Easter at the White House is not everything, but it is not nothing. The way a president speaks about Holy Week and the resurrection of Jesus Christ reveals what kind of moral inheritance he is willing to honor in public life.
Update (April 1, 2026): Since this article first ran, the Trump administration has gone beyond a single Holy Week statement. In 2025, the White House issued an official Holy Week message centered on Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, established a White House Faith Office, created a Religious Liberty Commission, and launched a Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. In 2026, the administration’s Religious Freedom Day proclamation and Ash Wednesday message continued that same emphasis on faith in the public square, religious liberty, and the centrality of Easter in Christian life.
Original: Does it matter how the White House treats Easter and the Holy Week? How should Christians think about it?
Consider these two statements from two different administrations:
“On Transgender Day of Visibility, we honor the extraordinary courage and contributions of transgender Americans and reaffirm our Nation’s commitment to forming a more perfect Union…”
That was the opening paragraph of President Biden’s March 29, 2024 proclamation designating March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility. In 2024, that date fell on Easter Sunday.
Contrast that message with this:
“During this sacred week, we acknowledge that the glory of Easter cannot come without the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross. In His final hours on Earth, Christ willingly endured excruciating pain, torture, and execution on the cross out of a deep and abiding love for all His creation. Through His suffering, we have redemption. Through His death, we are forgiven our sins. Through His Resurrection, we have hope of eternal life. On Easter morning, the stone is rolled away, the tomb is empty, and light prevails over darkness — signaling that death does not have the final word.”
This is the statement from the White House and President Donald Trump earlier this week.
What a difference just one year can make, but does it matter how the White House treats Easter? After all, we believe in religious liberty and not all Americans are Christians nor do all Americans champion the Christian faith.
But Here’s the Point: Religious Liberty in American civics and American law was not a modern secular notion nor an automatic safeguard for religious pluralism, religious equity, and especially paganism. Historically, two nineteenth-century Supreme Court opinions used “Christian country” and “Christian nation” language when describing America’s legal and cultural inheritance, even as American law also protected religious liberty and recognized a diversity of sects. That history matters, but it should be stated carefully.
For nearly 250 years, America — with a Christian form of government, a Christian ethos, and a Christian history — has always had an American president that has championed our Christian traditions and heritage as a nation. Until more recently, that is, when the sexual revolution attempted to hold America hostage to a movement that sought to trample on our rights and blatantly use Biden’s White House and bully pulpit to insult Americans and millions of Christians on the most sacred day of the year.
Yes, it does matter how the White House celebrates Easter. Yes, it does matter that in a nation that affords religious liberty to all Americans, we do not fall prey to the notion of religious equity and religious pluralism.
Our Constitution was written for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate to the governance of any other. Whose morality and what religion? There can be no doubt, it has been and always will be Christian.
And praise God that President Donald Trump has pledged to defend the Christian faith in our schools, the military, the workplace, and the halls of government.
This Easter when you celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christians should be grateful and self-aware that America is also undergoing a bit of a Lazarus moment. Our country does have some life in it, after all.
There are brave men and women — those who confess Christ as Lord — who are standing up against paganism, gross immorality, spiritual darkness, and even tyranny.
We should acknowledge with gratitude to God that we finally have an American president who understands his constitutional duty and who he represents in the Oval Office.
We should also recognize that while we may have no lasting city in this world but are seeking that eternal city that is to come, we still have an earthly home, an earthly vocation, and an earthly calling.
We would do well to remember, those who are living in the United States, that this is our country, the country where God planted us, and we should do our level best to ensure that it remains free and that the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the lampstand of the Church is never extinguished in the United States.
As you celebrate Easter, pray for revival in our nation. Pray for biblical reformation in our churches. And pray for courage and boldness — as it is needed now more than ever.
If you believe America needs bold Christian witness, stronger religious liberty, and moral courage in the public square, make your gift today to help the Standing for Freedom Center defend truth, equip believers, and keep the light of the Gospel shining.
