The second Thursday in May is designated as the National Day of Prayer by federal law, which requires the U.S. president to issue a proclamation recognizing the day. While the occasion is officially nonsectarian—President Joe Biden’s 2024 declaration recognizes “Americans of every religion and background”—the National Day of Prayer Task Force, which promotes the day and organizes events, has long been dominated by Christian-right leaders.
The “national prayer” being promoted by the Task Force this year deploys the language of Seven Mountains dominionists, who teach that every “mountain” or sphere of influence in society must be taken over by Christians who share their right-wing religious and political worldview: “Lead us forward to dispel the darkness and bring light throughout the Church, Family, Education, Business, Military, Government, and Arts, Entertainment, and Media.” The task force website is even more explicit, encouraging people to pray for America “by praying into seven centers of influence in our nation.”
Leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation teach that taking dominion and bringing nations into alignment with their biblical worldview can help speed the return of Jesus Christ and usher in a period when the church will “rule and reign” with him.
As Right Wing Watch has noted, “The rhetoric of the seven mountains has been adopted across the religious right even by leaders who may not share NAR’s theology, but find the concept a convenient lingua franca for encouraging conservative evangelicals to get more involved in politics.”
Right Wing Watch reported in 2020 that the Southern Baptist Convention’s guide to the National Day of Prayer that year used the framework of Seven Mountains Dominionism.
This year’s “national observance” will be broadcast Thursday night from the U.S. Capitol visitors’ center, featuring religious-right leaders including Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and New Apostolic Reformation figure Doug Stringer, who has worked with Christian nationalist political operative David Lane to organize political prayer events. Another NAR figure, Samuel Rodriguez, co-hosted last year’s broadcast.
Dave Kubal, president of the pro-Trump Intercessors for America and an associate of Trump spiritual advisor Paula White, is a member of the task force’s board of directors, as is Matt Lockett, an associate of dominionists Dutch Sheets and Lou Engle.
As Andrew Seidel noted at Americans United for Separation of Church and State this week, Task Force president Kathy Branzell, who wrote this year’s “national prayer,” is author of “Prayer Warrior: The Battle Plan to Victory.” In an interview with FRC’s Perkins this week, Branzell said that Satan is “working really hard to get us to be quiet”—not something religious-right leaders have ever been.
During the Trump administration, televangelist Kenneth Copeland was among the religious-right leaders who dined at the White House on the eve of the 2019 day of prayer. Copeland’s Victory Channel is home of FlashPoint, a program started in the fall of 2020 that has promoted dominionist and Christian nationalist supporters of Donald Trump as well as falsehoods about the 2020 election and Jan. 6 insurrection. This year, FlashPoint is holding a series of live events they’re calling the Rescue America tour.
| Every day, Right Wing Watch exposes extremism to help the public, activists, and journalists understand the strategies and tactics of anti-democratic forces—and respond to an increasingly aggressive and authoritarian far-right movement. The threat is growing, but our resources are not. Any size contribution will help us continue our work and become more effective at disrupting the ideologies, people, and organizations that threaten our freedom and democracy. Please make an investment in Right Wing Watch’s defense of the values we share. |
