President Trump to Join Rededicate 250 Prayer Gathering on National Mall

Musicians on the program include Grammy-winning contemporary Christian artist Chris Tomlin. Georgia pastor Jentezen Franklin said in a social media video, "I believe it's a moment when the Body of Christ, the church, comes together and will boldly declare that America still needs God.

" Johnson noted that the event comes 250 years after Congress declared May 17, 1776, a "day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer" on behalf of the Revolutionary cause.

Democrats have questioned the organization's 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. U.S. Rep. " Huffman, a California Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus, said the event would have the founders rolling in their graves.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which advocates a strict separation of church and state, hopes to stage a demonstration elsewhere in Washington on the day of the rally. Annie Laurie Gaylor, the foundation's co-president, said, "This is the government putting on a Christian nationalist event.

Even if it is accepting private money for it, it's still putting it on. Several participants also serve on the Religious Liberty Commission, a Trump-appointed panel preparing a report after a year of hearings. Its chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, repeatedly denies that the Constitution establishes a separation of church and state.

Several participants in Rededicate 250 joined with Trump himself in a Bible-reading marathon. A separate Trump administration task force recently alleged discrimination against Christians under former President Joe Biden. Choirs from Grand Canyon University and Liberty University are performing at the event.

About 2 in 10 U.S. adults and about one-quarter of Republicans said the federal government should declare Christianity the official religion of the nation, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in April. Historians generally agree that the founders' religious beliefs varied, that the U.S. Constitution doesn't establish an official religion and that it was significantly influenced by Enlightenment thinkers.