The administration of President Donald Trump hosted a nine-hour prayer event on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as part of efforts to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Sunday’s event was called “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving,” and was held from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET (1 p.m. to 10 p.m. GMT).
Organizers said on the Jubilee website that the goal was to “rededicate our country as one nation to God.”
The event included performers, pastors, civil rights leaders and Trump’s Republican allies, including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
“Our rights are not given to us by the government,” Scott told the audience. “No, our rights come from God, the King of kings.”
Members of the Trump administration, including the president himself, also recorded video messages and streamed them from the podium.
Trump’s video showed him sitting behind a resolute desk in the White House, reciting the speech from Chronicles that God gave to King Solomon, promising protection to his followers and destruction to those who desert him.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio used his video to describe the United States as a country uniquely shaped by “Christian ideals.”
“Before the advent of the Christian West, most societies, and by extension, civilizations, thought in stagnant cycles: the Nile floods, the rains return, the harvest cycles. For them, history was a wheel that went all the way,” Rubio said.
“But our faith calls us out of the unknown and infinite darkness. It tells us to go out and preach the gospel to the world, as witnesses to all the nations and to the ends of the earth.”
However, this event was not without controversy. Critics noted that only one rabbinic speaker was a non-Christian.
Some religious leaders even rejected the event as a political stunt rather than a sign of sincere faith.
Paul Rauschenbusch, a pastor and president of the Interfaith Alliance, said in a social media post that his opposition did not stem from “religious antipathy.” Rather, he said, his faith forces him to cherish the “rich tapestry of beliefs” that come together in the United States.
“The rededication of 250 years is a betrayal of America’s founding values, guaranteed by the First Amendment. The Amendment makes clear that there should be no government establishment of religion, and that each of us should be free to live out our beliefs in our own way,” Rauschenbusch wrote.
Traditionally, the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to prohibit the government from establishing or imposing religious beliefs on its citizens.
But critics say the Trump administration is blurring the separation of church and state by holding regular religious services at the Pentagon.
However, President Trump accused the federal government of “anti-Christian bias.” Last year, he launched a task force to eradicate alleged discrimination.
Evangelical Christians are a pillar of Trump’s right-wing support base. Demographics play a big role in the US election season, with President Trump trying to rally Christian voters ahead of key votes.
Their views could change the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. A Pew Research Center survey released last week found a slight increase in the number of American adults who say Christianity should be named the country’s official religion. Seventeen percent now share that view, up from 13 percent in 2024.
That said, Pew researchers noted that a majority of Americans, about 54 percent, still believe in the separation of church and state.
About 52% also said that “conservative Christians are going too far in trying to push their religious values in government and public schools.”
