At a meeting of his Religious Liberty Commission at Washington, D.C.’s Museum of the Bible, President Donald Trump deepened concerns over the separation of church and state, while he encouraged prayer in public schools, unveiled a new initiative urging Americans to gather in groups of at least ten to pray ahead of the nation’s 250th anniversary, and, critics said, appeared to downplay domestic abuse.
“To have a great nation, you have to have religion — I believe that so strongly,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post. “There has to be something after we go through all of this, and that something is God.”
The Post declared it was Trump’s “exhortation to have the country unite in prayer” that seemed “most striking.”
Tying into Trump’s urging for groups of Americans to join in prayer is a new White House post, “America Prays: An Invitation to Prayer & Rededication of the United States as One Nation Under God.”
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Among the recommended ideas for prayer was this: “Organize the time of prayer by different subjects, such as prayer for government leaders, cultural renewal, protection of freedom, families, individuals, etc.”
David Cole, the former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and a professor at Georgetown Law, told the Post that the initiative “raises serious constitutional questions” and “is directly in violation of, at a minimum, the spirit of the establishment clause.”
The Post noted that the “establishment clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from passing a law ‘respecting an establishment of religion,’ a nonspecific phrase that has generated decades of legal debate.”
Cole also warned that the Trump administration’s call for prayer appeared to focus specifically on Christian prayer.
“What does this say to a Muslim, a Hindu, a Jew, an agnostic?” Cole posited. “It tells them they are outsiders.”
Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister with PhD in political communication, wrote: “The ‘America Prays’ initiative is the government teaming up with #ChristianNationalist groups for ‘rededication’ of US as ‘one nation under God.’ Of course, if it’s about celebrating founding era, got to leave ‘under God’ out of it.”
Also drawing backlash was Trump’s apparent encouragement of prayer in public schools, at the meeting that was focused on “Religious Liberty in Public Education.”
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“For most of our country’s history, the Bible was found in every classroom in the nation, yet in many schools, today’s students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda and some are even punished for their religious beliefs and very, very strongly punished, it’s ridiculous,” the President said. “I’m pleased to announce this morning that the Department of Education will soon issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in our public schools.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation responded.
“Students have always had the right to pray in public schools,” they wrote. “What Trump is pushing isn’t about protecting prayer — it’s about giving officials a green light to impose Christianity on everyone else. That’s unconstitutional coercion, not freedom.”
USA Today noted that “Students have long had the right to pray in public schools as individuals.” The paper also reported that Americans United for Separation of Church and State President Rachel Laser “said the commission hearing was ‘more like a church service’ and promoted the ‘lie that America is a Christian nation and that religion is under attack.'”
The President’s remarks on domestic violence also drew backlash.
“Things that take place in the home, they call crime, you know, they’ll do anything they can to find something,” he told the Religious Liberty Commission (video below). “If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say, ‘This was a crime,’ see?”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul responded, saying: “My mother’s childhood was torn apart by domestic violence. I’ve held survivors’ hands as they relived their darkest moments. For the President to treat that trauma like a joke is despicable.”
Professor of law and former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote: “Domestic abuse is a crime. Marital assault and marital rape are both criminal conduct and anyone who commits them should be prosecuted. Full stop.”
Professor of economics Justin Wolfers added, “Let me say what the President won’t: Domestic violence is not okay. It’s immoral, illegal and abusive, and no real man is okay would do it, approve of it, or minimize it.”
Watch the video below or at this link.