The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling for transparency and accountability following revelations that the Trump administration is planning a series of taxpayer-supported Christian nationalist “revival” events tied to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
Earlier this year, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner joined Christian nationalist worship leader and political activist Sean Feucht to host a worship service on the National Mall — an event that FFRF criticized at the time as an egregious misuse of government authority to promote religion.
Now, Feucht has publicly boasted that he is working directly with members of the Trump administration to stage similar worship events across the country in conjunction with America’s 250th anniversary celebration. Speaking during his “Courageous Christianity Tour” at a California church in October, Feucht claimed that “the U.S. government invited us” to hold worship services and that he recently met with the federal “America 250” team to plan “revival meetings sponsored by the U.S. government all across the nation,” including a large-scale “Let Us Worship” rally at Mount Rushmore.
“These are deeply alarming claims,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “The United States government has no business sponsoring Christian revival events — period. The 250th anniversary of our founding should celebrate freedom, reason and equality, not serve as a pulpit for religious proselytizing.”
FFRF is filing Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Education and other federal offices to determine the extent to which taxpayer resources or official support are being used to promote or facilitate these sectarian worship events. The state/church watchdog is prepared to take legal and advocacy steps necessary to challenge federal plans to turn the nation’s semiquincentennial commemoration into sectarian and exclusionary events.
“Our Founders fought a revolution to establish a government free from religious control,” adds FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “The only way to honor the Declaration of Independence is to uphold its spirit of liberty — not to turn national celebrations into government-sponsored church services.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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