obama did today in his Easter message.
Is this the first American president to dechristianize Easter?
And here’s this year’s Easter proclamation to the nation from POTUS:
[Crickets chirping]
None. Nada. Zilch.
But, he WENT TO CHURCH… that should be good enough. And how about that big bunny and Geena Davis, huh?
From White House Dossier, What? No Easter Greeting?:
Just when I thought the current team running the White House might have used up all its allotted mistakes comes word that President Obama failed to issue either an Easter or a Good Friday greeting to the nation.
Now, let’s forget for a moment that these greetings, which presidents issue on many holidays and commemorations of events, are largely perfunctory and symbolic gestures that nobody cares about.
Until there’s a problem with them.
Fox News first caught the blunder and put it into context that makes the omission insulting to Christians. The mistake is odd enough to call into question just what Obama’s priorities are.
By comparison, the White House has released statements recognizing the observance of major Muslim holidays and released statements in 2010 on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha.
The White House . . . did release an eight-paragraph statement heralding Earth Day. Likewise, the president’s weekend address mentioned neither Good Friday or Easter.
Obama, Fox notes, did head out to church yesterday and held an Easter prayer breakfast at the White House last week.
Obama is on a roll for religious holiday greeting screw ups. Fox News writes:
In 2010, Obama was criticized for releasing an all-inclusive Easter greeting. He reached out to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and people of no faith at all in a statement about a holiday that is uniquely Christian.
And as I noted last week, the president released a Passover greeting this month that compared the ancient Jewish exodus from Egypt to the Arab political awakening this year, which would be a beautiful thing if most Arabs didn’t seek Israel’s destruction.
From FOX Nation, White House Laughs Off Obama Not Giving Easter Proclamation:
President Obama failed to release a statement or a proclamation recognizing the national observance of Easter Sunday, Christianity’s most sacred holiday.
By comparison, the White House has released statements recognizing the observance of major Muslim holidays and released statements in 2010 on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha.The White House also failed to release a statement marking Good Friday. However, they did release an eight-paragraph statement heralding Earth Day. Likewise, the president’s weekend address mentioned neither Good Friday or Easter.
WH Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked about this today and laughed … “Haha, you know, the President went to church yesterday, it was well covered, I’m not sure if we put out a statement or not … “
Video of Prez Sec Carney laughing it off…
Reported by White House Dossier last week… President Obama’s Passover Insult:
Jews all over the world this week celebrate Passover, remembering their long ago emancipation from Egypt. But one thing they may choose to forget is the Passover “message” offered this year by President Obama.
In it, Obama compared the Jews’ flight to freedom with the revolutions engulfing the Arab world this year.
The story of Passover – which recalls the passage of the children of Israel from bondage and repression to freedom and liberty – inspires hope that those oppressed and enslaved can become free, The Seder, with its rich traditions and rituals, instructs each generation to remember its past, while appreciating the beauty of freedom and responsibility it entails.
This year, that ancient instruction is reflected in the daily headlines as we see modern stories of social transformation and liberation unfolding in the Middle East and North Africa.
This is an insult to the Jewish people. Most of the very Arabs seeking to overthrow their leaders would gladly pause in their work to partake in the destruction of Israel if offered the opportunity. They hate Israel, and many or most are enthusiastically anti-semitic. Obama has no business giving them a role in this cherished Jewish holiday.
Obama didn’t intend this as a slight, I’m sure. But it’s another example of how out of touch he can be. It’s insensitive to Jews, and it shows how little he understands the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The president, I’m sure, entirely misses the irony that one of the ways these threatened Arab regimes have stayed in power is to deflect the anger of ordinary Arab citizens away from themselves and onto Israel by stoking pro-Palestinian outrage. Or that the overthrow of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is a catastrophe for Israel, which had relied on him as a force for peace for 30 years. What follows Mubarak can only be worse – and possibly much worse – for both Israel and the United States.
I’m sure Obama views the Arab-Israeli conflict as a balanced argument and not what it is: the desire of Arabs who never accepted Israel’s existence to finally drive the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea after having failed numerous times to do so.
[...]
When you watch Israeli civilian casualties in the conflict with the Palestinians, which two of the following best describe your feelings?
“Israelis brought it upon themselves” was selected by 75 percent of the Arabs interviewed. “Revenge for the Palestinians” was chosen by 59 percent. “Empathy with the Israeli victimes was chosen by . . . three percent. “Angry with the Palestinians” by one percent.
How about the following question: “When you watch a movie or a program about the Jewish Holocaust, which of the following is closest to your feelings?
Well, fully 97 percent chose “Empathize with the Jews who suffered under the Nazis.”
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Well, it would make sense, if it were true. Sorry to mislead you. In actuality, the number of Arabs who said they empathize with the Jews who suffered under the Nazis was three percent.
Fifty nine percent chose “resent it as I feel it brings sympathy toward Israel and Jews at the expense of Palestinians and Arabs.” Twenty nine percent charitably selected the option, “I have mixed feelings.”
One of the nice things about doing this blog is that, in my research for it, I learn something new every day. For example, I WASN’T AWARE IT WAS POSSIBLE TO HAVE MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST.
Mr. President, please, in the future, leave the Arabs out of Jewish holiday greetings. Thanks.
Just another Obama Easter…
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[...] Just Another Obama Easter: No Easter Proclamation to Nation from POTUS This Year, Insensitive Passov… (frugal-cafe.com) [...]
Mr. President(Obama)
I am outraged at the disrespect you have shown to America’s Christian
heritage by refusing to issue a Good Friday or Easter proclamation. This
nation was founded on the principles of the Lord our God, Jesus Christ and
his holy word and Christian values, and your dismissiveness with regard to
our spiritual heritage is disturbing to me as an American citizen.
You have omitted “Creator” when reciting the Declaration of Independence
while at the same time routinely issuing proclamations for virtually every
Muslim holiday on the calendar.
In the future, I urge you to show proper deference and respect for the
world’s largest religion and the religion of the vast majority of your
constituents, the American people.