Quoting Pope Francis and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the White House Easter Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama observed that the celebration of Easter puts other concerns into context.
"With humility and with awe, we give thanks to the extraordinary sacrifice of Jesus Christ, our savior," Obama said at the annual event in the East Room. "We reflect on the brutal pain that he suffered, the scorn that he absorbed, the sins that he bore, this extraordinary gift of salvation that he gave to us. And we try, as best we can, to comprehend the darkness that he endured so that we might receive God's light."
...
Other prominent faith leaders attending included the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners; Melissa Rogers, head of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and her predecessor in the post, Joshua DuBois; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Bishop Vashti McKenzie, presiding prelate of the 13th Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; the Rev. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; and retired Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson.