The Trump administration is hosting an all-day prayer festival on Sunday, touted as an apolitical event open to all faiths, but featuring speakers with a known history of making bigoted comments toward Catholics and Muslims.
Event Details
The nine-hour event, "Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving," is part of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It takes place on the National Mall and will host 14 religious speakers, all but three of whom are evangelical Protestants. Evangelicals make up roughly a quarter of the U.S. population, according to polling estimates.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and House Speaker Mike Johnson will also give remarks. The event is funded in part with millions of dollars in taxpayer money. A White House spokesperson deferred to event organizers for the cost, and a spokesperson for Freedom 250, the public-private partnership leading the events, did not respond to a request for comment.
Controversial Speakers
The non-evangelical speakers are an Orthodox Jew and two Catholics, all partisan conservatives serving on Trump's religious liberty commission. No speakers represent mainline Protestant or historically Black Protestant traditions. Several have a history of disparaging Muslims and Catholics, especially Pope Leo XIV.
Eric Metaxas, a conservative radio host and author, has called Islam "incompatible with American values" and "evil." He has also attacked Pope Leo, dismissing his words as "pious blather" and "Marxist garbage."
Jack Graham, senior pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, has routinely attacked Pope Leo, calling his concerns about the Iran war "total nonsense" from "a false office." He has also denounced Islam, reposting a quote calling it a "retrograde force."
Franklin Graham, a longtime Christian leader and Trump ally, will speak via video message. He has claimed Islam teaches followers to "murder and rape" and demanded all Muslims be held accountable for terrorist crimes.
Criticism
Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the event a "Jubilee of Christian Nationalism" rather than a celebration of religious freedom. She said if Trump and his allies truly cared about religious freedom, they would celebrate church-state separation. Instead, they threaten this principle by advancing a Christian Nationalist crusade to impose one narrow version of Christianity on all Americans.
