A number of mainstream media outlets, including CNN and NBC News, have once again started referring to Christians as “Easter worshippers” as their most sacred day approaches.

The reference was made in response to a tragic accident in South Africa, where 45 people were killed after a bus plunged off a cliff in the nation's Limpopo province on Thursday. The victims were headed to an Easter conference when the accident occurred, leaving just one critically injured survivor.

Social media users took issue with the bizarre usage of the term “Easter worshippers” rather than Christians, however. “Bus carrying Easter worshippers falls off cliff killing 45 people in South Africa,” reads CNN's headline. Similar headlines were used by People Magazine, NBC News and dozens of others.

“They're doing this again. We are Christians, not 'Easter worshippers,'” said polling and elections analyst Red Eagle Politics. “We don't worship 'Easter,' we worship Christ.”

The term previously generated controversy in 2019, when Islamic extremists murdered dozens of Christians during Easter celebrations in Sri Lanka. “The attacks on tourists and Easter worshippers in Sri Lanka are an attack on humanity. On a day devoted to love, redemption, and renewal, we pray for the victims and stand with the people of Sri Lanka,” said former President Barack Obama at the time.

The term was also used by a number of additional media outlets and elected officials, including Hilary Clinton.

“How do President Obama and Secretary Clinton both come up with Easter worshippers in their tweets about the murders in Sri Lanka? To have both of them use the same term the same day is strange,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote in response to the bizarre phrase. ” Is Easter Worshipper the left’s new way to avoid the word Christian? Pathetic.”