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Over the weekend, thousands of people participated in the “Rededicate 250” national public prayer at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., held as a faith-based “jubilee” to purportedly celebrate the country’s upcoming birthday as “One Nation Under God.”
Despite being widely promoted — and the Interior Department using at least $100 million in taxpayer funds to help hold the event — the jubilee was reportedly sparsely attended, with news agencies’ photographs showing many empty seats near the main stage, including when President Donald Trump appeared to speak to the people gathered.
Trump’s appearance was likely a letdown for those who attended. The president did not appear in person, but rather via a three-minute prerecorded video message, showing him reading a passage from the Bible. The recording was from a nationwide reading of the Bible last month, indicating that Trump didn’t provide an original message for the jubilee.
Instead of attending the event in person, Trump reportedly spent the day golfing.
Other prominent Trump administration members — including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth — also only appeared through recorded video statements. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), a noted Christian nationalist, did speak in person.
Critics questioned the true purpose of the event. While it was billed as a “rededication of our country as One Nation under God” open to all faiths, only one non-Christian speaker took part in the national prayer. The rest of the day featured Christian figures who promoted far right ideals, leading some to disavow the event as a promotion of Christian nationalism.
Before his speech, Johnson lambasted those critics in an interview with Fox News and implied that the term “Christian nationalism” shouldn’t be viewed negatively.
“The naysayers who have created this new term ‘Christian nationalism’ as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are trying to silence the influence and voices of Christians, and I think that’s wildly inappropriate,” Johnson said.
In reality, Christian nationalism isn’t a new term. Rather, it is an ideology that seeks to blend far right, often extreme, ideals of Christian thought with government policy.
“Claims of ‘loving Jesus’ and ‘instilling biblical principles’ are focused on favoring a specific expression of Christianity to elevate, legitimate, and ultimately achieve a very particular vision for the United States,” reads an explainer on Christian nationalism from the Charles Kettering Foundation. “This vision serves to defend the privileges of one group while chipping away at the fundamental tenets of an inclusive democracy where Americans of all or no religious faith can participate.”
Speaking about the Rededicate 250 event specifically, Rachel Laser, president of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the ceremony “should alarm all Americans who are patriotic.”
“In America, we separate church and state in order to protect religious freedom for all,” Laser said, additionally denouncing the event as “a government-sponsored national church service” that was “extremely problematic.”
For many years now, Christian nationalists have pushed the idea of Trump as their leader, despite Trump exhibiting little, if any, understanding of Christian principles.
Earlier this month, several far right religious leaders were part of a dedication ceremony for a golden statue of Trump at his Miami-based Doral golf course. Critics noted at the time that the ceremony had eerie similarities to the Old Testament story of the Golden Calf, a parable warning against the worship of false idols, which is strictly forbidden by the Ten Commandments.
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