Legislation isn’t the only thing certain members of Congress refuse to give a close read.
On Easter Sunday, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, an ordained minister, asserted that the Christian holiday marking Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead is about more than just Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
You probably thought the Christian holy day explicitly marking a historical event was about said historical event, you rube.
“The meaning of Easter is more transcendent than the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” the senator said in a since-deleted tweet. “Whether you are a Christian or not, through a commitment to helping others we are able to save ourselves.”
There’s nothing like a little bad theology to go with one’s Easter Sunday festivities, and from a Christian reverend, no less.
Easter does not, in fact, transcend the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection is the entire point of the holiday. There is nothing more important, certainly not to Christians and certainly not on Easter Sunday itself. There’s a reason why Easter is the most important holy day in the liturgical season, more important even than Christmas. Without Christ’s resurrection, there is no salvation.
As St. Paul put it in his first letter to the Corinthians, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith..”
Furthermore, and you’d think a Christian minister would know this, man cannot “save” himself, not in the sense that Christians mean, at least. It is through Christ and his sacrifice on Calvary that man is saved. For that matter, man also cannot “save” himself merely by being nice to others. The idea a simple “commitment to helping others” is sufficient for salvation discounts both the necessity of faith and the suffering and sacrifice of Christ on the cross, a rather curious position for a Christian reverend to endorse. According to Christian doctrine and the Scriptures, it is faith in Christ that saves the Christian, not simply “helping others” (whatever that means). Likewise, faith without works is dead. The two go hand-in-hand, and to separate one from the other, as Warnock did, is to miss the point of Christ’s ministry.
Speaking of which, Warnock’s characterization of Easter as some sort of feel-good holiday that reminds us to be good to one another is humorous, considering that Easter is about the aftermath of what happened to Christ, when men viciously beat, tortured, humiliated, and murdered the sinless son of God. Among other things, Easter is a reminder of the gravity of sin and of man’s nearly limitless capacity for cruelty and brutality.
Distressingly, Warnock is not the only member of Congress with bad theological takes regarding Easter.
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said Sunday on social media, “Jesus, uncanceled.” Ugh.
The only thing more obnoxious than “cancel culture” is the people who refuse to learn what it is or how to use the term correctly. For the record, Christ was not chased from his job and compelled to open a Substack account because of a “bad” joke or opinion. He was murdered by the Roman Empire based on false allegations of blasphemy brought by religious authorities. Also, and perhaps we shouldn’t think too hard about this, Christ was never “canceled.” He was victorious over death. That’s the whole point.
That said, at least Boebert is not an ordained minister. What’s Warnock’s excuse?
