As part of American’s 250th birthday celebration, President Trump has announced a major prayer event to be held on the National Mall on May 17 to “rededicate America as one nation under God.According to a statement posted on the Freedom 250 website, the president is inviting Americans to the Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving to join with their fellow Americans in "giving thanks and praise to God for 250 years of His Providence for the United States, in praying that God Bless and Protect America for the next 250 years, and in solemnly rededicating our country as One Nation under God."
He went on to promise: “In speech, song, and storytelling, we will bear witness to the extraordinary story of how God has powerfully and wondrously shaped the United States of America—remembering the people, sacrifices, and defining moments in which God has powerfully manifested Himself in our history. This is more than an event — it is a once in a lifetime national moment.”
The president made the announcement at the National Prayer Breakfast last week and although he did not specify why he chose May 17, this date coincides with a declaration by the Continental Congress in 1776 calling for May 17 to be a day of fasting and prayer before the Founders signed the Declaration of Independence.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, General George Washington ordered: “The Continental Congress having ordered Friday the 17th [of May] instant to be observed as a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, humbly to supplicate the mercy of Almighty God, that it would please Him to pardon all our manifold sins and transgressions, and to prosper the arms of the United Colonies, and finally establish the peace and freedom of America upon a solid and lasting foundation; the General commands all officers and soldiers to pay strict obedience to the orders of the Continental Congress; that, by their unfeigned and pious observance of their religious duties, they may incline the Lord and Giver of victory to prosper our arms.”
While speaking at the prayer breakfast, President Trump said, “Almost 250 years after our Founding Fathers took one of the greatest leaps of faith in human history…it reminds us that prayers strengthen, prayers heal, prayer empowers and prayer saves,” said President Trump. “Quite simply, prayer is America’s superpower.”
During the same address, the President also announced that the Department of Education was issuing a new guidance that will protect the right of teachers and students to freely express their faith in public schools.
“Public schools must permit students to pray privately and quietly by themselves, whether in class, at an athletic event, or before a meal,” reads the guidance. “Students may also pray in a speaking voice on the same terms as any other student might engage in non-religious speech.”
Let’s join our prayers to those of the nation that we might once again become “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
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