Trump’s Freedom 250 sparks debate over America’s Christian origins

The first pages of a new White House prayer anthology open with a myth: a depiction of English colonists landing at Cape Henry, near present-day Virginia Beach, raising a tall wooden cross and dedicating the land to God through prayer.  

The event “reveals the extent to which Christianity ‒ particularly Protestantism ‒ accompanied the English colonial enterprise from its inception,” the booklet says. 

Except, as the document later acknowledges, there’s no evidence the prayer occurred.  

Historians and religious experts have raised alarm that its inclusion represents a broader effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to recast the nation’s origins as explicitly Christian during the country’s 250th anniversary year. 

Trump has announced several religion-focused events that almost exclusively highlight Christianity, including an “America Prays” initiative urging Americans to join with 10 people in prayer each week, and a National Prayer event in May that will turn the National Mall into “a large-scale revival.”  

The programming is organized by Freedom 250, a quasi-government group Trump created to carry out his vision for the nation's 250th anniversary. It's separate from the bipartisan organization America250 that Congress created in 2016 to plan the year's signature events.

The White House and Freedom 250 say the programming is designed to celebrate the protection of freedom of religion enshrined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Past presidents, including Ulysses S. Grant, Calvin Coolidge and Gerald Ford, have invoked God and religion in speeches during other milestone celebrations. 

Yet some historians argue Trump’s initiatives push the boundaries of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing an official state religion.

“We're seeing this effort to undermine the institutional separation of religion and government,” said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance, a national, nonpartisan, civil and religious rights organization.  “That strikes at the very heart of what it means to be an American, that you're free to worship, and free to pray, or not pray.” 

Freedom 250’s religious ties

A quarter of the partner organizations listed on Freedom 250’s website are associated with Christianity, including National Religious Broadcasters, Angel Studios, the Museum of the Bible and Pray.com. It also counts Wallbuilders among its partners, a nonprofit founded by activist David Barton, who has long argued America should be run as a Christian nation. 

Many of the partner Christian organizations were in attendance in September when Trump launched “America Prays” during an address at the Museum of the Bible in which he also promised to “protect the Judeo-Christian principles of our founding.” 

According to its website, as of March 4, Freedom 250 does not have any partners representing faith organizations that aren't Christian. 

Rachel Reisner, a spokesperson for Freedom 250, told USA TODAY its partnerships reflect organizations who have reached out to work with the president's task force on the 250th.

"We welcome collaboration with all who share our commitment to commemorating America’s 250th anniversary in a way that uplifts and unites the country," Reisner said in a statement.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez, an American historian and author of the book “Jesus and John Wayne," argued the lack of equal representation shows “no pretense toward religious pluralism” on the part of the administration. By repeatedly referencing Christianity, she said Trump appears to be favoring it over other religions in taxpayer-funded programs. 

A description of the May National Prayer event on the White House website says it will be streamed to "parishes" across the country and will include “prominent Christian artists.” It makes a general reference to “major faith leaders,” but does not specifically mention synagogues, mosques or other types of worship spaces, and does not name musicians of other faiths. 

A White House spokesperson told USA TODAY religions outside of Christianity would be represented at the event. Organizers with Freedom 250 said the group still has not locked in programming, but is in talks with faith leaders from a variety of religions including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, among others.

Other materials created by the White House and Freedom 250 make similar references to Christianity.  

Freedom 250 tapped PragerU, a conservative media nonprofit, and Hillsdale College, a small Christian school in Michigan, to create exhibits and educational material for six mobile museums touring around the country. It used $10 million in government funds to build out and transport the mobile museums for a year.  

The “Freedom Trucks,” tell stories about the American Revolution and influential American heroes. They also frequently note the role God played in the founding of the country. One exhibit on the “Roots of America” states  the "foundational principles of American are rooted in Western and Judeo-Christian values." 

PragerU’s chief executive Marissa Streit told USA TODAY the references to faith within the exhibits aimed to emphasize the “perspective of the Christian founding of America and the love of God, faith in God that the founders had." 

Exhibits about the Declaration of Independence, for instance, say the founders “believed God created humans for liberty,” and note additions the Continental Congress made to the document referencing the “Supreme Judge of the World” and “divine Providence.”  

Matthew Spalding, dean of Hillsdale's graduate school of government and an advisor for the Freedom Trucks, said he felt not mentioning the influence of Christianity would have led to an inaccurate portrayal of the nation's founding.

The mentions of Christianity, he said, weren't suggesting that people of other faiths don't have religious liberty, but instead noting the history of religion in the country's founding.

"American history is very much shaped by the Hebraic and Christian focus on a sense of us having a certain human dignity," he said. "It's the Christian influences and the Jewish influences as well as the influences and the enlightenment thinkers and the deists.
It's all of it together."

Du Mez said the Christian right has historically over emphasized references to Christianity during the nation's founding.  

“For more than half a century now, conservative White evangelicals have been producing their own versions of the American past,” Du Mez said. “These alternative histories depict the founding as uniquely Christian.” 

Warren Throckmorton, an evangelical Christian and retired psychology professor who has spent years studying Christian nationalism, said some of the Christian right's historical reinterpretations ended up in the “Prayers and Proclamations” toolkit released as part of America Prays.

The anthology contains 18 references to Christianity, three references to Judaism and mentions no other religions. 

One passage in the anthology suggests a prayer helped the founders overcome their differences at the Constitutional Convention. After the prayer, the anthology says, “debate gave way to compromise, resulting in the final drafting of the United States Constitution.” 

Yet detailed accounts of the Convention show heated exchanges over slavery, representation and taxation raged for months after the prayer.  

The depiction has been debunked by historians, Throckmorton said, calling it “a real problem." 

“The Freedom 250 people want you to think that prayer saved the country. When in reality, it did not, and it was much more complex,” he said. 

Faith observances during historic milestones

Trump isn’t the only president to discuss religion during a major milestone celebration. 

Former President Ulysses S. Grant told Americans “a grateful acknowledgment should be made to Almighty God” for the country’s blessings during the 1876 centennial. Half-a-century later, former President Calvin Coolidge implored that “unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish.” 

And during bicentennial in 1976, former President Gerald Ford asked Americans to reflect on the “profound faith in God which inspired the founding fathers.”

But religious historians told USA TODAY that Trump’s references to religion differ from those of the past. 

Throckmorton said presidents have typically “talked about God in a very general sense,” so that “anybody could find themselves,” or their religion in the message. The Trump administration, he said, is “specifically choosing people to be the face of Freedom 250 ... evangelical Christians.” 

Recent Republican presidents have attempted to appeal to conservative Christians, with Reagan once telling evangelical leaders, "You can't endorse me, but I endorse you." But there's no record of government-sanctioned and taxpayer funded events that promote one religion over others.

"Presidents have First Amendment rights of freedom of expression, just like everybody else. They're more influential because of the position they hold," Throckmorton said. "But none of them commit the Constitution to be anything other than it is."

Graves-Fitzsimmons, who works to promote religious freedom with the Interfaith Alliance, expressed concern that overt references to Christianity in 250th materials are part of broader moves by the administration to integrate Christianity into government. In early February, the Interfaith Alliance sued the Trump administration over what they said was an illegal lack of religious and ideological diversity on the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission. 

The Religious Liberty Commission includes Protestant, Catholic and Jewish people, but no Muslims or members of other minority religious groups. There is Muslim representation on the group's advisory board of lay leaders. Interfaith Alliance said the move violated a federal law requiring such groups to be “fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented." 

The debate over religious references in federal 250th commemorations is really about establishing a vision for what America represents, said Andrew Whitehead, executive director of the Association of Religion Data Archives at Indiana University’s Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.

“Governments are always engaged in creating national myths,” he said.

“It really does come down to which kind of national myths hold today. … Everybody has equal rights under the Constitution or that this country is made by and for white Protestant Christians? Those are competing narratives.” 

Karissa Waddick covers America's 250th anniversary for USA TODAY. She an be reached at [email protected].

Contributing: BrieAnna Frank, USA TODAY; Liam Adams of The (Nashville) Tennessean