Dear Friend,
When, on Thursday morning, with coffee in hand, I felt mentally prepared to tune into the 2026 National Prayer Breakfast, the very first thing I heard was U.S. President Donald Trump talking about building airports on sand.
In the sense that deserts are both sandy and a prominent feature in the Bible, this comment would prove to be among the most sensible things to tumble from the president’s maw during a rambling, hours-long affair. I was not prepared.
American Atheists was among several national secular groups that issued a joint letter in January urging members of Congress not to attend this event, which has long been organized by a creepy theocratic entity known as “The Family” and “The Fellowship.”
American Atheists’ president Nick Fish summed the event up pretty well when he said:
“The NPB is — and has always been — an unconstitutional influence-peddling operation led by white Christian nationalists who seek to replace our pluralistic democracy with a monolithic theocracy… It is not — and has never been — about bringing Americans of all faiths and none together, but about advancing a white Christian nationalist agenda and further eroding the wall between religion and government. It is heartening to see members of Congress, people of conscience and Americans of all beliefs and none coming together to oppose the exclusionary, divisive and bigoted ideology promoted by the organizers of this operation.”
Those who did attend may regret not heeding our warning. Because while I can’t attest to the quality of the food, holy sh*t, everything else was gross.
From honoring dictators and human rights violators to hurling countless insults and all the tangential ranting in between, Trump’s blithering remarks were basically unwatchable except as a horrifying case study of a secular democracy’s decline. The president promoted his administration’s upcoming “America Prays” event “to rededicate America as one nation under God.” And on the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches and other nonprofits from politicking, Trump said:
“It’s gone as far as you can say anything you want. Now, if you do say something bad about Trump, I will change my mind, and I will have your tax exempt status immediately revoked.”
Following that act was alpha-zealot and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who, like a medieval pope to crusaders, promised salvation to U.S. soldiers who sacrifice their lives in service of “a Christian nation.” Speaker Mike Johnson called maintaining freedom a “spiritual battle.” A day earlier, Johnson engaged in a biblical skirmish with the Pope himself, posting a “theological dissertation” on X titled, “The Christian Case for Deportation.” His thesis? Assimilation.
And a full year after Trump promised updated guidance on prayer in public schools, the Department of Education’s remaining employees delivered. Our Legal Team reviewed it and told me, in much more lawyerly words, “Yikes, what a mess.” (More on that later.)
Time and again, this administration insists prayer is “America’s superpower,” that “we derive our strength through faith,” that our rights come from their God. Our nation’s real power rests on a constitutional commitment, penned in smudgy ink by humans, that promised religious freedom for everyone. A centuries-old guarantee that the U.S. government would never pick winners and losers among beliefs, and that (sorry, Mike Johnson) no American must bow, pray, or pretend in order to fully belong.
The National Prayer Breakfast is not about unity. It’s not even a celebration of faith. It’s a gross corruption of religious freedom and a vehicle for a Christian nationalist agenda that seeks to impose one narrow set of beliefs on an entire nation. We’re fighting every day to ensure their theocratic aims do not advance any further. Because their success means we all lose our freedoms — and our democracy.
If you managed to avoid the 74th annual NPB altogether until now, please accept my apologies for bringing it up and my kudos: You missed nothing and are far wiser than I.
This American atheist gives it no stars.
In solidarity,
Melina Cohen
Director of Strategic Communications & Policy Engagement
PS: Our Policy Team is tracking 1,300+ bills across the country and had several major wins this week!
Their expert testimony and members’ engagement with our Action Alerts helped defeat a number of proposals that would undermine church-state separation — including two New Hampshire bills that would have expanded religious exemptions for vaccines and allowed religious groups access to students during the school day.
Also stopped by our advocacy efforts: An Indiana mandate to display the Ten Commandments in public schools. To support our vital legislative work in all 50 states, please donate $25 or more today.
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