I received a press release last Friday from Dr. Alex McFarland of Alex McFarland Ministries. McFarland is a Christian Nationalist who, based on the number of press releases he issues, gets angry a lot. This time, he was upset about the way calendars work.
This year, International Transgender Day of Visibility and Easter both fell on March 31. In Fairfax County, Va., the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution recognizing International Transgender Day of Visibility. This caused McFarland to go into conniptions.
“It’s no coincidence that that largely democratic [sic] board voted to acknowledge Transgender Day of Visibility on the same day as Easter,” McFarland blared in a press release. “Forcing Easter, the culmination of God’s divine plan to redeem mankind, to share a date with a day intended to celebrate the departure of God’s perfect and beautiful design for mankind is an absolute travesty. The Left has been trying to replace Christianity with its progressive, humanist ideologies for years, and now they have gone as far as trying to diminish our celebration of the glorious resurrection of Christ. Rest assured, no amount of liberal slander or derisive, insensitive political decisions can diminish the truth of the Bible or the splendor of the Gospel.”
Over the weekend, Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson launched similar inane attacks on President Joe Biden for his proclamation recognizing International Transgender Day of Visibility.
The Christian Nationalists need to take a deep breath. It is absolutely a coincidence that both events occurred on the same day this year, not a conspiracy by progressive secularists. You see, International Transgender Day of Visibility always occurs on March 31. Easter, by contrast, moves around the calendar every spring. Unlike Christmas, Halloween and National Pickle Day, Easter does not have a fixed date. (Easter falls on the first Sunday after the paschal full moon following the Spring Equinox; it always occurs between late March and late April.)
This year, both events just happened to fall on the same day. Advocates of church-state separation and secular government had nothing to do with this; it’s just how calendars work. Furthermore, recognition of International Transgender Day of Visibility by Fairfax County, the federal government or any other public body doesn’t prevent anyone from celebrating Easter. Two events can fall on the same day, and we can react to that as we please.
That’s called freedom. The people whining about this manufactured controversy need to chill out.
