Obamas Attend Church on Easter Sunday but don’t hear the Gospel (UPDATED)
Photo: Associated Press.
At least not entirely.
President Obama and his family walked to church at the historic St. John’s Church. This Episcopal Church has since 1816 been visited by every President of the United States and has a pew exclusively devoted to the President and his family.
Sunday remarks by the Rev. Luis Leon have been stirring controversy across the Internet. Leon based his sermon on the text from John 20:1-18. This is spoken as Mary has seen Jesus just after the resurrection. Jesus tells Mary not to hold onto him.
According to numerous reports, Leon used this text to say that Jesus told Mary not to hold on to the past “You cannot go back.”
Where Leon got into controversy was with this statement, as reported by The White House official transcript, Leon said “It drives me crazy when the captains of the religious right are always calling us back … for blacks to be back in the back of the bus … for women to be back in the kitchen … for immigrants to be back on their side of the border.” [The Washington Times]
As reported in The Blaze, Reuters reporter Jeff Mason tweeted that Leon also said the religious right wants gays in the closet.
Mark Tooley from the Institute on Religion and Democracy writes: Is this characterization of religious conservatives as racists, chauvinists and bigots really fair and accurate? And if political critique of religious conservatives were appropriate in an Easter sermon, couldn’t Leon offer a thoughtful analysis rather than snide smugness?
Granted, President Obama can’t be held responsible for the remarks by Leon, but it would seem silence in the aftermath would indicate an agreement.
White House press secretary Jay Carney told FOX News “I wasn’t there, I don’t have a characterization to make of his comments. The president was just attending Easter services with his family.” [Real Clear Politics]
During the 2008 campaign, the Obama’s 20-year association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright became a major controversy. As the controversy escalated, the Obamas withdrew their membership from Wright’s church.
It is sad that a church with such a rich political history would get so much wrong on the most holy of Christian days. While the implication from the pulpit seems to have been that Republicans are evil racists, history tells us that Republicans freed the slaves, gave women the right to vote and were the reason the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed. All were opposed by the President’s, and presumably Leon’s party of affiliation.
The Easter message is one of hope and of new beginnings. Of that much, Leon is correct that we should not hold onto the past. But we shouldn’t forget it.
And, most certainly, a minister of the Gospel shouldn’t misrepresent it.
UPDATE: Brian Schoeneman a member of St. John’s Church who was in attendance on Sunday, offers a different perspective at Bearing Drift: What really happened at St. John’s Church on Easter Sunday
Schoeneman says that Leon’s words and the intent of his sermon were misrepresented. Perhaps so.
It may have been unfair to suggest that Leon had any other motive than presenting the Easter story. Still politically charged terms like the “religious right” and saying the right wants “blacks to be back in the back of the bus” are hard to ignore.
Especially when they will be reported by a White House pool of reporters we could assume don’t necessarily spend a lot of time in church (regardless of who the President is).
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