White House to host 9-hour prayer festival focused on Christian roots of U.S.

essentialsaltes · May 13, 2026

White House to host 9-hour prayer festival focused on Christian roots of U.S.

Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and Mike Johnson will speak at the event, which centers on the idea that the founders wanted the U.S. to be explicitly Christian.

The Trump administration is hosting an all-day prayer festival on the National Mall on Sunday that organizers say will reflect the country’s Christian origins and, they hope, spark “a movement of renewal” in America.

“Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” is partly funded by millions in public dollars earmarked for the nation’s 250th birthday celebration, organizers said. It will feature mostly evangelical Protestant leaders and members of the Trump administration, many of whom have embraced the message that America’s founders wanted the country to be explicitly Christian.

While U.S. presidents through history have typically marked major commemorations with generic prayers of thanks to God, scholars of American religious history say the national jubilee is unprecedented in the modern era.

They say that’s because of its scope — nine hours and dozens of Christian speakers, including top U.S. officials ... — and its focus on American identity as aligned with a specific slice of conservative Protestantism.

About three-quarters of the 33 speakers listed on the Rededicate website as of Tuesday evening are evangelical Christians, compared with about a quarter of Americans overall. Organizers said the final list of speakers is still being determined.

[At another event, senior faith adviser to the White House Paula] White-Cain assured those in the audience that the jubilee would not include leaders “praying to all these different Gods.”

The all-day event — gates open at 9 a.m. and it will wrap at 6 p.m. —includes military bands, six Christian musical performers and speakers organized around three “pillars,” which the web site listed as “miracles” God imparted on America in the past, “personal testimonies of God’s healing” and a “unified moment of rededication.”

It also will feature one of the six 18-wheeler “Freedom Trucks” created by Freedom 250, which are traversing the country to teach about the founding of the nation. The material was created by two organizations that have led efforts to inject conservative content in K-12 classrooms: PragerU, a nonprofit that offers “a pro-American, Judeo-Christian message,” according to its tax forms; and Hillsdale College, a Christian school in Michigan.

Fantine · May 13, 2026

I don't have anything to celebrate--except that my Church's leader, Pope Leo XIV, is loudly proclaiming God's truth the preachers on the White House Lawn distort and malign.
I'll keep my champagne on ice until the happy day when our country once again has a president whose values reflect compassion and integrity, the golden rule values shared by every major religion in the world.

Say it aint so · May 13, 2026

The United States of America is not rooted in Christian origins. And if one wanted to argue that, one could point to the founding fathers leaving England to get away from divine kingships. Or more commonly put, a nation intertwined with Christianity.

DaisyDay · May 13, 2026

Say it aint so said:
The United States of America is not rooted in Christian origins. And if one wanted to argue that, one could point to the founding fathers leaving England to get away from divine kingships. Or more commonly put, a nation intertwined with Christianity.

They disregard the Enlightenment as an aberration.

Tuur · May 13, 2026

Waiting for the claim there were no Christians involved in the Enlightenment.

essentialsaltes · May 13, 2026

The umbrella organization Freedom250 has everything from AI portraits of founders to quotes from 'ordinary citizens' who allegedly don't exist.

It also will feature one of the six 18-wheeler “Freedom Trucks” created by Freedom 250, which are traversing the country to teach about the founding of the nation.

It looks like their PragerU/Hillsdale propaganda roadshow won't visit the West Coast.

Landon Caeli · May 13, 2026

In your face, Tyler Robinson!!! Killer!

Landon Caeli · May 13, 2026

DaisyDay said:
They disregard the Enlightenment as an aberration.

Do they..? Would you say that Christianity is incompatible with the ideals of Enlightenment?

essentialsaltes · May 13, 2026

Landon Caeli said:
Do they..? Would you say that Christianity is incompatible with the ideals of Enlightenment?

Most of the Founders who were Christian found it compatible. I think the issue here is that these modern Christian revisionists want to present those founders as being Christian in a way that reflects their own current beliefs rather than those of the Founders. And that does involve casting out Enlightenment ideals like freedom of conscience.

DaisyDay · May 13, 2026

Landon Caeli said:
Do they..? Would you say that Christianity is incompatible with the ideals of Enlightenment?

Depends on the faction of Christianity. According to Google AI, "the ideals of Enlightenment" include:

AI Overview

Enlightenment ideals, emerging in the 17th and 18th centuries, centered on using reason, empirical evidence, and scientific inquiry to understand the world and improve society. Key ideas included individual liberty, religious tolerance, natural rights, and the belief in human progress, which heavily influenced democratic revolutions and modern secular, constitutional governance.

Core Principles of the Enlightenment

Reason and Rationalism: The belief that humanity can gain knowledge through reasoning, breaking away from reliance on traditional, dogmatic authority.
Natural Rights and Individual Liberty: The idea that individuals possess innate rights (life, liberty, property) that no government should violate.
Empiricism and Science: The conviction that knowledge is acquired through observation and experience, fostering the scientific method.
Progressivism: The belief that human society can make unlimited improvement through education, science, and rational reform.
Social Contract and Consent of the Governed: The idea that government derives its power from the people, not divine right, and exists to protect their rights.
Separation of Church and State/Religious Tolerance: Promoting secular thought and reducing the role of religious authorities in government.
Cosmopolitanism and Humanism: An emphasis on the shared rights and equality of all humans

Some Christians accept all of the above and some don't. I still don't quite know how to reconcile the 1st Commandment with the 1st Amendment.

Landon Caeli · May 13, 2026

DaisyDay said:
Depends on the faction of Christianity. According to Google AI, "the ideals of Enlightenment" include:

AI Overview

Enlightenment ideals, emerging in the 17th and 18th centuries, centered on using reason, empirical evidence, and scientific inquiry to understand the world and improve society. Key ideas included individual liberty, religious tolerance, natural rights, and the belief in human progress, which heavily influenced democratic revolutions and modern secular, constitutional governance.

Core Principles of the Enlightenment

Reason and Rationalism: The belief that humanity can gain knowledge through reasoning, breaking away from reliance on traditional, dogmatic authority.

Natural Rights and Individual Liberty: The idea that individuals possess innate rights (life, liberty, property) that no government should violate.

Empiricism and Science: The conviction that knowledge is acquired through observation and experience, fostering the scientific method.

Progressivism: The belief that human society can make unlimited improvement through education, science, and rational reform.

Social Contract and Consent of the Governed: The idea that government derives its power from the people, not divine right, and exists to protect their rights.

Separation of Church and State/Religious Tolerance: Promoting secular thought and reducing the role of religious authorities in government.

Cosmopolitanism and Humanism: An emphasis on the shared rights and equality of all humans

Some Christians accept all of the above and some don't. I still don't quite know how to reconcile the 1st Commandment with the 1st Amendment.

Hmmm... Looks like I'm the Enlightenment-type.

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN · May 13, 2026

As long as the money goes into funding the poor in America. Insurance , school buildings. Teaching kids and grown ups to eat right and exercise. I don't care. I think it's just a way to get Christians to believe the government is on their side. When this Administration is waisting so much money. And not caring about people in America.

rambot · May 13, 2026

DaisyDay said:
Some Christians accept all of the above and some don't. I still don't quite know how to reconcile the 1st Commandment with the 1st Amendment.

It's the thing that makes me giggle when I hear all these Christians loudly touting how divine and God Inspired those old documents were.

As IF God is going to condone freedom of Speech.

iluvatar5150 · May 13, 2026

Say it aint so said:
The United States of America is not rooted in Christian origins. And if one wanted to argue that, one could point to the founding fathers leaving England to get away from divine kingships. Or more commonly put, a nation intertwined with Christianity.

You'd be hard pressed to find a passage in scripture that signs off on violently revolting against a monarch because he doesn't listen to you and makes you pay taxes.

Tuur said:
Waiting for the claim there were no Christians involved in the Enlightenment.

Who claims that?

Landon Caeli · May 13, 2026

rambot said:
It's the thing that makes me giggle when I hear all these Christians loudly touting how divine and God Inspired those old documents were.

As IF God is going to condone freedom of Speech.

He gave us free will, right? I believe in free will...

I can do whatever I want, and God won't stop me at all. I can sin, or I can choose not to sin. Depends on how I feel.

...But in the end, we always reap what we sow, no matter how we choose.

DaisyDay · May 13, 2026

Landon Caeli said:
...But in the end, we always reap what we sow, no matter how we choose.

What did the babies sow?

Landon Caeli · May 13, 2026

DaisyDay said:
What did the babies sow?

Babies can't sow.

Fantine · May 13, 2026

Landon Caeli said:
Do they..? Would you say that Christianity is incompatible with the ideals of Enlightenment?

No. It is only natural that living faith interacts with culture, science, knowledge.
The historical revisionists on the religious right don't accept that.

essentialsaltes · May 13, 2026

essentialsaltes said:
White House to host 9-hour prayer festival focused on Christian roots of U.S.
Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and Mike Johnson will speak at the event, which centers on the idea that the founders wanted the U.S. to be explicitly Christian.

Counterpoint, Justice Gorsuch.

Neil Gorsuch’s right-wing book tour blows up in his face

[Controversy] all stems from Gorsuch’s third book and his first for children, which was co-written with a former law clerk and released in early May ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday. In interview after interview, he has described the United States as a “creedal nation” rooted not on race, ancestry or religion but on the ideals laid out in the Declaration of Independence: equality, natural rights and self-government. “Our nation is not founded on a religion,” Gorsuch told Reason. “It’s not based on a common culture, even, or heritage. It’s based on those [Enlightenment] ideas.”

The response from his intended audience was instructive. Steve Cortes, a former adviser to Donald Trump and JD Vance, proclaimed on X that it is “amazing how wrong” Gorsuch is and that America is “clearly a Christian nation founded on the principles of Western Civilization, with the culture and mores of Europe.” Fox News’ Will Cain challenged the justice to a debate on the topic. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation — an institution that has spent decades positioning itself as the intellectual backbone of American conservatism and birthed Project 2025 — wrote that Gorsuch’s view was “completely divorced from our founding.” Jeremy Carl, the conservative commentator who had to withdraw from a State Department position this year after scrutiny over remarks about protecting “white identity,” called it “the broad intellectual failure of the conservative legal movement.”

And that makes Gorsuch’s media strategy even more ironic. The entire structure of the tour appears designed to reinforce conservative trust in the Court and in Gorsuch himself. He repeatedly emphasized civic literacy, institutional legitimacy, judicial independence and America’s founding ideals. He promoted himself as a steward of constitutional continuity. He wrapped the project in nostalgia for the Founding era ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary.

But the conservative movement he is addressing increasingly does not trust institutions, constitutional restraints or even the Founders themselves — unless they can be weaponized toward present-day populist goals.

RileyG · May 13, 2026

Interesting considering many founding Fathers were deists.

White House to host 9-hour prayer festival focused on Christian roots of U.S.

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