Trump Says He Will Promote School Prayer Through Department Of Education Guidelines

The United States of America was very clearly and purposefully founded without ties to any specific church or religion — and the separation of church and state was promoted by the founding fathers very vocally and very often.

But now one of the central pillars of the founding of our country is under attack by President Donald Trump and his administration — and he said so clearly on Monday at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, during a Religious Liberty Commission hearing, where he promoted the idea of prayer in schools.

“For most of our country’s history, the Bible was found in every classroom in the nation, yet in many schools today students are instead indoctrinated with anti-religious propaganda and some are punished for their religious beliefs. Very, very strongly punished,” Trump said. “It is ridiculous.”

He then said that he would “protect the Judeo-Christian values of our founding —” though it was made abundantly clear by our founding fathers that the country and its values were not aligned with any religion and that our acceptance of religion did not draw the line at Judeo-Christian religions but expanded to religions found all over the world.

During the speech, Trump also said that the Department of Education would be releasing guidelines about prayer in school, which is odd since in the recent past, he has been excited about dismantling the federal organization completely.

“To have a great nation, you have to have religion — I believe that so strongly,” Trump continued. “There has to be something after we go through all of this, and that something is God.”

On the contrary, the vast majority of historians argue that one of the things that has made the United States so great is that we broke ties with any specific religion or church, thus making it possible for citizens to be more free and equal. On the other hand, studies have found that countries with close ties between government and religion have more public restrictions, less freedom, and less legitimacy.

Voters should not be surprised by the actions taken by Trump to violate the First Amendment. He has been vowing to return prayer in schools since 2018.