Any observance of the nation’s 250th anniversary should celebrate the diversity of faith in U.S. history, but that’s not what Americans will see during the Trump administration’s prayer and worship service May 17, religious and civil rights leaders say.
Paul Raushenbush
Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving “uses the power of government to elevate one thin slice of American religion above others,” said Paul Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and president of Interfaith Alliance. “The overwhelming presence of white Christian nationalists on the speakers list — including clergy, cabinet members and politicians — is evidence that this event is really only by and for the most extreme Christian supporters of this administration.”
Speakers for the event on the National Mall represent a “who’s who” of right-wing evangelical political and religious leaders, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Southern Baptist pastor Jack Graham, Christian nationalist author Eric Metaxas and evangelist Franklin Graham.
Catholic Bishop Robert Barron and Cardinal Timothy Dolan are the only two non-Protestant Christians invited to participate, and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is the only non-Christian.
“It appears to be a political rally with a political agenda rather than an event that truly represents the long, rich and diverse tradition of religious expression in America,” Raushenbush said during a May 15 press briefing with other religious freedom experts.
In addition, Rededicate 250 betrays the nation’s founding by violating the First Amendment’s ban on government-established religion, he said. “My prayer is that we dedicate ourselves to our constitution and each of us in our own way express our gratitude for the wisdom of those who insisted on religious freedom for all.”
Rachel Laser
The Christian nationalist event clearly ignores the will of the country’s founders, said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “They founded a nation on the promise of religious freedom, and they drafted a constitution that was the first not to mention God, a constitution that was the first to declare that power comes from the people, a constitution that was the first to ban religious tests for office.”
The document also was the first to require a wall of separation between church and state that enables Americans to live and believe as they choose, she said. “Church-state separation is a rare unifier in very divided times. If President Trump wanted to celebrate America at this 250th anniversary, he would celebrate the fundamentally American invention of church-state separation.”
Instead, Rededicate 250 gets America “very wrong,” Laser added. “We’re supposed to be celebrating 250 years of American independence from kings who ruled over both church and state, but Trump and his religious-extremist cronies are doing their best to create an American theocracy.”
The 250th anniversary observance should instead be a celebration of the nation’s history of welcoming people of faith, and of no faith, said Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and senior vice president of the Union for Reform Judaism. “We are a nation whose religious pluralism is core to our identity. As Americans, we are a nation inspired by those committed to religious freedom for all.”
Rabbi Jonah Pesner
Jewish Scripture demonstrates the value of pluralism by describing how 12 distinct tribes found unity in diversity, Pesner said, claiming the American experience has proved that as well. “The value of religious pluralism is echoed in the founding of our country. Our constitution’s framers recognized the government’s vital role in protecting and honoring all religious communities.”
George Washington affirmed the principle in a 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in of Newport, R.I., he noted: “For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
“As Jews, we recognize the promise and the possibility of American democracy,” Pesner explained. “The United States’ constitutional commitment to religious freedom has enabled Jews, other religious minorities, and indeed all people to flourish nearly unmatched anywhere else in the world.”
Criticism of Rededication 250 is not a criticism of the act of praying for the nation, Sojourners President Adam Russell Taylor said. “That is very different than what is happening (Sunday). We are deeply concerned that what is really being rededicated is a nation to a very narrow and ideological part of the Christian faith that betrays our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious freedom.”
“What we are seeing on the mall is a predominantly group of white, far-right evangelical leaders. Yes, there is one rabbi and two Catholic leaders that will be praying, but this is a very Christian nationalist ideological version (of Christianity) that is in essence being privileged and is being platformed.”
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