Mass DC prayer event with top White House officials seeks to reclaim US Christian roots

Thousands of people gathered Sunday in downtown Washington DC, for a mass prayer festival featuring speeches by top Trump administration officials — an event critics see as an overt display of Christian nationalism undermining the US’s separation of church and state.

Attendees sang and swayed to Christian music blared out on the National Mall, along with addresses by Christian pastors. One rabbi is also included in the lineup for the event, called “Rededicate 250,” which came one day after a “Shabbat 250” that was promoted by US President Donald Trump and received mixed reactions from Jewish leaders.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson were listed as guest speakers. Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio were set to address the crowd via video.

The gathering was organized by the White House as part of a program of celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary and, in a video message inviting Americans to attend, Hegseth said it was an opportunity to “rededicate this republic to God and country.”

Muscular Christian nationalism has enjoyed a prominent platform since Trump’s return to power, and evangelicals form a core element of the president’s support base.

From the stage, the Rev. Robert Jeffress embraced the term, which is often taken as a pejorative. “If being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in,” said the prominent Southern Baptist pastor.

Hegseth is a member of an ultra-conservative evangelical church, and his briefings on the Iran war have been notable for their use of bellicose, Christian rhetoric. He also once paraphrased a fake Bible verse featured in the movie “Pulp Fiction.”

“Today, friends, we are in a spiritual war. This is a battle in our day between good and evil, between right and wrong, between truth and lies, between light and darkness,” Pastor Gary Hamrick of Virginia told the crowd. “This is a battle for the very soul of America.”

The US Constitution explicitly bars the establishment of any official religion. The expression of any faith is also explicitly protected. US Jewish organizations have historically been outspoken advocates for safeguarding the separation of church and state.

The only non-Christian speaker on the lineup is Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, an Orthodox rabbi and senior scholar at the Tikvah Fund, a politically conservative Jewish think tank, who also sits on the Religious Liberty Commission that Trump created last year.

Rachel Laser, the Jewish CEO of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, denounced the rally as part of a rising tide of Christian nationalism.

“If President Trump and his allies truly cared about America’s legacy of religious freedom, they would be celebrating church-state separation as the unique American invention that has allowed religious diversity to flourish in our country,” she said in a statement. “Instead, they continue to threaten this foundational principle by advancing a Christian Nationalist crusade to impose one narrow version of Christianity on all Americans.”

Before Sunday’s event, Trump called on Jews to mark Shabbat, encouraging other Americans to consider embracing the Jewish day of rest as well.

“In special honor of 250 glorious years of American independence and on the weekend of Rededicate 250 — a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving — Jewish Americans are encouraged to observe a national Sabbath,” Trump said in his Jewish American Heritage Month proclamation on May 4.

“From sundown on May 15 to nightfall on May 16, friends, families, and communities of all backgrounds may come together in gratitude for our great Nation,” he continued. “This day will recognize the sacred Jewish tradition of setting aside time for rest, reflection, and gratitude to the Almighty.”

The call marked the first time that an American president has formally urged the celebration of Shabbat. Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner, now a prominent Trump adviser, reportedly observes Shabbat according to traditional interpretations of Jewish law.

The exhortation received mixed reviews from the American Jewish community. Support for the initiative has been strongest among Orthodox Jews, who tend to be more politically conservative. Rabbi Josh Joseph, executive vice president of the Orthodox Union, endorsed Trump’s call soon after it was made.

“This weekend, following President Trump’s encouragement, we will mark Shabbat 250,” he said in a statement earlier this week. “We will pause to acknowledge all the blessings that the Almighty has provided American Jews through the unique devotion to liberty embedded in this nation.”

Some Orthodox synagogues, including many affiliated with the Chabad Hasidic movement, have announced “Shabbat 250” programming, such as dinners and special speakers. More than 7,500 people have declared on a new website, Shabbat250.org, their intention to observe Shabbat.

On the other side, Rabbi Jonah Pesner of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is among the faith leaders who organized a virtual event Friday morning opposing the Sunday prayer rally that organizers say will “explain why so many religious Americans of diverse faiths are alarmed and alienated by attempts to use America’s 250th birthday as an opportunity to frame the US as a ‘Christian nation’ and to misrepresent the approach to religious tolerance and freedom adopted by our founders and Constitution.”

While previous administrations and presidents have regularly held and attended faith-based gatherings, Sunday’s event is still unusual for its scale and the presence of top cabinet officials.

“It’s not unprecedented to have a group of evangelical pastors or conservative clergy come together for something like this and blend a certain kind of nationalism with a certain kind of conservative Christianity,” said Sam Perry, a professor at Baylor University, a Christian school in Texas.

But “the Trump administration taking the lead on this celebration at this scale is different than previous events,” Perry added.

“We came here to rededicate our country back to God. Our country has fallen away in so many areas,” Jeana Dobbins, a 67-year-old retiree who traveled from North Carolina with her friend, told AFP.

Attendee Sarah Tyson, holding a “Jesus Saves” sign, said she believes Trump was chosen by God to lead the nation through a new spiritual revival.

“God ordained him for a time like this, because these United States need to wake up,” said Tyson, a middle-aged woman who came from New York with fellow church members.

The organizers’ website says the prayer gathering is for “Americans of every background,” but Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, said the list of speakers suggests “an idea of American identity that is rooted in whiteness and Christianity.”

The event “sends a specific message… that they are the mainstream Americans, and the rest of us are sidelined,” Ingersoll said.

The National Mall, which stretches from the US Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, is a common site for mass rallies and protests — most famously the 1963 March on Washington, when an estimated 250,000 people heard Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Sunday’s gathering is scheduled to last around nine hours.