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Wednesday, May 6, 2026 | 2 a.m.
Editor’s note: “Behind the News” is the product of Sun staff assisted by the Sun’s AI lab, which includes a variety of tools such as Anthropic’s Claude and Google Gemini.
What began as a government-backed celebration of 250 years of American independence has evolved — some would say morphed — into something that looks less like a national birthday party and more like a state-sponsored evangelical revival.
Freedom 250, the public-private initiative born of President Donald Trump’s White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, was sold to the country as a sweeping commemoration of the Declaration of Independence’s July 4, 2026, anniversary. [1] But as the calendar of events has filled in, a clearer picture has emerged: The celebration has a pronounced religious dimension, one dominated by conservative Christianity and largely absent of the religious pluralism the nation’s founders enshrined in the First Amendment.
How it started
Congress created the bipartisan U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission — known as America250 — in 2016 to plan the nation’s 250th anniversary. [2] The nonpartisan effort drew support across the political spectrum; former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and their wives served as honorary co-chairs, and a congressional caucus backing it grew to nearly 400 members. [3]
That changed when Trump returned to the White House. He established his own parallel planning apparatus, the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday — quickly branded Freedom 250 — via executive order. [1] The original America250 commission found itself squeezed: By the end of 2025, $10 million of its congressionally appropriated $150 million had been diverted to Freedom 250’s “Freedom Trucks” program, a fleet of mobile museums traveling the country. [4] Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., raised concerns early in 2026 that the remaining appropriated funds might be redirected as well. [4]
The Freedom 250 calendar that emerged features a genuine range of patriotic programming: freedom-themed events at national parks, a massive July 4 fireworks display on the National Mall, a UFC fight on the White House South Lawn and a Grand Prix race through the capital’s streets. [5] But woven through it all — and increasingly prominent — is an explicitly Christian thread.
‘America prays’
The first unmistakably religious strand of Freedom 250 appeared in September 2025, when Trump announced the “America Prays” initiative at the Museum of the Bible in Washington. The White House described it as part of the “grand commemoration” of the 250th anniversary — an invitation to faith communities to pray for the nation. [6]
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who is also a Baptist pastor, joined the announcement and cast a vision with a notably evangelical cadence. “What if 1 million people pray for our country every single week between now and next July Fourth?” Turner asked. “More specifically, what if believers all across this great nation got together with 10 people — friends, family members, colleagues, work associates — 10 people each week to pray for our country and for our fellow citizens?” [7]
More than 70 faith organizations signed on to the initiative, including the Southern Baptist Convention and WallBuilders, the organization founded by Christian nationalist author David Barton, whose book on Thomas Jefferson was withdrawn by its publisher after historians documented factual errors. [7, 24] The White House published a 22-page document, “Prayers and Proclamations Throughout American History,” to support the effort. [7]
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, was blunt in her response. “The Trump administration is advancing this Christian Nationalist agenda with the launch of his ‘America Prays’ initiative, which calls on Americans to pray for our country,” 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.” [8]
‘Rededicate America as one nation under God’
The religious dimension of Freedom 250 reached its most overt expression in February, when Trump announced, at the National Prayer Breakfast, an event called “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving.” Scheduled for May 17 on the National Mall, the all-day gathering — organized by Freedom 250 as part of its White House partnership — would, in Trump’s words, “rededicate America as one nation under God.” [9] The crowd at the National Prayer Breakfast gave him a standing ovation.
The event’s speaker list, made public in April, confirmed what critics had suspected. According to Religion News Service, speakers are almost entirely Christian and predominantly evangelical, with some conservative Catholics represented. [10] Cabinet members on the program include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who attends churches associated with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches; Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Catholic, participating via video; and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Southern Baptist. [10]
The evangelical lineup runs deep. Pastors scheduled to speak include Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas; Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel in Georgia; Jonathan Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University and senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Virginia; and Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, will address the crowd via video. [10]
The only non-Christian religious leader listed is Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, who also serves on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission. [10] Representatives of Islam, Indigenous spiritual traditions, mainline Protestant churches or historically Black denominations are not on the program. [10]
Vince Haley, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, announced the event to the National Religious Broadcasters convention in February, where he told attendees the theme of Freedom 250 “centers on faith” and actively recruited Christian media to promote the celebrations. [11] “That’s why I was so eager to speak this evening, as I would like to enlist the help of the men and women of constancy in this room on behalf of President Trump to make the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary one for the ages,” Haley said. [11]
Haley framed Rededicate 250’s May 17 date as historically significant: It falls 250 years to the day after the Second Continental Congress called for a day of humiliation, fasting and prayer in 1776. [11]
The White House’s own language
The religious framing of Freedom 250 is not incidental. It is written directly into the initiative’s own description on the White House website. The stated goals of Task Force 250 include an invitation for Americans “to pray for our country and our people and rededicate ourselves as One Nation Under God.” [1]
The White House Freedom 250 page describes the Rededicate 250 event in revival terms: “At sunrise, the National Mall will transform into a large-scale revival, beginning with worship, testimonies and music, and culminating in a powerful national moment of prayer.” [1] The event’s livestream will be “streamed to parishes” and “amplified through coordinated media and a lead-up series with pastors and partners highlighting the Church’s role in history and civic life.” [1]
In a Religious Freedom Day proclamation in January, Trump explicitly linked Freedom 250 to his broader religious agenda, noting that the initiative included “America Prays — an invitation to Americans of every background to join together in prayer.” The same proclamation described his administration’s launch of a “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias” and a directive to the Department of Education to protect prayer in public schools. [13]
Cabinet officers and the Christian nationalist message
Hegseth has been perhaps the most outspoken Cabinet voice in connecting Freedom 250 to a specifically Christian vision of America. Speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in February — an event that opened with a prayer thanking God for protecting the country from “pandemics and plan-demics” — Hegseth addressed the audience as “brothers and sisters in Christ.” [14]
He told the gathering the country was based on a “sacred covenant” with God and declared: “America was founded as a Christian nation … in our DNA.” [15] The Associated Press, reporting this week on the debate over America’s founding, noted that such claims run counter to the broad scholarly consensus. “Most — nearly all — serious historians agree that America was not founded as a Christian nation in any meaningful legal, philosophical or constitutional sense,” Americans United for Separation of Church and State said. [16]
Dubious history
Critics have noted that the religious framing of Freedom 250 rests in part on historical claims scholars dispute. The Rededicate 250 webpage featured an image of George Washington praying in the snow — a reference to a story that historians, including the head of the George Washington Presidential Library at Mount Vernon, have widely dismissed as a fabrication. [17]
The Religious Liberty Commission, which Trump created in May 2025 and which expires July 4, produced a 22-page document for the White House arguing that the Christian roots of the United States are a matter of historical fact. [18] The commission’s chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, said at its final April meeting that church-state separation is “the biggest lie that’s been told in America since our founding.” [19]
Americans United and Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit in February challenging the commission’s composition, noting it included only one non-Christian member and that its Christian members did not represent the full diversity of the Christian faith. [20]
Concerns about government-sponsored religion
The Freedom From Religion Foundation raised alarms in November after activist and musician Sean Feucht claimed he was working with Trump administration officials to stage what he described as “revival meetings sponsored by the U.S. government all across the nation,” including at Mount Rushmore. [21]
“The United States government has no business sponsoring Christian revival events — period,” said FFRF co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The 250th anniversary of our founding should celebrate freedom, reason and equality, not serve as a pulpit for religious proselytizing.” [21]
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., was among those in Congress to push back, accusing the administration of “Christian nationalism on the taxpayer dime” and calling the 250th anniversary events an attempt to push “a false narrative that our country was founded as a Christian nation.” [22]
The broader context of Freedom 250’s religious programming includes monthly Christian prayer services that Hegseth hosts at the Pentagon and that now-former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer began mirroring at the Department of Labor in December, citing the Pentagon services as her inspiration. [23] Americans United filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against both departments in March seeking communications and costs related to the services. [23]
As May 17 approaches and the National Mall prepares for its “large-scale revival,” the question Freedom 250 has stirred runs deeper than event planning. It is a question about who America’s 250th birthday party is actually for — and whether the party planners have confused patriotism with a particular brand of piety.
Sources
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/freedom250/
[5] https://nrb.org/vince-haley-enlists-christian-communicators-to-lead-freedom-250-celebrations/
[11] https://nrb.org/vince-haley-enlists-christian-communicators-to-lead-freedom-250-celebrations/
[13] https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/religious-freedom-day-2026/
[14] https://religionnews.com/2026/02/20/christ-is-king-hegseth-tells-nrb-at-god-and-country-event/
[16] https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-05-03/did-the-founders-create-a-christian-nation-no-but-religion-did-shape-their-thinking
[18] https://religionnews.com/2026/04/14/church-state-separation-is-lie-says-trump-commission-chair/
[19] https://www.au.org/the-latest/articles/religious-liberty-commission-myths/
[20] https://www.au.org/the-latest/articles/religious-liberty-commission-faca/
[22] https://www.ms.now/opinion/trump-250th-anniversary-july-fourth-christian-nationalist-revival
[23] https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/04/phrase-separation-church-state-has-no-legal-standing/
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