What a difference a year makes

What a difference a year makes. It is hard to understate the “vibe shift” in the highest office in the land as we enter into Holy Week. During last year’s Holy Week, President Biden declared Easter Sunday to be “Transgender Visibility Day.” This year during Holy Week, President Trump issued an extraordinary “Presidential Message on Holy Week, 2025.” The difference between the two proclamations could not be more stark.

President Biden chose Easter Sunday 2024 to celebrate sin and sexual disorder. I suspect this was a political calculation for the former president—a sop to the left and indifferent contempt for faithful Christians everywhere. There has been little evidence that his Catholic faith is anything more than a nominal commitment. He publicly dishonors his church’s teaching about abortion, homosexuality, and marriage. And on Easter 2024, he chose to defile the holiest day on the Christian calendar with transgender abomination. The left has already taken the entire month of June for LGBTQ observances, and last year they tried to take Easter too. Our former president was a willing accomplice.

President Trump chose Holy Week 2025 to celebrate “the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—the living Son of God who conquered death, freed us from sin, and unlocked the gates of Heaven for all of humanity.” The proclamation acknowledges that “the glory of Easter Sunday cannot come without the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross.” It says that “Christ willingly endured excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross out of a deep and abiding love for all His creation.” Then the message says that “Through His suffering, we have redemption. Through His death, we are forgiven of our sins. Through His Resurrection, we have hope of eternal life.” The president promises “to defend the Christian faith” and says that he prays “for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our beloved Nation.”

The statement really is an extraordinary expression of Christian devotion. That is not to say that President Trump personally wrote any of it or that it even reflects his own personal faith. He did after all once say that he has never asked God to forgive his sins and that when he does something wrong he doesn’t bring God into it. I have yet to see him retract this or other comments like it.

Nevertheless, no matter who penned the words or whether that statement reflects the president’s personal beliefs, the fact that he signed it is a signal to Christians that he intends not to be their enemy but their friend. Some may dismiss this as a sterile “civil religion” or mere “cultural Christianity” rather than actual Christianity. There may be some truth to that charge, but what is the alternative?

As Andrew Walker observed, “Given the choice between a robust civil religion that acknowledges Christianity's central truths and significance in America versus a pagan nationalism that hijacks Easter for transgender visibility, the answer is obvious.”

Do we want national leaders who acknowledge central truth-claims of the faith and vow to use their power to protect Christian citizens? Or would we prefer those who would publicly honor transgender identities on Easter and turn the power of the state against Christian citizens? The answer really is obvious.

But why make a fuss about the calendar observances to begin with? Why not live and let live? We would all do well to recognize the larger conflict within which “Transgender Visibility Day” was simply a single skirmish. For the truth is this: Whoever owns the calendar owns the narrative and imagination of a people. This was true with the children of Israel in the Old Testament, and it is still true now. People understand their group identities in part through the narratives playing out on their calendars.

Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving were once thoroughly Christian observances embedded in our cultural imagination. They pointed us to incarnation, to cross/resurrection, and to giving thanks. Now the “holy” days of the godless are filling our calendar while the old Christian observances and their meanings are being undermined and forgotten—their significance being largely eviscerated in our cultural memory.

The godless are colonizing the calendar, and I for one am tired of giving it away. They are trying to tell a new story of the world by capturing our annual observances. That is the larger conflict, and we should have our eyes wide open about that. And we should be thankful for any national leader who is willing to push against their efforts.