Trump Pastor Says No Separation Between Church and State

separation of – Reverend Lorenzo Sewell, who delivered the inaugural prayer for President Donald Trump, used a National Mall event to argue that the United States should not practice separation between church and state—framing the debate as a moral choice rather than a legal

Reverend Lorenzo Sewell didn’t wait for a policy briefing or a courtroom question. He said it plainly, standing on the National Mall during a live event tied to the nation’s 250th independence anniversary.

“Well, Jesus was a politician,” Sewell told host Ben Bergquam during coverage of the “Rededicate 250” event in Washington, D.C., when Bergquam raised how far the country has come since slavery and asked what Sewell thinks about the popular American standard of separation between church and state.

Sewell’s argument turned on his reading of Scripture and founding ideals. “Jesus was crucified for a political crime. ‘You’re no friend of Caesar.’ Jesus on his crucifix, it said that he was a king, right?” he said. He then linked that idea to a broader claim about how the country should order law and morality: “So we’re a country whereby our founding fathers understood we can’t be a country that has a civil law without a moral law.”.

The remarks echoed a push associated with the Religious Liberty Commission, a federal advisory body formed by Trump that argues against separation of church and state and advocates for more religious expression in public schools as well as more legal exemptions.

Sewell described those relationships as inseparable. “They knew one was able to inform the other,” he said about the laws of man and those of God. He also said the U.S. has been trapped by what he called a “false dichotomy of the church and the state. ” arguing. “They would have never had this false dichotomy of the church and the state. They would have said, ‘No, the church needs to be leading the state.’”.

The event’s roster made the stakes feel national in scope. In a promotional video for “Rededicate 250. ” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. “Our founders knew two simple truths: Our rights don’t come from government. they come from God. And a nation is only as strong as its faith.” The conservative lineup also included Secretary of State Marco Rubio. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Vice President JD Vance.

Trump’s participation in the program came through Scripture. In a pre-recorded message that was used last month during a Bible-reading event, Trump read a passage of Scripture.

This was not Sewell’s first public appearance in the orbit of Trump’s presidency. Last year, Sewell delivered the inaugural prayer for President Donald Trump. In that prayer, Sewell quoted Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

That moment triggered criticism from the civil rights leader’s family. Bernice King, the late activist’s daughter, called out Sewell at the time. She wrote. “I don’t deny the power of my father’s most well-known speech.” She added that. in her view. the speech’s power and popularity have been misused. “However. its power and popularity (with focus on its conclusion) have been misused to weaken its clear messaging about ending racism. stopping police brutality. ensuring voting rights. and eradicating economic injustice. ” Bernice King wrote. “Why didn’t Pastor Lorenzo Sewell pray these parts of the Dream during President Trump’s inauguration?”.

Social media later returned to Sewell with sharper force. He was “skewered rather brutally for his anti-church and state separation” on social media.

Taken together, the National Mall remarks and the broader set of speakers show how a question that often stays in court briefs and legal tests is being treated here as a spiritual imperative—one that Sewell says the country’s founders already understood.

United States politics church and state separation of church and state Trump Lorenzo Sewell Religious Liberty Commission Pete Hegseth Marco Rubio Mike Johnson JD Vance National Mall Rededicate 250 Bernice King