Just a year after taking office for his second term, President Donald Trump made a clear promise ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday: “We’re going to rededicate America as one nation under God.”“I’ve always said,” he continued, “you just can’t have a great country if you don’t have religion.” Those comments, made at the annual National Prayer Breakfast in February, offered a preview of how the White House would depict the history of faith in America through a series of events and initiatives celebrating the semiquincentennial.
White House Platforms Primarily Christian Leaders
The White House platformed primarily Christian evangelical faith leaders for an all-day prayer festival at the National Mall on May 17, with the exception of an Orthodox rabbi and two Catholic bishops. It also launched an initiative asking Americans to pray for an hour every week and issued a document of notable Christian prayers and one Jewish blessing.
“This administration is dangerously advancing the Christian nationalist goal of establishing America as a Christian nation,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “The problem is that America won’t be America if that goal comes to fruition.” Laser, along with other civic leaders and religious experts, says Trump’s depiction of America as a solely Christian nation is wrong, and his administration is making alarming progress toward eradicating the separation of church and state. Critics also point to the White House’s use of religious messaging that excludes the majority of non-Christian religions, despite the role they played in America’s history.
Exclusion of Buddhism and Hinduism
Buddhism and Hinduism, two religions absent from the White House’s celebrations, have played a vital role in the country’s history and are increasingly influencing American culture, said David McMahan, professor of religious studies at Franklin & Marshall College. McMahan, who has published several books about Buddhism, noted that Buddhists and Hindus have influenced American history dating back to the 19th century, when they emigrated from China and India to the West Coast to help mine gold and build the country’s railroad system. Today, things like yoga, meditation and mindfulness, all of which are rooted in Buddhist and Hindu philosophies, are growing in popularity, he said.
“I think it’s a shame that this milestone in American history doesn’t take more account of that diversity,” he said. “This is kind of the first administration that has almost refused to acknowledge that diversity and really seems to be trying to tailor the celebration of this milestone in very exclusivist terms, in very nativist terms.”
Muslim Americans Excluded Despite Historical Presence
Muslim Americans — a group that Trump has repeatedly demonized by mocking the religion and stating “Islam hates us” — have also been excluded by the White House’s messaging, which has narrowly painted America as a Christian nation founded on traditional values. The Founding Fathers were aware of Hinduism and the presence of Muslims in America, including Thomas Jefferson, who owned a copy of the Quran and included Islam in many of his early writings and political treatises. Jefferson wrote in his 1821 autobiography that he intended the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom “to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and the Muslim, the Hindu, and infidel of every denomination.”
The White House’s focus on Christianity also ignores that many slaves forcibly brought to America in the early 16th century were practicing Muslims, said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. Enslaved Muslims who were kidnapped from areas of the West African coast, like the Fulani territory and areas along the Gambia River, were often forced to convert to Christianity or practice their religion in secret.
“Regardless of who is, who is not represented at this event, I think the American people increasingly recognize the role that Muslim Americans play in our society, from politics to media to sports,” Mitchell said. “They can try to erase the Muslims from as many events as they want, but they can’t erase Muslims from America or from the American consciousness.”
White House Defends Event, Critics Unconvinced
In a statement to HuffPost, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended the administration’s Christian-focused prayer event, saying: “Rededicate 250 was a powerful and impactful event in our nation’s capital to celebrate freedom of religion for all people of faith — a cornerstone of the sacred principles enshrined in our Constitution by the founding fathers. Americans came together on the National Mall to rededicate this country as ‘one nation under God.’ It was be a beautiful and unifying moment as we continue to reflect on America’s history that has been shaped by many great men and women of faith.”
Mitchell said it wouldn’t surprise him if leaders from minority denominations weren’t interested in participating in Trump’s celebrations, given “the hostility the administration has expressed toward their communities. It’s kind of insulting and inappropriate that a diverse array of religions are not included, but at the same time even if the invitation was extended, would I really expect prominent imams or progressive rabbis or people of other faiths to attend?”
Broader Push for Christian Nationalism
The absence of non-Christians from Trump’s celebrations does not represent the religious, diverse country America is today, Laser said. “The White House is getting America completely wrong,” she argued. “At our 250th anniversary, we should be celebrating … the guarantee of religious freedom that allows the religious pluralism in our country to thrive and stops the conflict and divides that come from the government playing favorites when it comes to religion.” A majority of Americans believe the government should never declare an official religion, as demonstrated in a 2021 Pew Research Center study.
But the administration’s push of Christian right ideology doesn’t begin and end with its America 250 celebration. The White House established the Religious Liberty Commission last year to develop policies aimed at permanently damaging the wall between church and state. Several states have moved to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms, while Texas recently added the Bible to a list of required readings. The swell in Christian nationalism is a direct result of increasing diversity and progressive movements across the country that threaten the ultra-conservative, Laser argued. “They’re creating a backlash where Christian nationalists are raging against the dying of their privilege in this country,” she said, “and they’re willing to even take down this country in order to sustain the traditional power structures that they want.”
