Linda Larson swayed as live worship music floated across the lawn of the National Mall. On a nearby picnic blanket, her husband dozed under his straw hat.
Soon, it was too hot and crowded to nap, as several thousand Americans arrived for Rededicate 250, a daylong event that was part megachurch worship service and part Independence Day celebration.
The Larsons drove from Salisbury, Maryland, where they attend a small church that hasn’t seen many new faces. Linda said she’s heard talk of renewed interest in religion, particularly among Gen Z. She said America still has a “long way to go” but hoped Sunday’s event would influence more people to return to faith.
“The fact that we have political leaders as well as pastors and people giving testimonies, I’m thrilled to hear it all,” Larson said. “The whole separation of church and state has been so distorted, and I think this is a powerful encouragement for people to come back.”
Revival was on the mind of many of the speakers, who, between brief historical lectures and partisan messaging, called for a return to what they portrayed as the spiritual fervor of the country’s founding. The Trump administration billed the event as a fitting prologue to festivities around America’s semiquincentennial.
Faith leaders, politicians, military bands, and worship groups alternated under the glare of 85-degree sunshine. But many of the buzziest headliners—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance—appeared only by prerecorded video. Some of the administration’s most prominent faith allies, including White House Faith Office head and pastor Paula White-Cain and Samaritan’s Purse president Franklin Graham, also appeared virtually.
In his own prerecorded message, which appeared to be the same one used for a Bible-reading marathon event last month, President Donald Trump read 2 Chronicles 7, which calls for the people of Israel to repent and seek God so that He will “forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
In the crowd, Larson said Trump deserves credit from Christians. “I support what he’s done. Do I like everything he says? No. But he has certainly done a lot to turn us to make us more focused on Christ. So Christ is using him.”
When he took the stage, televangelist and pastor Robert Jeffress praised Trump for recognizing God to kick off celebrations of America’s birthday.
“If being a Christian nationalist means loving Jesus Christ and loving America, count me in,” he said, to roars of applause.
Scholars debate how best to define Christian nationalism, a topic that has garnered much attention since the January 6, 2021, riot on the Capitol, where some rioters touted Christian symbols. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a Calvin University historian, told CT last week that more Christians are starting to embrace the label.
Jeffress said the rededication of America begins with personal spiritual renewal, and then he paraphrased a hymn: “Years ago we used to sing a little chorus that went like this: ‘Lord, send a revival. Lord, send a revival! Lord, send a revival! And let it begin in me!’”
Another thunderous call for revival came from Pastor Lou Engle, who instructed the crowd to get on their knees to signify repentance. At the end, Engle exhorted the crowd to chant “Revival! Revival! Revival!”
In his video, Graham, the son of evangelist Billy Graham, also proclaimed that America needed to “repent as a nation” for sin.
Historians and evangelical leaders have argued that outpourings of repentance are a necessary component of revivals.
Americans, lately, have grown increasingly interested in the subject of revival. The polling group Barna found in February that around 3 in 10 adults believe a revival will happen in the next year.
“There’s a great desire to see revival in the country,” said Dan Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in an interview before Sunday’s event.
Religion demographers, though, caution that the data doesn’t necessarily support the idea that a marked shift toward religiosity is afoot. Decreasing religiosity among Americans seemed to plateau in 2024, according to the Pew Research Center. And while some studies have pointed to an uptick of in-person church attendance, recovery from pandemic-era lows has been uneven and many churches continue to shrink.
“I think the key is to follow the preponderance of evidence,” said Ryan Burge, a sociologist at Washington University. “One poll does not a trend make.”
If revival really got underway in America, “you wouldn’t need me and my line graphs to tell you,” he said. “You would see it, you would feel it, you would know it. It would be in the water. It’d be in the discourse. It would be everywhere.”
Darling is optimistic. He hears anecdotal encouragement from pastors all over the country who say that more young people are being baptized and that faith events on college campuses are gaining more interest. Darling says Christians should yearn for the trend to continue.
But he doesn’t think revival will come about from government efforts.
“We don’t take our spiritual cues from Washington,” Darling said. “I know revival doesn’t start in DC, but I don’t think it’s unhealthy for political leaders to call for revival, to pray for it.”
The president, meanwhile, has been quick to declare an American awakening and to take some credit. At the White House on Tuesday, Trump joked that reading scripture was more challenging than giving campaign speeches. “But I did it proudly.”
“Religion is really going up in the last year, and during the time I first got elected in 2016,” the president said. “You look at churches today, they’re full.”
Waiting in a line that wrapped around several blocks to get into Sunday’s event, Geren Gatling, a radio and televangelist, said a revival has “already begun.”
“That’s only because God’s involved,” he said. “And he’s going to respect what’s done here today.”
Many in the crowd—dressed in ample red, white, and blue with occasional star-patterned dresses or blazers—wore cross necklaces or T-shirts with churchy slogans: Need prayer? Tap my shoulder; Jesus is King; and Make Heaven Crowded, a phrase credited to assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Others dressed more for the political moment. A woman wore a shirt with Trump’s face superimposed in front of the White House and the words Daddy’s Home. A man dressed as George Washington carried an Appeal to Heaven flag, the controversial banner with origins in America’s founding that has become associated with January 6.
During the worship portions of the event, attendees lifted hands and sang. Some danced and waved American flags.
As the event extended into the afternoon, it took on the flavor of a county fair, and the crowd thinned. A young girl turned a cartwheel near an Abe Lincoln reenactor who stretched out on a picnic blanket. In seats closer to the stage, a woman peeled a boiled egg.
Families pushed strollers and wrangled toddlers. A group of nuns walked toward the shade. People juggled pizza slices on paper plates. A few men shed their shirts under the sun.
Some passers-by paused to get a picture with another man in costume: Long-haired, bearded, and clad in a white tunic with a red sash, 38-year-old Justin Coates traveled from Massachusetts to attend. Coates, who said he is not a Christian, comes to public events dressed as Jesus to “spread love.”
Alongside evangelical voices like Graham and a couple Catholic leaders like Bishop Robert Barron and retired archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan, some of the event’s speakers hailed from the neo-charismatic wing of Protestantism known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement, like Pastor Guillermo Maldonado, author Dutch Sheets, and revivalist Lou Engle. NAR adherents believe Christians must occupy seven pivotal realms of culture, including the government.
Orthodox Jewish rabbi Meir Soloveichik and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, a practicing Hindu, were the only non-Christian voices featured.
A couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma, said Christians need to be bolder about their beliefs in the public square.
“Our voices need to be louder, we need to be bolder about our love for our country, our love for God, our love for our faith, and this is definitely the way to show up,” Pam Stukenborg said. “There’s more of us than there are of them.”
Her husband, Bernie Stukenborg, agreed.
“This country needs so much restoration, but we swerved so far away from truth and Jesus. So let’s come together and reconnect ourselves to the very founding principles,” he said. He viewed Trump as having a key role to play.
“It’s the role of the president to lead this nation in truth and righteousness,” he said.
But he rejected criticisms that some see a government-sponsored worship event as heavy-handed. “[The president’s] not forcing people to come,” he said.
Far from it: Trump himself skipped the event for a round of golf at his club in Sterling, Virginia, according to the White House press pool reports. He offered the crowd well-wishes in a Truth Social post.
Some attendees set aside skepticism and embraced Rededicate 250 as an opportunity.
Tristan Kosich, a 28-year-old lawyer from Alexandria, Virginia, was an “early adopter” of a growing interest in faith among young men. Four years ago, a search for meaning brought him from atheism to Christianity. Two years ago, he formally joined the Catholic church.
“We have to put God first and just give our whole lives to it,” he said. “Things will work out better than any political ideology, economic philosophy, so on and so forth.”
Kosich said he’s comfortable with the increased religious language of the Trump administration. “You always wonder, was it entirely genuine? You always have that problem in democracy, like, is it just pandering to a certain base of voters? You’ll never really know. But generally, I’m in favor of an increased spotlight on Christianity and more Christian leadership.”
As for whether the aftermath of Rededicate 250 would include something like a national revival, some attendees said it was possible—with conditions.
Sporting a cowboy hat and a belt buckle that read TEXAS, Robert Agee said it depends on whether Americans repent and seek God’s face, a reference to 2 Chronicles 7.
He hopes “people would stop looking to man to be their savior and keep their eyes on the Lord. A lot of MAGA, if you will, has been so focused on Trump saving this country.”
“My prayer is that Trump tears down his own idols that he’s erected,” Agee added, referencing the 22-foot golden statue of the president that supporters unveiled in April at his golf course in Doral, Miami.
A group of cryptocurrency investors sponsored the piece, named Don Colossus. Among them is pastor Mark Burns, a televangelist and longtime Trump spiritual adviser who has defended the statue as “not a golden calf.”
Agee did not seem convinced.
“Those things have to be removed. These are false idols,” he said. “They need to be dealt with. Until we tear down those idols and recognize our error, it’s going to be tough for God to fully heal this land.”
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