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VCA’s Constitution focus, including Jeff Bayard’s Constitutional Showdown series, reminds us that school prayer is both a cultural and constitutional battle.
Trump Declares Total Protection for School Prayer
At the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., President Donald J. Trump announced that the Department of Education will issue new guidance protecting the right to prayer in America’s public schools.
“To have a great nation, you have to have religion,” Trump said. “Under the Trump Administration, we’re defending our rights and restoring our identity as a nation under God. We are One Nation Under God — and we always will be.”
The President described the new policy as offering “total protection” for prayer in schools. His words drew on America’s founding vision that rights are endowed by our Creator, not granted by government.
America Prays: A Call to National Renewal
Trump also launched the America Prays initiative, inviting believers across the country to gather weekly in prayer for the nation’s renewal as America approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
“What if believers all across this great nation got together with ten people each week to pray for our country?” asked Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner. “Think about the transformation you and I could witness in communities all across the land.”
The initiative already includes more than seventy faith organizations and churches. Trump urged every American congregation and family to join.
Student Testimonies Reveal the Crisis
The event highlighted stories of students punished for expressing their faith:
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Shay, a 12-year-old from California, was forced to read a book promoting radical gender ideology to a kindergartner. His parents objected, and the boy endured bullying for his faith.
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Hannah Allen, from Honey Grove, Texas, was stopped by her principal for organizing classmates to pray for an injured peer. She refused to back down and won her case.
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Lydia Booth, a third-grader in Mississippi, was banned from wearing a mask that read “Jesus Loves Me.” Her family, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, sued the school district and won.
These stories illustrate how far America’s classrooms have strayed from their biblical foundation — and why restoring prayer is not optional but essential.
Trump Rebukes Kaine: Rights Come From God
The President also took aim at Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who recently claimed it was “extremely troubling” to say rights come from God rather than government.
“But as everyone in this room understands, it is tyrants who are denying our rights and the rights that come from God,” Trump declared. “It’s this Declaration of Independence that proclaims we’re endowed by our Creator with the right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The Senator from Virginia should be ashamed of himself.”
Trump’s rebuke reminded the nation that our liberty is not a government handout — it is a God-given inheritance.
Constitutional Authority for School Prayer
The First Amendment guarantees: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Yet for decades, activist courts have twisted that protection.
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Engel v. Vitale (1962): The Supreme Court struck down voluntary prayer in public schools.
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Abington v. Schempp (1963): Bible reading in classrooms was outlawed.
Neither decision was rooted in the Constitution’s text. Both came from activist judges who substituted their will for the nation’s founding principles. Sadly, the church largely stood by in silence as God, prayer, and the Ten Commandments were stripped from classrooms.
The Church’s Responsibility
The truth is clear: the government could not have removed God from schools if the church had not allowed it. For too long, pulpits remained silent while secular ideologies filled the vacuum.
Scripture warns us: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12). When America abandoned God in her classrooms, she opened the door to confusion, violence, and moral collapse.
Now, with Trump’s announcement, the door is open again — but it is the church’s responsibility to walk through it. Pastors must lead their congregations in boldness. Parents must equip their children to stand firm in faith. Christian teachers must model courage in classrooms that often reward compromise.
A Call to Prayer and Action
The America Prays initiative should not be seen as a government program, but as a prophetic wake-up call. The President can provide policy, but only the church can provide spiritual power.
“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). America’s children need prayer, truth, and the gospel of Jesus Christ more than ever before.
Trump’s announcement gives the church a window of opportunity. The question is whether we will seize it.
Conclusion: One Nation Under God
America was founded as One Nation Under God, not under bureaucrats or globalists. President Trump has taken an important step toward restoring that vision by defending prayer in schools and calling the nation to collective prayer.
But policies alone will not save us. Renewal will come only when the church rises, repents of past silence, and leads the way back to God.
The time is now. The question is not whether prayer will be protected, but whether the church will pray, preach, and act with courage.
