Cardinal Edwin O'Brien on the Threats to Christianity

Barack Obama Questions Christian Love at White House Easter Breakfast

As Christians continued to celebrate the miracle of the Resurrection at a Tuesday Easter Prayer Breakfast at the White House, President Barack Obama could not resist poking at the Nazarene's faithful. While Mr. Obama's remarks does echo some of the Paschal message, he flippantly questioned some perceived deficiencies in Christian Love (presumably an oblique reference to Indiana's RFRA law controversy).

It seems rather rude for the President to turn a prayer breakfast of the most important holiday into a partisan punch line.  Unfortunately, this is not uncharacteristic of the Obama Administration. Last year, President Obama "spontaneously" called on the controversial gay Episcopal Bishop Vichy "Gene" Robinson for a closing prayer.

What was striking about President Obama's 2015 Easter Prayer Breakfast remarks is that he failed to acknowledge the massacre and martyrdom of 148 Christians at Garissa University College in eastern Kenya on Maudy Thursday by Islamist terrorists.  Of  course, when Mr. Obama did address the latest Kenyan atrocity, the President failed to mention the faith of both the "folks" who were slaughtered as well as the creed which inspired the dastardly deed.  In addition, when President Obama spoke about the bloody beheadings of 21 people in Libya by ISIS he referred to them as "Egyptian citizens" rather than as Coptic Christians which prompted their martyrdom.

Icon of the "New Martyrs" by Tony Rezk.  Coptic Pope Tawadros II declared Feb. 15th their feast day  

Of course, clearly identifying victims of the contemporary jihad by radical would wreck the impression that Christianity is about the Crusades and the Inquisition as President Obama alluded in his 2015 National Prayer Breakfast remarks.

Prince Charles on the Persecution of Christians

Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, recently wrote Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Raphael Sako of Baghdad in order to show support for Christians and members of other faiths suffering  barbaric persecution at the hands of Caliphate Jihadists operating under the banner of ISIS, ISIL or the "Islamic State".  

But this was not the first time that the Crown Prince of the United Kingdom has spoken out against the persecution of Christians by Islamists in the Middle East.  He spoke out about the dwindling number of Christians in the birthplace of Christianity in December, 2013.

In May 2014, Prince Charles authored an opinion piece for the pan-Arabic publication  Asharq Alawsat  in which the Prince of Wales urged:

Now is the time to re-double our joint efforts to stress what binds the three Abrahamic faiths together and, as Christians, Jews and Muslims, to express outrage at what tears us asunder.  In doing this, it is important to remind ourselves that an emphasis on love of neighbour and doing to others as we would have them do to us are the ultimate foundations of truth, justice, compassion and human rights...

Alas, ISIS rampage in Iraq against Christians, Yazidis and even Shiite Muslims who do not believe the same way that these radical Islamists see the world  have created enormous turmoil and suffering.