Comparing Christmas Speeches: Queen Elizabeth, President Obama, and Ronald Reagan

Sometimes I wish we belonged to the British Commonwealth.  Watching this video was one of those times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olEp_3Spc1g

From there, on The Royal Channel on Facebook (how fantastic is that?), one can see Queen Elizabeth’s first Christmas broadcast, from 1957.  It’s fascinating, and worth your time.

All of this led me to want to compare President Obama.  Putting all potential cynical comments aside, I have to applaud him for a nice speech at the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.  Here’s the relevant portion:

It is, to be sure, a watered-down version of the meaning of Christmas.  Christ is a “manifestation of God’s love” who “taught us to love God and others like ourselves.”  This is true enough, of course, as far as it goes.  It says nothing about trusting in Christ for our salvation, or about the divinity of Christ, but that’s understandable given the circumstances.  Still, it makes me miss the Ronald, who affirmed the uniqueness and divinity of Christ in his 1981 address:

Oh, Ronaldus Magnus.  How we miss thee.