Christianity,  Politics

Final Note on President’s Easter Remarks

A few days ago, I noted President Obama’s remarks at the Easter prayer breakfast that appeared to affirm the resurrection. One wag suggested that the remarks reflected the work of a speech writer and not of the President himself. Amy Sullivan reports for TIME.com, however, that Obama did in fact write the speech himself. She writes:

Obama offered a brief reflection on the Easter story. In the process, he delivered statements of belief that would have outraged liberal critics if spoken by George W. Bush in the White House:

We are awed by the grace He showed even to those who would have killed Him. We are thankful for the sacrifice He gave for the sins of humanity. And we glory in the promise of redemption in the resurrection…. As Christians, we believe that redemption can be delivered—by faith in Jesus Christ.

Obama has always sounded very relaxed when talking about faith—both his own beliefs and the important role he sees for faith in public life. He seemed less comfortable and sounded less himself on Tuesday morning. Or maybe it was just jarring to hear the president use phrases like “our risen Savior” and “the Son of man” in the East Room. Regardless, White House aides say Obama wrote his own remarks.

Sullivan also reports on religious leaders who were invited to attend the breakfast. The list included Bill Hybels, Joel Hunter, Joel Osteen, Brian McLaren, the heads of the National Council of Churches, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and the Salvation Army. The Whitehouse only released the names of 13 of the 90 people invited to the event. The Baptist Press reports that SBC President Johnny Hunt also attended.

6 Comments

  • Clayton

    As far as I can tell those words have very little meaning to his life and is more like a peace offering to the Christoan base of the polls. The fact that everyone is not all over him for those truthful statements is a further indicatation that they are rhetoric and not a confession.

  • Scott

    Clayton,

    I’m so glad you’re able to tell us what’s really going on in his heart.

    Sigh….

    The last president made all sorts of “peace offerings” to evangelicals, but noone wver questioned the legitimacy of his confession. What’s different? Maybe the reason everyone is “not all over him” is because the media doesn’t like to touch comments like that. Maybe “liberals” don’t like it when he says those things 🙂

  • D.J. Williams

    If we’re going to point out when Obama is theologically off base with what he has to say, then we ought to have the decency to applaud him when he gets something right. Honestly, I never heard W. express the central truth of the gospel this eloquently. I pray that President Obama will grow in his understanding and trust in what he so beautifully professed, and will see the folly and emptiness of the inclusivism he has elsewhere espoused.

  • Darius

    Clayton has a good point. Everyone knows that Obama doesn’t actually believe this, otherwise they would have been all over him. It’s kind of like when Clinton talked more about Jesus than Bush, but Bush got all the flak. No one has a problem if you mention Jesus as long as you don’t actually expect that Jesus has something to say about how you live your life.

    At the same time, like DJ said, give Obama props for speaking the truth accurately.

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