News item: “Southern Baptist pastor, Fox News host get facts wrong”
Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, appeared on the program “Fox and Friends” just two days after Easter to try to link [President Barack] Obama to Islam.
When host Steve Doocy asked Jeffress what he thought about Obama not issuing a proclamation recognizing Easter, Jeffress began questioning Obama’s faith.
“Steve, let’s look at what’s really going on here,” Jeffress replied. “On the one hand, we have a president who never met a Muslim holiday he didn’t like, or at least wasn’t willing to issue a proclamation for, and on the other hand, here he is refusing to acknowledge publicly the most important event in Christian faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and yet the White House is wondering why do 20 percent of Americans believe the president is a Muslim? Well, as my kids would say, ‘Duh.’ I mean, it’s actions like these that really make people wonder what it is the president really believes.”
Neither Doocy nor Jeffress pointed out that no president has issued an official proclamation recognizing Easter. Obama was merely following precedent.
Additionally, Obama has not issued official proclamations for Muslim holidays as both Doocy and Jeffress asserted, but instead released less formal statements. … Contrary to Jeffress’ claim, Obama had recognized Easter with a special prayer breakfast just one week before Jeffress’ attack.
So, we seem to have a pattern here:
Total number of white U.S. presidents who did not issue official proclamations recognizing Easter: 43
Total number of white U.S. presidents criticized for this by Robert Jeffress, CEO of First Baptist Church of Dallas: 0
Total number of nonwhite U.S. presidents who did not issue official proclamations recognizing Easter: 1
Total number of nonwhite U.S. presidents criticized for this by Robert Jeffress, CEO of First Baptist Church of Dallas: 1
That’s a remarkably clear pattern, but whatever could it mean? Is there any explanation that could make sense of this?
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