{"id":472,"date":"2026-05-17T19:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T19:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=472"},"modified":"2026-05-17T19:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T19:03:26","slug":"thousands-flock-to-the-national-mall-in-washington-for-an-america-themed-prayer-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=472","title":{"rendered":"Thousands flock to the National Mall in Washington for an America-themed prayer rally"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…<\/strong><\/div>\n
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By TIFFANY STANLEY<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday billed as a \u201crededication of our country as One Nation under God.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event\u2019s Christian focus. Arched stained-glass windows, set underneath grand columns resembling a federal building, depicted the nation\u2019s founders alongside a white cross.<\/p>\n

Several speakers celebrated Christianity\u2019s ties to American history, a blending of ideas that critics flagged ahead of the prayer gathering as supporting Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

From the stage, the Rev. Robert Jeffress embraced the term, which is often taken as a pejorative. \u201cIf being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in,\u201d said the prominent Southern Baptist pastor.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump was expected to address the gathering in a video message. Other top Republicans, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were also on the schedule as part of the celebrations this year marking 250 years of U.S. independence.<\/p>\n

Only one name on the Rededicate 250 program was not Christian. Most were among Trump\u2019s longtime evangelical supporters, including Paula White-Cain of the White House Faith Office and evangelist Franklin Graham of Samaritan\u2019s Purse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019s fundamental commitment to religious freedom,\u201d said the Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, a Baptist minister who leads the progressive Christian organization Sojourners.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

The conservative Christian lineup featured guests who often argue that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, a narrative disputed by many historians and other religious traditions.<\/p>\n

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Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, noted the religious diversity of early America, including Jews, Muslims and Indigenous people. \u201cI want to shine a light on America\u2019s history as a nation that welcomes, celebrates, and protects people of all faiths and those of no faith,\u201d Pesner said.<\/p>\n

Hegseth, who has infused Christian language and worship with his role leading the Pentagon, asked the gathering in a video to pray to \u201cour Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\u201d Referencing George Washington\u2019s faith, he said, \u201cLet us pray without ceasing. Let us pray for our nation on bended knee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Meir Soloveichik was the only non-Christian religious leader listed on the program. He serves on the Trump administration\u2019s Religious Liberty Commission along with White-Cain, Graham and Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic clerics also featured on the program.<\/p>\n

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The event was organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership backed by the White House. Congressional Democrats have questioned the nonprofit\u2019s structure and finances, which they see as a Trump-controlled end run around a separate commission charted by Congress a decade ago to prepare semiquincentennial events.<\/p>\n

Progressive groups planned counterprogramming. Among them were the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates a strict separation of church and state, and the Christian group Faithful America.<\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, the Interfaith Alliance projected protest slogans onto an exterior wall of the National Gallery of Art. \u201cDemocracy not theocracy,\u201d said one. Another said: \u201cThe separation of church and state is good for both.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Peter Smith in Pittsburgh contributed to this report. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.<\/p>\n

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By TIFFANY STANLEY WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Thousands of people streamed onto the National Mall for a daylong prayer rally Sunday billed as a \u201crededication of our country as One Nation under God.\u201d Against the backdrop of the Washington Monument, worship music blared from a stage that made clear the event\u2019s Christian focus. 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