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Commentary

Biden Banishes Christian Images, Celebrates Transgender Day of Visibility on Easter

April 1, 2024

For all his campaign ads about passing historic legislation, President Joe Biden’s most impactful legacy might be his alteration of America’s spiritual life. Late last week, the Biden administration prohibited children from expressing their Christian faith while redesignating Easter Sunday as the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” Biden literally banished Christianity from a children’s contest celebrating its most joyful holiday while exalting a radical and harmful ideology in its place.

The Biden administration’s revolution began where all revolutions begin: with children. The 2024 “Celebrating National Guard Families” art contest, which is part of the White House Easter Egg Roll, asks children of servicemembers to submit designs for Easter eggs ?" but not any that highlight the actual content of Easter. The contest’s flyer instructs children they “must not include any questionable content, religious symbols, overtly religious themes, or partisan political statements.” The Biden administration banned religious imagery alongside “bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against any group or individual or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.”

These rules, overseen by the nation’s “devout Catholic” president, stigmatize the majority of Americans, who believe in God. They also prohibit the families of servicemembers, who stand ready to deploy into combat at a moment’s notice, of the free exercise of their religion. The instructions ask children to depict “a favorite activity, scenery in your state, your military family, a day-in-your life, etc.” But what if the child’s “favorite activity” is exclaiming, “Christ is risen!” in church Easter morning? What if a day in this child’s life does not go by without thinking about the empty tomb that gives them eternal life? The Biden administration has deprived them of the opportunity to share their artistic gifts and win a prize, funded by all Americans. (Forget the move’s hypocrisy: Presumably, in signing his Easter proclamation, Biden did not remove the rosary he has worn around his wrist since the tragic death of his son Beau in 2015. Biden told Megyn Kelly in 2017 that rosary “is my connection with him.” For some, such religious items connect them with a Higher Power ?" a power they also wish to symbolize, in public, on their religion’s holiest day.)

Leftists in general ?" and the Biden family in particular ?" are keenly aware of the educational, catechetical value of public holidays. In identical comments in 2022 and 2023, First Lady Jill Biden called the White House Easter Egg Roll a learning opportunity where “we turned the South Lawn into a school community.” (The Biden administration would not allow children to gather for the outdoor activity in 2021 to stop the spread of COVID-19.) The message is clear: Christian children are second-class citizens in Biden’s America.

That makes it all the more revealing when Biden issued an official statement on Friday declaring Easter Sunday, March 31, as the “Transgender Day of Visibility.” (Biden finally got around to issuing a statement on Easter ?" on Sunday.) Biden actually previewed the shift to America’s new religion in the first of his two statements celebrating the 2023 “Transgender Day of Visibility,” in which Biden declared: “Transgender Americans shape our [n]ation’s soul.”

Biden’s wording was less effusive this year, but the content remained the same. “Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our [n]ation,” Biden wrote. Since people who identify as transgender “help America thrive,” they deserve the “fundamental freedom to be their true selves,” Biden’s 2024 statement states.

But how can trans-identifying people do for America what they cannot do for themselves? One study found, the moment someone begins to identify as transgender, “the most common outcomes were worsened mental well-being (47.2%); worsened parent child relationship (57.3%); unchanged or mixed grades/academic performance (59.1%); and a narrowed range of interests and hobbies (58.1%).” A growing list of whistleblowers know what everyone who works in gender clinics quietly admits: Teens who identify as transgender suffer from an array of psychological comorbidities, including autism, depression, and bipolar disorder aside from their “gender dysphoria.”

Democratic politicians continually highlight statistics showing the mental suffering and fragility of trans-identifying Americans, but they, like Biden, chalk up innate depression to “bullying and discrimination.” In the Left’s bipolar world, the LGBTQ lifestyle is both a perfectly well-adjusted path to “trans joy” and a death sentence in an America whose heteronormative and cisgender bias rivals that of Pakistan.

Biden warned darkly that “extremists are proposing hundreds of hateful laws that target and terrify transgender kids.” Extremists? In reality, 71% of Americans agree “there are two genders, male and female”; 64% of Americans support legislation barring talk of gender ideology in elementary school; and 68% believe minors should not be subjected to transgender hormone or surgeries. But in the Left’s Permanent Committee to Repeal Reality, if a same-sex relationship can be a marriage, and a man can become a woman, then 32% can be a majority.

Biden did not speak for his administration alone. Praising the new holiday became, in the Left’s Orwellian-sounding parlance, a “whole-of-government” exercise. Vice President Kamala Harris gushed, “On Transgender Day of Visibility, we celebrate transgender and nonbinary Americans,” adding, “We won’t stop fighting for you.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has seldom missed an opportunity to wage war on America’s allies, vowed to “continue to fight for a world” that aligns with transgender political priorities. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said without proof that “our country’s great transgender, nonbinary, and two-spirit leaders … epitomize resilience, progress, and joy.” Even the secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, praised the “vibrancy of the transgender community” before highlighting “our shared fight for justice.”

Christian politicians, and those not committed to the social revolution, took Biden to task for redefining Easter weekend. “It is appalling and insulting that Joe Biden’s White House prohibited children from submitting religious egg designs for their Easter Art event, and formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’ Sadly, these are just two more examples of the Biden [a]dministration’s year-long assault on the Christian faith. We call on Joe Biden’s failing campaign and White House to issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America who believe tomorrow is for one celebration only ?" the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” said Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. “This is the left’s new religion. They want people worshiping the trans flag instead of God,” said Donald Trump Jr. Contrasting Biden’s commitment to transgender visibility and Chrisian erasure, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) said, “The Biden White House has betrayed the central tenet of Easter ?" which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

The Left attempted to counterpunch, claiming the real offense is not Biden’s banishment of Christian themes from the White House but since “[t]he date of Easter moves each year, while Trans Day of Visibility is always recognized on March 31,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the CEO of the LGBTQ group GLAAD, accused “right-wing politicians and talking heads” of “using the coincidental timing to overshadow the hope and joy that Easter represents.” But Transgender World ?" which touts itself as a source for “queer news, debate, and resources” ?" posted on social media that “the Transgender Agenda’s final goal has finally been achieved: holding Trans Day of Visibility on Easter Sunday. That’s right, folks: we got ’em.” 

The Biden White House tried to portray Biden’s endorsement of gender confusion and mutilation as less offensive than President Trump endorsing and encouraging people to read the Bible. “President Biden will never abuse his faith for political purposes or for profit,” lectured White House spokesman Andrew Bates.

By replacing Christianity with a new holiday celebrating transgender ideology (which, one must concede, relies entirely on faith), Biden has become the new Jeroboam. When Israel made a decisive split, Jeroboam made himself king of the northern 10 tribes of Israel. To keep his people from returning to worship at the Jerusalem Temple during annual Jewish feasts, Jeroboam “made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (I [III] Kings 12:25-33). While Israel coasted for some time on the fumes of its former fidelity and God’s mercy, the decision brought destruction to the nation.

Joe Biden, whoever wrote his statement, and his would-be successors should heed their fate. They should also read the Book of Wisdom of Solomon, an intertestamental book included by some Christians in the Bible and read by others in the Apocrypha, Chapter 6 warns:

“Hear therefore, O ye kings, and understand; learn, ye that be judges of the ends of the earth. Give ear, ye that rule the people, and glory in the multitude of nations. For power is given you of the Lord, and sovereignty from the Highest, Who shall try your works, and search out your counsels. Because, being ministers of His kingdom, ye have not judged aright, nor kept the law, nor walked after the counsel of God.” (Wisdom of Solomon 6:1-4)

“A multitude of wise men is the salvation of the world, and a sensible king is the stability of his people” (Wisdom 6:24). Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.

EDITOR'S NOTE: TWS is aware that the White House, in responding to various reports about the Biden administration's oversight and implementation of the rules for the egg roll event, has noted that these rules are not new to the administration. While documentation for this claim may be forthcoming, TWS's position is that it is irrelevant to the veracity of this article, which notes that this policy is still within the purview of the Biden administration.

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.



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