Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday said the faith of millions of Americans during the Easter season is a source of hope amidst an uptick in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Pence made the remarks during the daily briefing from President Trump and the Coronavirus Task Force.
“In the wake of more than 1.9 million tests, we see more than 400,000 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus, and sadly, we’ve lost more than 14,000,” Pence said. “We grieve. But as the Good Book says, we do not grieve like those who have no hope. In this very special week, I know that the faith of millions of Americans is a comfort to them.”
Trump, too, referenced the Easter holiday.
“This is a holy week, when religious believers across the nation will observe Passover, Good Friday and Easter,” Trump said. “Millions of Jewish families begin Passover at sundown tonight, a sacred, unbroken tradition that traces back to the ancient land of Egypt. And on Sunday, we celebrate our beautiful, wonderful Easter, which we all look forward to. And we’re going to have many Easters together in churches in the future.”
America, he said, is “getting much closer” to defeating the virus and “getting our country back to the way it was.”
Trump and Pence spoke to about 10,000 religious leaders Wednesday in an off-the-record conference call “to thank them for raising the spirits of our people during these very difficult days,” Trump said.
“While we may be physically apart, we can use this time to pray, to reflect, and to focus on our personal relationship with God,” Trump said.
Although a transcript of the conference call was not released, NBC News reported that Trump told the religious leaders, “We're going to beat this plague.”
“We're going to beat this virus and we're going to beat it soon,” Trump said. “We're going to get our country back.”
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Photo courtesy: Public Domain/The White House
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
