Trump's prayer wall reveals his supporters are conflicted

President Donald Trump and his administration are urging Americans to turn to Christianity to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, and part of that involves submitting public prayers to his so-called Freedom 250 prayer wall. Yet according to a recent report, the prayers reveal that American Christian nationalists do not feel there is much to celebrate… but they remain steadfastly loyal to Trump’s agenda.

“Many of the prayers are deeply personal,” wrote Religion News’ Karen E. Park. “For example: ‘I am believing God for a new vehicle, furniture and beds for our place. Thank you.’ –Texas, May 13. Or ‘Pray for daughter in law to get help for bipolar schizophrenia. . .My heart aches, I know God is in control.’ — California, May 12. Another person says they are going through a ‘bad divorce,’ but knows ‘God is my lawyer and he will make things right.’”

These prayers, which show Americans dealing with problems exacerbated by poverty — affordability issues involving health care, transportation, housing and legal services — are juxtaposed with faith in Trump’s Christian Nationalist agenda.

“But in Prayer Wall sections dedicated to ‘Country’ and ‘Military,’ the devotional language of Christian nationalism emerges clearly,” Park reported. “Here is one example from Missouri, May 11: ‘Lord Jesus, King Jesus dawn our nation from the festering pit we have fallen into the past decades. Destroy our enemies physical and spiritual. Allow us to be the city on the hill you desired us to be. Allow us to discipline ourselves and other nations for your glory alone. We love you and rededicate ourselves now in your holy mighty name Jesus, Amen.’”

On another occasion, someone prayed, “Lord Jesus please hear our cries for this nation and the world. You and only You can truly fight this battle we are in. This spitiritual [sic] battle against evil. I pray for our leaders to seek You in all they do, trust You and Your plans for this nation. That You would protect them and their families as they believe and trust in You. I pray Psalm 91 over this nation, especially verse 11: ‘For He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways.'”

As Park observed, the hundreds and hundreds of prayers show an America caught between the pain of deteriorating quality of life in Trump’s America and their ongoing loyalty to the president and his agenda.

“The fusion of the theological and the political has long been part of American religious life. Historians have noted the persistence of providential language in American politics from the Puritans onward — the belief that the U.S. possesses a unique divine mission and stands in a covenantal relationship with God,” Park wrote. “But the prayers collected on the Freedom 250 site reveal how intensely devotional that language remains for many Americans. The nation is imagined as more than a political entity, but as a spiritual project whose fortunes rise and fall according to both divine favor and satanic power.”

He added, “The language of spiritual warfare appears repeatedly on the prayer wall, across all categories. Participants pray against ‘darkness,’ ‘evil forces’ and enemies ‘physical and spiritual,’ as well as attacks on Christianity itself. In many cases, the boundaries between political opponents, cultural change, demonic influence and national decline are impossible to separate.”

A recent Pew Research Center survey discovered that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not identify as Christian nationalists. While only 10 percent identify as Christian nationalists, 31 percent who Christian nationalism and 59 percent have no opinion on it. Similarly only 13 percent want the separation between church and state weakened while 54 percent support it and 32 percent have no opinion. Overall, it does not appear Trump’s push for more Christianity in government has been effective.

“It hasn’t resulted in major shifts in the landscape,” Public Religion Research Institute’s president and founder Robert P. Jones explained. “In other words, they’re not pulling people into that worldview. They’re basically just appealing to a small subset of Americans who already hold those views and who just happen to be their political base.”