2026

By David Hood-Nuño and Julio-Cesar Chavez

WASHINGTON, May 17 (Reuters) – A Trump administration-backed celebration of U.S. religious heritage on Sunday is highlighting conservative Christian leaders’ ties to the president as critics say the gathering does not reflect the country’s diverse faith landscape.  

The nine-hour program, called “Rededicate 250: National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” mostly features speakers from two Christian traditions — evangelical Christianity and conservative Catholicism.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to appear in a video message while senior Republicans including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will speak on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. According to organizers, the event is meant to “prepare for the nation’s 250th birthday with Scripture, testimony, prayer, and rededication of our country as One Nation to God.”

The gathering is organized by Freedom 250, a public-private partnership created by the White House to coordinate 250th anniversary celebrations alongside federal agencies.

Advocates of church-state separation say the event blurs government and religion.

“This government-sponsored prayer fest is the epitome of exactly what our secular Constitution forbids our government from doing,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, in a statement.

“It is a fusion not only of church and state, but also of our federal government with Christian nationalism,” said Gaylor, whose organization advocates for the separation of church and state.

Some critics have pointed to the absence of religious groups such as mainline Protestant churches including Lutherans, Methodists and Episcopalians. Also not represented are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.

More than a quarter of all U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to figures from the Pew Research Center. About 23% and 19% identify as evangelical Protestant and Catholic, respectively, and about 11% identify as mainline Protestant.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, urged the organizers to include speakers from other religious groups. Muslims arrived in North America before U.S. independence, said Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director at the organization.

“The reality is that the religious landscape in the United States was more diverse than many people think of, and it certainly means today we have a religious landscape that deserves to be looked at and respected,” Saylor told Reuters.

‘SCREENSHOT’ OF EARLY AMERICA

Faith leaders slated to speak include Bishop Robert Barron, from the Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester; Jonathan Falwell, chancellor of Liberty University, a school established by Christian evangelicals; and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City.

Among the political speakers are Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican Senator Tim Scott. No prominent Democrats are due to appear.

One of Sunday’s speakers, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference leader Samuel Rodriguez, said in an interview that the mostly Christian speaker list reflects what the American colonies looked like after the Great Awakening religious revival of the 18th century.

“It’s pretty much a depiction, a screenshot of our foundation,” Rodriguez told Reuters.

The event is one of 16 planned by the administration for the 250th anniversary of the United States, and the first in 2026. According to the event’s website, it is meant to give “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.”

Critics say the Freedom 250 events downplay or ignore troubling elements of the nation’s past such as slavery and violence toward Indigenous people.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, have criticized Pope Leo and other faith leaders who disagree with the administration’s policies. After feuding with the pope, Trump briefly posted an AI-generated image of himself as a Christ-like figure before deleting it following criticism from some administration supporters.

(Reporting by David Hood-Nuño and Julio-Cesar Chavez; Editing by Sergio Non and Cynthia Osterman)

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NEW YORK (AP) — The shutdown of the Long Island Rail Road, North America’s largest commuter rail system, continued into a second day on Sunday after unionized workers went on strike for the first time in three decades a day earlier.

The railroad, which serves New York City and its eastern suburbs, ceased operations just after midnight Friday after five unions representing about half its workforce walked off the job.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has urged commuters to work from home, planned a news conference for late Sunday morning.

The unions and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the public agency that runs the railroad, have been negotiating for months on a new contract, with talks stalled over the question of workers’ salaries and healthcare premiums. President Donald Trump’s administration tried to broker a deal, but the unions were legally allowed to strike starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Kevin Sexton, national vice president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, has said no new negotiations have been scheduled.

“We’re far apart at this point,” Sexton said early Saturday. “We are truly sorry that we are in this situation.”

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said the agency “gave the union everything they said they wanted in terms of pay” and that to him it was apparent the unions always intended to walk out.

The MTA was not expected to provide an update on the strike before the governor’s news conference, which was scheduled for 11 a.m.

The walkout, the first for the LIRR since a two-day strike in 1994, promises to cause headaches for sports fans planning to see the Yankees and Mets battle this weekend or to watch the Knicks’ playoff run at Madison Square Garden, which is located directly above the railroad’s Penn Station hub in Manhattan.

The station was devoid of its usual weekend bustle in the afternoon Saturday. Only a few dozen people were seen traversing the main concourse, many dragging rolling luggage from departing or arriving Amtrak trains, which are not affected by the strike.

Departure boards normally showing upcoming trains by destination instead listed ghost trains marked “No Passengers.” A few signs affixed to customer service windows explained that the railroad was shut down because of a strike.

Access to platforms was blocked off with bicycle-rack style barricades and roll-down gates as MTA police officers stood sentry, directing people to alternative transportation.

If the stoppage continues into the workweek, the roughly 250,000 people who ride the system each weekday will be forced to find other routes to the city from its Long Island suburbs. For many that likely means navigating the region’s notoriously congested roads.

Hochul, a Democrat, blamed the Trump administration for cutting mediation short and pushing the negotiations toward a strike. Trump, a Republican, responded on his Truth Social platform, saying he had nothing to do with the strike and “never even heard about it until this morning.”

“No, Kathy, it’s your fault, and now looking over the facts, you should not have allowed this to happen,” Trump said, renewing his endorsement of Long Island politician Bruce Blakeman, who is challenging Hochul’s reelection bid. “If you can’t solve it, let me know, and I’ll show you how to properly get things done.”

The MTA has said it would provide limited shuttle buses to New York City subway stations, but that contingency plan was not envisioned to handle all the riders the system normally carries on a workday.

And while remote work options greatly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people still need to show up in person, said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, a commuter advocacy group.

“You work in construction, you work in the healthcare industry, you work at a school or you’re about to graduate from school, that’s not always possible,” she said. “People need to get where they need to go.”

Dave Sumner, a locomotive engineer of 32 years, said he anticipates that Trump or Congress will step in before the strike goes on much longer.

“We’re pretty vital to this area,” he said.

The MTA has said the unions’ initial demands to raise salaries would have led to fare increases and impacted contract negotiations with other unionized workers.

The unions, which represent locomotive engineers, machinists, signalmen and other train workers, have said more substantial raises were warranted to help workers keep up with inflation and rising living costs.

Duane O’Connor, who picketed Saturday morning at Penn Station, said that while he regrets the impact on commuters, workers are simply asking for fair pay.

“I feel terrible. Terrible. This is going to hurt. This is going to hurt the island, this is going to hurt the city. … All we are asking for is fair wages,” he said.

“We’re pretty much three years without a contract,” said Karl Bischoff, a locomotive engineer with LIRR for 29 years. “If they did their contracts for their construction stuff like that, this place would be in worse condition.”

If the unions get the pay increases they are looking for, “it will come at the expense of our riders who will see next year’s 4% fare increase doubled to 8%,” Gerard Bringmann, chair of the rider advocacy group LIRR Commuter Council, said in a statement. “Like the union workers, we too are burdened by the increase in the cost of living here on Long Island.”

With Hochul running for reelection, the pressure might be on the MTA to strike a deal to end the shutdown, said William Dwyer, a labor relations expert at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where commuter rail workers staged a three-day strike last year.

“She’s up for reelection, and Long Island is a critical vote for her,” Dwyer said. “So if there’s a significant fare hike, that does not bode well for her on Election Day.”

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Follow Philip Marcelo at https://x.com/philmarcelo

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