WASHINGTON (ABP) — African-American Baptist leaders were among 90 clergy and other Christian leaders who gathered at the White House April 6 for an Easter prayer breakfast at which President Obama extolled the redemptive nature of Christ’s death and resurrection.
“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,” Obama said in remarks before the event in the White House’s East Room.
DeWitt Smith
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He said the promise of redemption is especially real to him because he is “continually learning [that] we are, each of us, imperfect. Each of us errs — by accident or by design…. It’s not easy to purge these afflictions, to achieve redemption. But as Christians, we believe that redemption can be delivered — by faith in Jesus Christ.”
Obama’s remarks came a day after he hosted the annual White House Easter Egg Roll and two days after he and his family made a rare appearance at a local Washington church — an Easter service at an African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the city’s overwhelmingly poor and heavily African-American Southeast quadrant.
For the vast majority of the Sunday mornings since Obama was elected, he and his family have worshiped under the leadership of a Southern Baptist chaplain at Camp David, the presidential retreat in rural Maryland. He has visited two historically black Baptist churches in the federal city — Nineteenth Street Baptist Church and Vermont Avenue Baptist Church — as well as a handful of other local churches, including St. John’s Episcopal Church, across Lafayette Square from the White House. But the family has not chosen a regular local congregation with which to affiliate.
The Easter lunch also followed a meeting with a smaller group of African-American Christian leaders, including Julius Scruggs, pastor of First Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville, Ala., and president of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc.; and Progressive National Baptist Convention president DeWitt Smith. Some black leaders have criticized Obama in recent months for not doing enough, as the country’s first African-American president, specifically to help blacks.
Julius Scruggs
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But Smith presented Obama with a letter, signed by African-American Christian leaders, defending him against criticism and praising his efforts to help “the least of these” with legislation such as the recently signed health-care-reform bill.
“President Obama has fought for us — and we must fight for him,” the letter said. “We have been troubled by the trivial debates that have become more prominent in Washington and across the country, while at the same time our families are facing historic challenges.”
The breakfast was, according to White House officials, the first of its kind specifically targeted toward celebrating Easter. Obama noted in his speech that he had tried to make an effort this year “to make the White House a place where all people would feel welcome.” The breakfast followed two other major religious events there this year — an iftar feast to observe the Muslim month of Ramadan and a seder meal to observe the Jewish holiday of Passover.
However, Obama told the group April 6, he was “particularly blessed to welcome you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, for this Easter breakfast.”
Other prominent Christian leaders at the breakfast included Houston mega-church pastor Joel Osteen and Salvation Army National Commander Israel Gaither.
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Robert Marus is managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Associated Baptist Press.