WASHINGTON (OSV News) — As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, it should reflect on the belief — which he said was shared by figures including the founders, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. — that the American understanding of equality is grounded in the belief that all people are equally children of God, Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said May 17 at a prayer rally on the National Mall.
“As we reflect on our history, from the founding through the trials of the Civil War to the struggle for civil rights, we can see this consistent thread, the conviction that human dignity, equality, rights, freedom, and the rule of law are all grounded in God,” he said.
Organizers of the event, “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” said they aimed to mark the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday “with Scripture, testimony, prayer, and rededication of our country as One Nation to God.” It was organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership with the White House to mark America 250.
The event primarily featured Protestant faith leaders, but in addition to Bishop Barron, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, retired archbishop of New York, spoke by video, and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik spoke in person. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who identifies as Hindu, also spoke by video message.
All people are equally children of God
Citing Abraham Lincoln’s use of the phrase “under God” in the Gettysburg address, Bishop Barron argued he did so because he knew “that God is essential to any coherent account of democracy, freedom, and equality.”
That sense of freedom can also be traced to the founding, he argued, citing the Declaration of Independence’s phrase, “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“What the founders knew from their Christian formation is that all people, despite their enormous inequalities, are equally children of God and therefore equal in dignity,” Bishop Barron said.
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both Catholics, as well as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Gabbard, were among the administration officials who addressed the event by video messages.
“We’ve always been and still are a nation of prayer, and thank God for that,” Vance said in a video message.
Rubio said in a video message that the nation was “shaped by this Christian idea.”
He pointed to the Apollo 8 astronauts — Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders — reading from the book of Genesis during their historic 1968 mission to orbit the moon.
“This is who we are,” Rubio said. “It is who we have always been. America is still a young nation, measured against the record of history, and from the beginning, we have carried the belief that our country represents something new in the world. But the soul of our nation has always been rooted in an ancient faith.”
Organizers replayed a video message Trump previously delivered in April for an event called “America Reads the Bible,” in which he read from 2 Chronicles 7:11–22, using the King James Easy Read Bible by Whitaker House Publishers, a Protestant translation.
“I HOPE EVERYBODY AT REDEDICATE 250 IS HAVING A GOOD TIME,” Trump posted on his social media website, Truth Social.
Critics of the event argued that the Trump administration’s level of participation improperly blended church and state.
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement, “If President Trump and his allies truly cared about America’s legacy of religious freedom, they would be celebrating church-state separation as the unique American invention that has allowed religious diversity to flourish in our country.”
Rooted ‘in our identity as a people of God’
Cardinal Dolan said in a video message that “in every chapter of the American story, our faith in God has been the bedrock of our greatness, the source of our success.”
“Boy, going back to the days of the Revolutionary War, our very way of life has been defined in part by a few key principles: prayer, trust, worship, the Sabbath, loyalty to family, freedom of religion, the power and strength of democracy, the principle of subsidiarity, devotion to the common good,” Cardinal Dolan said. “In other words, our deepest values as a country have always been rooted in our identity as a people of God and anchored in the reality that we’re not only American citizens — you bet we are, and grateful for it — but that we are bound someday to be citizens of heaven.”
Cardinal Dolan noted the U.S. Catholic bishops plan to dedicate the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 11.
In addition to Bishop Barron and Cardinal Dolan, other members of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission who spoke at the event included Ben Carson, the Rev. Paula White-Cain, the Rev. Franklin Graham, Eric Metaxas, and Rabbi Soloveichik.
During a prayer at the event, Bishop Barron said, “A religiously vibrant America is a politically healthy America.”
“It’s also why we cherish religious liberty — a conviction that’s made us a haven for people fleeing religious persecution from all over the world,” he said.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
