Americans United denounces Trump’s Christian Nationalist remarks at National Prayer Breakfast

Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser issued the following statement in response to President Donald Trump’s remarks today during the National Prayer Breakfast: 

Trump’s use of National Prayer Breakfast corrupts religious freedom

“President Trump once again demonstrated why the National Prayer Breakfast is a gross corruption of religious freedom and our country’s promise of church-state separation. For more than an hour he launched partisan attacks at a religious event purportedly meant to foster unity. He lied about the Johnson Amendment, America’s popular law that prevents tax-exempt nonprofits, including houses of worship, from endorsing or opposing partisan political candidates – falsely claiming he got rid of it, though in fact this federal law is very much still in effect. And he spewed Christian Nationalist rhetoric about rededicating ‘America as one nation under God’ during an ‘America prays’ event in May and about prayer being ‘America’s superpower.’ Our nation’s commitment to church-state separation, the guarantee of religious freedom, is America’s real superpower, and an American original. 

“The Trump administration is attacking church-state separation, a pillar of American democracy, to advance a Christian Nationalist agenda of imposing one narrow set of beliefs on everyone. Not on our watch. Americans United is committed to fighting Trump’s un-America agenda. We went to court to protect the Johnson Amendment. We’re challenging the administration’s bogus claims of ‘anti-Christian bias’ in three federal lawsuits. We’re investigating Trump’s Christian Nationalist Religious Liberty Commission. We’re helping federal workers protect themselves from religious coercion. We’re defending the religious freedom of public school students and their families in multiple states. And we’ll monitor how the Trump administration uses the new guidance on prayer and religious expression in public schools released today to promote his political agenda. We’ll continue leading a national recommitment to church-state separation. Our democracy depends on it.”