Thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington on Sunday for a mass prayer rally.
Organizers described the daylong event as “the rededication of our country as one nation under God.”
It saw worship music blast from a stage set against the backdrop of the Washington Monument.
Rafter columns resembling a Confederate building adorn the stage, as well as stained glass windows depicting America’s founders with a white cross.
Many people in the crowd were wearing Trump hats and patriotic colors.
The prayer rally was organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership supported by the White House, as part of the celebration of 250 years of American independence.
It saw US President Donald Trump and other top Republican officials addressing the crowd along with evangelical Protestant figures.
It has criticized the incident as an overt display of Christian nationalism that undermines the separation of church and state protected in the United States Constitution.
Prayer rally pushes narrative of Christian nationalism
Organizers streamed a video of Trump reading verses from 2 Chronicles of the Old Testament at the White House. The video was the same footage that was used during a marathon Bible-reading event in April.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways,” Trump read, “then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land.”
These verses are often cited by those who claim that America was founded as a Christian nation. He sees “my people” in this passage as Americans and the “land” as American land.
Other prominent officials at the event included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Hegseth references the legend that the first American President George Washington prayed “without ceasing” for the salvation of his army at a critical moment in the American Revolution at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in the winter of 1777–78.
Some Christians say that this account proves that the United States was founded on the Biblical principles of Christianity.
Let’s pray to “our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” said Hegseth, who has incorporated Christian language and prayer from his role leading the Pentagon. “Let us pray without ceasing. Let us kneel and pray for our nation.”
At a national prayer breakfast in February 2026, Hegseth directly linked America’s founding to Christianity when he said, “America was founded as a Christian nation.”
Apart from an Orthodox rabbi and a retired Catholic archbishop, the faith leaders invited to speak at the Sunday prayer rally were almost all conservative evangelical Protestants.
They included Paula White-Cain of the White House Faith Office and Samaritan’s Purse evangelist Franklin Graham.
And like Hegesth, most of the speakers celebrated Christianity’s ties to American history.
Evangelical Christians form a powerful lobby in the United States, and the majority of them vote Republican.
Progressive Step Group and Counterprogramming
Groups that responded included the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates strict separation of church and state, and the Christian organization Faithful America.
Both groups displayed a large balloon near a Trump-like mall of the golden calf, in a Biblical reference to idolatry.
On Thursday evening, the Interfaith Alliance raised protest slogans on the outer wall of the National Gallery of Art.
“Democracy is not theocracy,” said one. Another said: “Separation of church and state is good for both.”
Edited by: Srinivas Majumdaru