By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, May 16, 2026

Christian worshipers attend the Roots of Revival event at the Washington Monument, held a day ahead of “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving” in Washington, D.C., on May 16, 2026. | Matthew Hatcher/AFP via Getty Images

Speakers from the upcoming Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving event told The Christian Post that they hope it will offer a chance for Americans to remember their spiritual heritage while pursuing personal repentance.

Organized by the White House-backed Freedom 250 campaign as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration, the all-day prayer festival on the National Mall in front of the U.S. Capitol is being touted as a “rededication of our country as One Nation Under God” and a “once in a lifetime national moment.”

Thousands, including President Donald Trump and other public officials, are expected to participate in the event, which will feature Scripture reading, testimonies, prayers and a central moment of rededication to honor God for the nation’s two-and-a-half centuries of liberty.

‘Historic significance and prophetic imperative’

Pastor Samuel Rodriguez, a faith leader speaking at the event who also serves as president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said he believes Rededicate 250 provides both “historic significance and prophetic imperative.”

“The historical significance, of course, is obvious: 250 years since our nation’s founding, what it represents. And the prophetic imperative is a reset, an affirmation of what makes us truly exceptional,” he said.

The event coincides with the 250th anniversary of the Second Continental Congress, designating what they called “a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayers” amid the trials of war, less than two months before they declared independence.

Remembering its spiritual basis, Rodriguez said what set America apart is not military prowess, economic might or technological achievements, but rather “this radical idea of God over man and man over government.”

“That’s what makes America exceptional: the idea that our values, which are derived from our Judeo-Christian value system, come to us from God. Our value, our rights come to us from God. And that transformative idea changed the world.”Pastor Samuel Rodriguez preaches at New Season Worship in Sacramento, California, on Feb. 20, 2022. | Facebook/New Season

Rodriguez discerned that the United States presently finds itself in a spiritual crisis, but he expressed hope for repentance, revival and reformation amid the gathering spiritual darkness. He noted with optimism that young men especially are increasingly flooding the churches as Bible sales hit record highs.

“We need to repent from idolatry,” he said. “We’ve become, to a great degree, a narcissistic, self-absorbed nation. Chasms and discord and strife.” Remembering the influence of evangelist George Whitefield and the clerical “Black Robe Regiment” in laying the foundation of the American Revolution, Rodriguez suggested any catalyst for national transformation must be spiritual.

Rededicate 250 is “basically coming back to the center, the spiritual center of finding our spiritual heart; an affirmation of our ethos, which is our Judeo-Christian value system,” he said.

‘Criticism from ignorance’

Rededicate 250, all of whose 19 participating faith leaders are Christian aside from Orthodox Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, has faced criticism from detractors who argue its message is excessively Judeo-Christian.

Faithful America, a self-described “network of progressive Christians,” circulated a petition denouncing the event as “a front for white Christian Nationalism” out of step with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who they claimed “never staged mass revivals” and “never heralded public prayer spectacles.”“Rededicate 250” sign is visible as workers continue to build out Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair infrastructure on the National Mall on May 14, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The 16-day World’s Fair-scale celebration of America’s 250th birthday will run from June 25 to July 10, 2026, uniting all U.S. states and territories. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist legal group, condemned the event as a “government-hosted event that equates piety with patriotism and portrays one brand of Christianity as the core of American identity,” according to a statement.

Rodrigeuz dismissed such denunciations, noting that an event endeavoring to spiritually rededicate America is necessarily focused on the religious heritage from which the country emerged.

“I love the fact that we’re a marketplace of ideas, and I am a strong fan of religious liberty serving as a firewall against totalitarianism. I love the fact that we can be here and worship whatever you want to worship at your discretion,” he said.

“With that being said, we’re rededicating America. What does this mean? Where did America come from spiritually? A Judeo-Christian value system. So, what are we doing now? Affirming that. It’s not eclectic, it’s not ambiguous: it’s a Judeo-Christian value system. It’s not secular humanism,” he continued, adding that all of the founders were either Christians or deists.

Eric Metaxas, a Christian author who serves on the White House Religious Liberty Commission and will also be speaking at the event, said the criticisms against Rededicate 250 “seem aggressively secularist, which is not only at odds with all of the founders who created the nation, but it’s at odds with our founding documents.”Author Eric Metaxas delivers a speech at Turning Point USA’s Faith Forward Pastors Summit in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on Aug. 7, 2025. | Courtesy Turning Point USA

Citing the Declaration of Independence, Metaxas noted that the U.S. was predicated upon the assertion that inalienable rights come from God and that its government exists to protect those rights. He said some in the American Revolution understood that they were establishing a form of self-government that harkened back to the Sinai covenant, and warned against the consequences of rejecting such a foundation.

“People who are criticizing this gathering, they themselves don’t have an alternative vision. Where do our rights come, if not from God? Would they say the government? If the government gives you the rights, the government can take away your rights. The government can tell you what to believe, what not to believe.”

“So it strikes me as a criticism from ignorance of what our founding documents say and what our country is based on,” he added.

While steeping himself in the minds of the Founders during research for his soon-to-be-published book about the American Revolution, Metaxas was “astonished” by the seriousness of their faith and their willingness to sacrifice for what they believed.

“It is really not escapable, how serious they were about their faith and how central their Christian faith was to this government that they were hoping to inaugurate,” he said, adding that their example continues to offer a humbling example that should encourage every American to realize their own moral responsibility.

Liberty and virtue are inextricable, said Metaxas, who worries that “many of us, including many Christians, have really lost touch with this.”

“So, I hope that this 250th ‘supercentennial’ year will be a moment when Americans are excited about learning our story and celebrating what it is that we have. I think that we’ve ignored that long enough, that we ought to take it seriously. And I would say this is the year to do it,” he said.

‘So much brokenness’

Cissie Graham Lynch, who will be speaking at the event along with her father, Franklin Graham, said Rededicate 250 offers a chance for the country to turn to the Lord at a time when many Americans feel broken.

“I think people across the country — I can feel it, that there’s something deeply unsettled in our nation right now, and in the world,” she said.

“There’s anxiety, there’s division, confusion, anger. There’s just spiritual emptiness. We’re watching wars in the Middle East, war in Ukraine and just rising instability. I think our country is in trouble, and I think this is a great opportunity to come back to God and recognize that we need Him,” she said.Cissie Graham Lynch speaks at the 2020 Republican National Convention at the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 25, 2020. | Screenshot: RNC

Lynch’s grandfather, the late evangelist Billy Graham, expressed profound grief toward the end of his life at the spiritual condition of America. While she acknowledged that “there is so much brokenness” in the country, Lynch also noted that both the destructive sins her grandfather warned against and the hope of the Gospel he preached remain unchanged.

“I listen to my grandfather on SiriusXM — the Billy Graham channel — quite often, and he spoke of the problems that we face today. So many of these messages were 30 or 40 years ago, but you would think he was speaking to today’s politics and today’s culture, because there are no new problems,” she said, adding that national healing must begin in individual hearts.

“I think what my hope is for this event is that individuals be encouraged, that the churches would be encouraged to stand on God’s truth, to proclaim it with boldness and not to back down,” she said. “But also to have a sense of urgency in the days that we’re living. People need to hear that God loves them, loves them so much that He sent His Son Jesus for them, and that there is hope in Him.”

Comment by Truth Uncensored Afrika.  Please read the articles on this site about the false teachings of Judeo-Christianity.  Judaism is connected with Freemasonry, as is the United States. Look at the Egyptian Masonic Obelisk  at Washington, D.C.at the beginning of this article.  This is the ecumenical movement at its best.