President Obama: At Easter, ‘We’re All Children of God’ By Hazel Trice Edney

April 15, 2014

President Obama At Easter Prayer Breakfast: ‘We’re All Children of God’
By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com)- As stories of racial and ethnic violence continue to rock America – even during Holy Week - President Barack Obama stressed the need for unity against racism and hatred, saying, “We’re All Children of God”.

“We have to keep coming together across faiths to combat the ignorance and intolerance, including anti-Semitism that can lead to hatred and to violence, because we’re all children of God. We’re all made in His image, all worthy of his love and dignity. And we see what happens around the world when this kind of religious-based or tinged violence can rear its ugly head.  It’s got no place in our society,” he said at an Easter prayer breakfast this week.

President Obama was specifically addressing the Kansas City incident in which documented White supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller (also used last name Cross) shot and killed three people at a community center and retirement home on Sunday. Shouting “Hail, Hitler!” Miller, who reportedly has a long history of involvement with the Ku Klux Klan, apparently thought the people were Jewish. Therefore, authorities say he will be charged with a hate crime.

The dead are high school freshman Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, an Eagle Scout and singer; his grandfather, William Lewis Corporon, a medical doctor; and Terri LaManno, shot while caring for her mother at a nearby nursing home.

The incident happened just as President Obama was preparing his remarks for the White House’s annual Easter Prayer Breakfast. Speaking before members of the administration, staffers, ministers and faith leaders, he gave “brief reflections as we start this Easter season.”

He parlayed the latest story of pain into a message of hope.

“My main message is just to say thank you to all of you, because you don’t remain on the sidelines.  I want to thank you for your ministries, for your good works, for the marching you do for justice and dignity and inclusion, for the ministries that all of you attend to and have helped organize throughout your communities each and every day to feed the hungry and house the homeless and educate children who so desperately need an education,” he said. “You have made a difference in so many different ways, not only here in the United States but overseas as well.  And that includes a cause close to my heart, My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative that we recently launched to make sure that more boys and young men of color can overcome the odds and achieve their dreams.”

Recent stories of racial division in America has predominately included attacks on unarmed young men of color, such as the Trayvon Martin, 17, shot and killed while walking from a neighborhood store; Jonathan Ferrell, 24, shot and killed while seeking help after a car accident and Jordan Davis, 17, shot and killed by a man who thought his music was too loud. However, President Obama stressed the need to equally deal with social issues that cause self-destructive behavior in Black neighborhoods.

He praised people in the audience who have mentored and worked with “young men in tough neighborhoods…We’re also joined by some of these young men who are working hard and trying to be good students and good sons and good citizens.  And I want to say to each of those young men here, we’re proud of you, and we expect a lot of you.  And we’re going to make sure that we’re there for you so that you then in turn will be there for the next generation of young men.”

Turning back to the Easter season and the meaning of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the President concluded his message, sounding almost like a preacher.

“So this Easter Week, of course we recognize that there’s a lot of pain and a lot of sin and a lot of tragedy in this world, but we’re also overwhelmed by the grace of an awesome God.  We’re reminded how He loves us, so deeply, that He gave his only begotten Son so that we might live through Him.  And in these Holy Days, we recall all that Jesus endured for us - the scorn of the crowds and the pain of the crucifixion, in our Christian religious tradition we celebrate the glory of the Resurrection - all so that we might be forgiven of our sins and granted everlasting life.”

The President concluded, “And more than 2,000 years later, it inspires us still.  We are drawn to His timeless teachings, challenged to be worthy of His sacrifice, to emulate as best we can His eternal example to love one another just as He loves us.  And of course, we’re always reminded each and every day that we fall short of that example.  And none of us are free from sin, but we look to His life and strive, knowing that “if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us.”