This weekend, Americans from across the country are making their way to our nation’s capital for a special rededication of our country as one nation under God. The event is part of a series of observances during America’s 250th anniversary, organized by Freedom 250 and promoted by the Trump administration.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 33, “Blessed or happy is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Yet not everyone is happy about the gathering.

The Associated Press published a story ahead of the weekend with the headline: “Trump Administration to participate in controversial prayer gathering on National Mall.”

What’s controversial about eight hours of prayer? According to critics, the gathering is “an attempt to ‘hijack’ U.S. history by advancing a Christian nationalist narrative … potentially undermining the constitutional separation of church and state.”

Praying for the nation and rededicating it to God is now considered Christian nationalism?

Was James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, a Christian nationalist? He said: “The duty and interest of the United States require that they should acknowledge the overruling providence of God.”

What about Samuel Adams, often identified with the Boston Tea Party? He wrote: “May every citizen in the army and in the country have a proper sense of the Deity upon his mind and an impression of that declaration recorded in the Bible, ‘Them that honor me, I will honor.’”

And what about President Dwight Eisenhower?

At the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, when schoolchildren practiced “duck and cover” drills in preparation for a possible Soviet nuclear attack, the Rev. George M. Docherty, pastor of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., delivered a sermon in February 1954 on the absence of the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. President Eisenhower was seated in the front pew.

Docherty argued that America’s answer to godless communism was not merely military strength, but moral and spiritual conviction — a public acknowledgment that America’s freedom rested upon dependence on God.

Three days after that sermon, legislation was introduced in Congress to add the words “under God” to the pledge.

Then, on Flag Day, June 14, 1954, Eisenhower signed the bill into law, declaring: “From this day forward, millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.”

Was he a Christian nationalist?

What is happening in Washington this weekend has nothing to do with so-called Christian nationalism. It’s a recognition that America has been blessed and sustained by God over these 250 years and that we still need His blessing today: for our families, our communities, our churches, our businesses, and our nation.

This recognition could not come at a more important time. Our nation is divided, the world is uncertain, and many people are searching for hope and stability.

But words alone are not enough. Public prayers and patriotic ceremonies mean little if they are disconnected from obedience and humility before God. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Jesus warned in Matthew 15: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”

If America truly desires God’s blessing, then our acknowledgment of Him must be more than ceremonial; it must be reflected in how we live, the truths we uphold, and the moral courage we demonstrate as a people.