Speaker Mike Johnson served up some revisionist history on the separation of church and state while defending their prayer event on the National Mall last weekend.
Cabinet members, Catholic bishops, evangelical influencers, and an actor who plays Jesus are a few of the speakers and performers scheduled to participate in "Rededicate 250," the Trump administration's daylong prayer celebration happening on the National Mall this weekend.
Advertised as a "rededication of our country as One Nation Under God" and a "once in a lifetime national moment," the Sunday event is intended to reflect on the faith of America's founders and to appeal to God to bless and guide the nation.
It's an initiative of Freedom 250, a White House-backed, public-private campaign staging patriotic events to celebrate the nation's 250th birthday. Supporters welcome the event as a tribute to America's roots, while critics say the Christian-saturated, MAGA-heavy festival casts an exclusionary vision of America's past and present. Americans United for Separation of Church and State suggested the event advances Christian nationalism rather than religious freedom. (Americans United for Separation of Church and State is a financial supporter of NPR.)
Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream asked Johnson about the criticism, and Johnson used the occasion to lie about the origin of the term Christian Nationalism, while continuing to pretend that separation of church and state is not "baked into the founding documents and our system of government."
BREAM: We're obviously here at this faith event. Not everyone is happy about that, so let me give you a chance to respond to Americans United for Separation of Church and State. They say if the president really cared about this, he would be celebrating separation of church and state as a unique American invention that has allowed religious diversity to flourish. But they call this a Christian nationalist crusade — a very narrow view and version of Christianity that doesn't serve Americans. They also note this is a public event on public land.
JOHNSON: This is a recognition of the deeply embedded history and religious and moral tradition of this country. This is an appropriate thing for us to do on the 250th anniversary, and the people who are upset about it oppose that history. They want to erase the history of America and pretend we are not a nation that was originally dedicated to God.
If you walk into the House chamber this afternoon with me, Shannon, you will see "In God We Trust" inscribed in the marble right above where I stand as Speaker of the House. Congress put that there as a recognition of who we are. We are one nation under God, and to come here and gather for a happy, hopeful celebration — to rededicate ourselves as one nation under God — is a healthy and appropriate thing.
The people who are naysayers, who have coined the term "Christian nationalism" as a pejorative and derogatory label, are trying to silence the influence and voices of Christians, and I think that's wildly inappropriate.
Always the victim. If this is supposed to be "silencing" them, it's not working.
More here, showing that Christian Nationalists are also racists.
