The 74th National Prayer Breakfast which convened on February 5 in Washington, DC, will best be remembered for two speeches. One speech was delivered by US President Donald Trump and the other by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

President Trump went well beyond his allotted time in a speech which alternated between political and religious themes. Hegseth’s speech was much shorter but his words, like Trump’s, struck strategically at the foundation of Church and State separation in the US.

President Trump began by reminding his audience that he had done the most for religion, thus positioning himself and the Republican Party as the president and party of God, Christianity, and the
Bible. President Trump also revelled in his self-assigned role as protector of Christendom, citing his Christmas-day strike in Nigeria against rebels accused of massacring Christians. The president was of the opinion that Christianity and the Bible were making a big comeback because of the policies put in place by his Administration.

In the body of his presentation, President Trump listed the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, the expansion of school choice, new guidance to protect the right to pray in public schools, the withholding of federal funding from public schools supporting transgenderism, the ending of transgender persons participating in sports designed for biologically birthed women, the creation of the White House Faith Office, the cessation of financial support to any organisations promoting non-traditional gender ideology around the globe, and the implementation of policies to discourage anti-church bias and anti-Semitism as assists given to religion by his Administration.

He announced that his Administration would be inviting Americans to come together at the National Mall in Washington DC on May 17, 2026, for prayer and for a national recommitment of America as one nation under God. Hegseth took up the baton passed on by President Trump, boldly declaring that America is Christian in its DNA. He becomes medieval and perhaps a little ‘Al Qaedaish’ when he stated that soldiers who die for God and country have hit the eternal life jackpot.

Secretary of War Hegseth told his audience that the Department of War is rooted in faith, truth, and the word of God. Jesus, according to Hegseth, was a disrupter whose mission was to divide truth from lies, the things of the world from the things of God, light from darkness, and good from evil. Soldiers of the War Department are, therefore, not called upon to appease the world but, rather, their mission is to confront the world. Hegseth added that his department lives by the motto ‘In God We Trust’.

Anyone listening to President Trump and Secretary Hegseth would have to conclude that the Establishment Clause, as it relates to religion in the First Amendment of the American Constitution was nothing more than a collective illusion experienced by the founding fathers of the American nation. The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment expressly forbids Congress from establishing a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

The new guidance to protect the right to prayer in public schools is as controversial as is the personality of President Trump. In his speech, President Trump acknowledged that there would be push back against some of his proposals which went against the grain of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause in the constitution. President Trump made it very clear that his Administration was willing to push the boundaries of what could or could not be done for religion in America.

The court Evangelicals who have the ear of President Trump would love to see the wall of separation between Church and State totally demolished. These accommodations argue that the First Amendment was designed to prevent the establishment of a single national church and not to eliminate public recognition of God or religion. These Evangelical accommodationists believe that President Trump is on the right track as long as he does not favour any single denomination.

The directives emanating from the Trump Administration dovetail nicely with many of the objectives of Christian nationalism. Some of the Christian nationalists who are currently whispering in President Trump’s ear include Steve Miller, Paula White, Robert Jeffress, Franklyn Graham, and Linda McMahon. These individuals are hell-bent on integrating Christian values into American governance. Many Christian nationalists subscribe to dominion theology, which requires Christians to gain dominion over secular society.

Faith communities that have historically supported strict separation of Church and State are sounding the alarm about where Christian nationalism will ultimately take the American nation. The ‘Saving America by Saving the Family’ document released by the Heritage Foundation has caused quite a stir among Seventh-day Adventists who have a long tradition of opposing any laws requiring cessation of labour and commercial activity on Sunday. Adventists, with the full weight of the
Bible behind them, argue that Saturday is the Christian Sabbath.

Adventists and other Sabbatarian faith communities have every right to be concerned when Christian nationalist groups like the Heritage foundation advance a platform which has the potential for creating religious mischief at best and straight up religious persecution at worst. Adventists know by experience how easily religious liberty can be curtailed in the United States once certain groups of Christians get their hands on the levers of power. In the 1880s, Adventists and other Sabbatarian Christians were arrested and jailed for Sunday rest violations.

Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana famously wrote in his book The Life of Reason that, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Christian nationalists in America, in their quest for power and control, have clearly forgotten many of the lessons taught by history. This amnesia has the potential to plunge the American state into the horrors that blighted the pages of European history during what is now referred to as the Dark Ages. Eurocentric Christianity is about to come full circle as freedom of religion is suffocated, allowing for a new era of Church-sponsored terrorism.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is the founder of Afro-Caribbean Spiritual Teaching Center and the author of The Catholic Church, Mystery Babylon, and the End of The World: Survival of the Fittest in the Age of Chaos. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or rodneynimrod2@gmail.com.

Pete Hegsethl

The Bible

Religious practices in US public schools are prohibited under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka