*MASS
Story by Michelle Boorstein, Laura Meckler
05/19/2026
ttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-backed-prayer-festival-on-national-mall-draws-thousands-we-welcome-jesus/ar-AA23ojde
A crowd of thousands, many in red, white and blue, transformed a block of the National Mall into an evangelical-style worship service Sunday morning at a White House-led, day-long prayer festival tied to the country’s 250th anniversary.
“We welcome Jesus into this place!” one of the first performers at “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” belted from a stage with ivory-colored pillars evoking the neoclassical architecture of the capital’s federal buildings.
The event, funded with millions in public dollars, is to feature Christian clergy, music and multiple senior government officials, including President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Most of the scheduled speakers are politically conservative evangelical Protestants.
It’s the latest in a series of administration actions that have energized Trump’s evangelical base while sparking protest from critics who say they portray the United States inaccurately as a Christian nation and blur the line between church and state.
Organizers say they are focused on the Christian faith of many of the leaders who wrote the United States’ foundational documents. They also note that Trump recognized some of the country’s diversity by calling on Jewish Americans to observe a “national Sabbath” from sundown Friday to Saturday night, which is the traditional Jewish day of rest.
Some scholars of U.S. religious history and critics of the Trump administration say Sunday’s event whitewashes a much more complex founding story. They also note that the United States is far more diverse today that it was 250 years ago, and point out that, amid much debate, the founders chose to keep religion at arm’s length from government in the Constitution.
“The agenda for this ‘jubilee’ reads less like a traditional religious event and more like a program for the Church of Trump,” the government watchdog group Public Citizen said in a statement Friday. “This highly politicized mess is not what Congress envisioned a decade ago in passing legislation creating an official commission for the 250th anniversary.”
George Tillis IV, a 27-year-old missionary originally from Los Angeles, described the event as “a gathering for the body of Christ.” Tillis, standing with two friends on the bright green Mall grass, was one of many missionaries who arrived in several vans from Michigan.
The purpose, he said, was “to rededicate the country back to God, and every Christian should be involved.”
Officials said they expected about 15,000 people. The Mall was cordoned off from 12th Street NW about half a block toward the Capitol.
The atmosphere early Sunday was akin to that of an evangelical Protestant worship service, with mostly middle-aged or older people in casual clothes, praying with their arms outstretched to the sky as Christian broadcasters did live shots from multilevel television sets.
People described a variety of reasons for coming — to bring awareness to what they see as harassment of or disfavor toward conservative Christians, to pray for the country to repent for its sins, or to fortify what they call the Christian roots of the country — in particular against Islam or other faiths outside Christianity or Judaism.
“Those who serve the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are being targeted by those who serve the god of Esau,” said Laralyn RiverWind, a former ambassador of the Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee. She came from Tennessee with her husband, a ward chief of the Arawak Taino Tribe of Puerto Rico.Related video: Mass prayer gathering in Washington, DC., backed by Donald Trump (The Daily Digest)
Mass prayer gathering in Washington, DC., backed by Donald Trump
They described their own faith as a mix of Native beliefs and “Judeo-Christianity.” While they see the government as flawed, they said, they felt it was important to come to pray for the country.
“It will be interesting to see if they name God. The fact that the god of Yahweh is being confused with the god of Allah — those are every different,” she said. “I hope the god of creation — Yahweh — is named.”
About two-thirds of the country identifies as Christian; a quarter identifies as evangelical. About 30 percent of Americans have no religious affiliation.
Rededicate is scheduled to run from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. with the main stage at 12th Street. Entrances opened at 9 a.m., with light worship and music from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Attendance is free, but attendees had to register on the event website and go through metal detectors.
A who’s who of evangelicals long close to Trump, are scheduled to speak later Sunday. They include Franklin Graham, CEO of the humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse and son of evangelical icon Billy Graham; the Rev. Jonathan Falwell, son of Moral Majority and Liberty University founder Jerry Falwell; and Christian Broadcasting Network President Gordon Robertson, son of Christian media titan Pat Robertson.
Pop culture figures scheduled to appear include actress and podcaster Sadie Carroway Robertson, who appeared for years on the reality television show “Duck Dynasty,” and Jonathan Roumie, star of the television drama “The Chosen,” which is about Jesus.
A few protests are planned, including one by the Freedom From Religion Foundation — a mostly secular group focused on church-state separation — and Faithful America, a Christian group focused on opposing religious nationalism. The organizations said they would erect a 15-foot-tall balloon of “a golden calf with a Trump-like visage” a few blocks away.
Lisa Wyzkiewicz, 66, of Jeannette, Pennsylvania, planned to come to the event in a bus chartered by her church. She said that Trump is the “most Christian” president in her lifetime and that she was strongly encouraged by seeing more prayer in public life.
“The Founding Fathers made a covenant with God, and that’s why we have been such a blessed nation,” Wyzkiewicz said last month at Washington’s Museum of the Bible, which was hosting a week-long public scripture reading that featured Trump and other U.S. leaders.
In recent years, she said, she has come to see abortion and transgender rights as evidence that the nation had gone off its path. Listening to Charlie Kirk, Eric Metaxas and other public figures argue that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, she concluded that the federal government needs to be much more influenced by the faith.
“They should almost be tied together,” she said. “I love Jesus, I love my country, and I really want us to come back to God.”
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Following is a song that is very special in our home:
Daniel O’Donnell – My Forever Friend [Live at The Helix, Dublin, 2003]
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHg3LztrZU&list=RDxDHg3LztrZU&start_radio=1
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kommonsentsjane
kommonsentsjane 