The president who famously said he’s never prayed to ask for God’s forgiveness claimed Sept. 8 he’s going to reinstitute prayer in public schools — a practice outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962.
Ever since the court’s ruling in Engle v. Vitale, which said mandatory school prayer is unconstitutional, conservative evangelicals have sought to “return prayer to schools.” The high court said mandatory school prayer times violated the First Amendment by establishing one religion and coercing all children to observe it.
Exactly how Donald Trump believes he’s going to skirt this landmark court ruling was not clear as he spoke to his newly established Religious Liberty Commission meeting at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.
Scott Turner leads the Religious Liberty Commission meeting in prayer. (White House photo)
“I am pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools,” he said to extended applause.
“For most of our country’s history, the Bible was found in every classroom in the nation. Yet in many schools today, students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda and some are even punished for their religious beliefs and very, very strongly punished,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Trump introduced Hannah Allen from Honey Grove, Texas, who claims she was denied the right to gather students to pray for an injured classmate in 2020. Trump had highlighted her claims that year at the White House as he faced impeachment. According to Trump’s telling today, the “school principal declared that Hannah’s generous act of love was prohibited from taking place in front of the other students.”
But according to Honey Grove ISD Superintendent Todd Morrison, that’s not what happened.
“The original incident happened during a lunch hour where people found it hard to move to and from the cafeteria,” he told a local news outlet in 2020. “The principal had asked the prayer group to move to one side to keep the doorway clear, and a few days later, they welcomed me to join them.”
Publicity photo from First Liberty Institute.
That affront — of asking students to move aside to allow the free flow of traffic — became a cause for complaint by First Liberty Institute, a far-right legal advocacy group that sent a threatening letter to the school district.
By Trump’s account, Allen “very strongly stood her ground and she won.”
In reality, nothing else happened, according to contemporary published accounts.
Trump opined to Allen over the crowd’s applause: “Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I know what you went through. I know what you went through. It’s great. I appreciate it.”
School prayer was not the only offering Trump had for the evangelical crowd.
He introduced an “America Prays” initiative the White House bills as “prayer and rededication of the United States as one nation under God” in preparation for the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.
The “opportunity,” according to the White House website, is “to rededicate ourselves to the principles that gave birth to this land of liberty. As George Washington famously said in his Farewell Address, ‘Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.’”
Other highlights of Trump’s address:
- “When faith gets weaker, our country seems to get weaker. When faith gets stronger… good things happen for our country. It’s amazing the way it seems to work that way. Under the Trump administration, we’re defending our rights and restoring our identity as a nation under God. We are One Nation Under God — and we always will be.”
- “To have a great nation, you have to have religion. I believe that so strongly. There has to be something after we go through all of this — and that something is God.”
- “America has always been a nation that believes in the power of prayer and we will never apologize for our faith — ever, ever, never, never. We will never surrender our God-given rights. We will defend our liberties, our values, our sovereignty, and we will defend our freedom.”
Religious liberty watchdog groups — who have uniformly been critical of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission — condemned the president’s latest statements as more evidence of his Christian nationalist agenda.
Amanda Tyler
“President Trump’s speech was not about religious liberty; it was about perpetuating Christian nationalism,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “Calling for government to ‘bring back religion in America,’ privilege so-called ‘Judeo-Christian principles’ above all others, and direct the Department of Education to issue new guidance on prayer in public schools turns the Constitution on its head and invites government interference where it does not belong.
“The First Amendment protects every person’s right to follow their faith freely, or no faith at all, without government interference. When political leaders suggest that religion is the government’s to promote, they threaten the very freedom they claim to defend.
“Faith is strongest when it is voluntary,” Tyler said. “The Baptist tradition has long insisted that government has no business dictating religious belief or practice, whether in our churches, our schools or our personal lives. BJC will continue to oppose Christian nationalism and advocate for religious freedom for all people.”
Rachel Laser
Also blasting Trump’s comments was Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
“Today’s Religious Liberty Commission meeting once again demonstrated that this commission isn’t about religious liberty; it’s about rejecting the nation’s religious diversity and prioritizing one set of Christian beliefs,” she said. “From the professions of Christian faith to the chorus of ‘Amens’ during Christian prayers to the exclusively Christian speakers this morning, this government hearing was more like a church service. Once again, President Trump is using religion to promote his self-aggrandizement and political agenda, all the while perpetuating the lie that America is a Christian nation and that religion is under attack.”
As for Trump’s “America Prays” initiative, she said: “People who care about religious freedom don’t need to be told when or how to pray; they need leaders who are committed to separation of church and state.”
And echoing concerns about the initial meeting of the commission, Laser added: “At a hearing focused on religious freedom and public schools, the commission ignored the most serious threats. From mandates to display the Ten Commandments and teach from the Bible to Christianity-infused curriculum and the installation of school chaplains, Christian nationalists and their political allies are trying to impose their personal religious beliefs on America’s public school children.”
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