The administration of United States President Donald Trump has hosted a nine-hour prayer event on the National Mall in Washington, DC, as part of its efforts to commemorate the country\u2019s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s event was called \u201cRededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving\u201d, and it took place from 9am to 6pm Eastern US time (13:00 to 22:00 GMT).<\/p>\n
On the jubilee\u2019s website, organisers explained that their aim was to mark \u201crededication of our country as One Nation to God\u201d.<\/p>\n
The event featured performers, pastors and civil rights leaders, as well as Trump\u2019s Republican allies, among them Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur rights don\u2019t come from the government,\u201d Scott told the crowd. \u201cNo, our rights come from God, the king of kings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Members of the Trump administration, including the president himself, also recorded video messages that were broadcast from the stage.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s video showed him seated behind the Resolute Desk in the White House, reciting a speech from the Book of Chronicles that God gave to King Solomon, promising protection to his followers and destruction to those who forsake him.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, used his video to describe the US as a country uniquely shaped by the \u201cChristian idea\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the Christian West, most societies \u2013 and civilisations, for that matter \u2013 thought in stagnant cycles: the flooding of the Nile, the return of the rains, the cycle of the harvest. History for them was a wheel to nowhere,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut our faith calls us outwards into the limitless darkness of the unknown. It tells us to go forth and preach the gospel to the world as a witness unto all nations and to the ends of the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was not without controversy, though. Critics pointed out that only one speaker, a rabbi, was non-Christian.<\/p>\n
Some religious leaders even rejected the event as a political stunt, rather than a sincere testament to faith.<\/p>\n
Paul Raushenbush, a reverend and president of the Interfaith Alliance, posted on social media that his objections did not stem from an \u201cantipathy towards religion\u201d. Rather, he said his faith compels him to cherish the \u201crich tapestry of beliefs\u201d that come together in the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cRededicate 250 is a betrayal of America\u2019s founding values guaranteed in the First Amendment \u2013 which made clear that there shall be no establishment of religion by the government and that each one of us should be free to live out our beliefs in our own way,\u201d Raushenbush wrote.<\/p>\n
Traditionally, the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution has been interpreted as prohibiting the government from establishing or imposing religious beliefs on its citizens.<\/p>\n
But critics argue the Trump administration has blurred the separation between church and state, including by having regular prayer services<\/a> at the Department of Defense.<\/p>\n