You don’t usually write about a holiday two days after it’s ended, but this is 2024 and we do the culture wars about everything, so naturally we’re talking about the War on Easter now.
Let’s stop, first, and think about what Easter is supposed to celebrate: The resurrection of — according to the Christian faith’s usual tenets — the Son of God, who humbled himself to take on human form, then further humbled himself to allow himself to be put to death by puny, relatively powerless Roman soldiers.1
It’s a story about the glory that comes from humility. About new life. It’s supposed to be a celebration.
But again, this is America in 2024.
So what’s the problem exactly?
The Republican outrage machine kicked into gear over Easter weekend after President Biden noted that Sunday was being celebrated for more than one reason.
International Transgender Day of Visibility is observed every year on March 31. Easter is observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
Republicans responded with a flurry of statements declaring that Mr. Biden had besmirched Christianity — the latest manifestation of anger that, over the past few years, has often flared up after public acknowledgments of transgender people.
The problem is that Biden acknowledged — and celebrated — the existence of transgender people on the same day Christians celebrated one of their most holy days.
Understand, he didn’t acknowledge the transgender day and not Easter. He didn’t even acknowledge the transgender day in the same statement as the one celebrating Easter. He certainly didn’t suggest one was better than the other.
Here’s part of what Biden said:
Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our Nation. Whether serving their communities or in the military, raising families or running businesses, they help America thrive. They deserve, and are entitled to, the same rights and freedoms as every other American, including the most fundamental freedom to be their true selves.
Christian conservatives — the folks at Fox News and people like House Speaker Mike Johnson — decided to portray that as an attack on their faith.
It wasn’t.
Were they feigning outrage? Or do they really think this way? It probably doesn’t matter.
How did Donald Trump celebrate Easter?
With a proclamation, of sorts, on social media.
Happy Easter everyone!
A question, then: Of the two men who want to be elected president in November, which one better represented the spirit of the day — a day, remember, that honors holy sacrifice, humility, and the hope that can come from them?
Or put it another way: Which man represented that spirit worse?
If faith is just another tribe, these questions maybe don’t matter. If there’s anything real or meaningful, though, they probably should.
Rome was an empire, but even that power couldn’t match the mightiness of the Creator of the Universe, right?