On Sunday, my wife, Carol, and I were blessed to represent JDFI and join well over 100,000 Americans on the National Mall for Rededicate 250—a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. This special day was declared by President Trump in remembrance of the first such day in America on May 17, 1776.
The event this year was incredibly moving. It filled us with hope for the future of our country and renewed our resolve to restore our Judeo-Christian heritage. The temperature soared to ninety degrees as a typical Washington, DC, summer began to descend on the city. But to Carol and me, it felt like the balm of Gilead as praise and worship filled the air.
I found myself thinking about how grateful Dr. James Dobson would have been to experience this event. He probably would have been one of the speakers! He and Shirley prayed and worked for decades to persuade our governing authorities to rededicate our nation to the God of the Bible. At last, this has happened under President Trump as part of the 250th anniversary of America’s birth. I know Jim watched it all from heaven.
The National Mall is a Washington, DC, landmark. It is surrounded by monuments and buildings that reflect the importance of our faith in the history of the American Republic.
The Capitol, on one end of the National Mall, is where Congress meets. It has been the arena for the great debates in our nation’s history over issues including slavery and war and peace. Most Americans don’t know that before Congress moved into the building in 1800, the Capitol was used as a church. Even after Congress occupied it, religious services continued until well after the Civil War and the Reconstruction period.
The building is adorned with biblical references, including “In God We Trust.” The Capitol dome shows George Washington ascending to heaven. The Rotunda, where many historic events have taken place, features incredible art, including “The Embarkation of the Pilgrims.” This painting depicts the Pilgrims praying before they set out on their perilous voyage to what many of them saw as a “new Jerusalem.”
The Lincoln Memorial is situated on the western side of the National Mall. One of the speakers on Sunday, Dr. Larry Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, described the Lincoln Memorial eloquently.
When you enter the memorial, you are faced with a thirty-foot seated statue of Lincoln. He is presented in “a contemplative yet commanding pose.”1 As you face Lincoln, you will see on the right wall, etched in the stone, the 269 words of the Gettysburg Address. Growing up, I memorized those words, as did most American children. I can still recite them today. The last sentence of the Gettysburg Address is our rallying cry today in our current troubled nation: “. . . that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”2
All of our institutions are under attack by the radical secular Left. We must defend our constitutional republic.
On the left wall are the words of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. He had presided over a Civil War in which 600,000 Americans had died. This remains the largest death toll of any American war. In his sorrowful address, Lincoln references biblical passages and ideas a dozen times. He reminds the nation, “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”3
Sadly, media coverage of this historic event distorted its meaning and purpose. Attendees were criticized; Christians in government were castigated. In recent decades, there has been an intentional effort to rewrite America’s history. They call our Christian heritage a “myth.” They label those of us who love Jesus and love America “Christian nationalists.” Sadly, these radical secularists, socialists, and globalists have great power, and they control much of American education. Millions of American children have been lied to and deprived of their “inheritance.”
This one blessed day on the National Mall will not solve America’s crisis. As followers of Jesus Christ, we must work for personal and national repentance. We should go to our knees in prayer, asking God to forgive our personal and national sins. Then we should stand and be the Christian citizens that America desperately needs. The James Dobson Family Institute will lead the way.
- National Park Service. “Lincoln Memorial.” Last modified December 30, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/places/000/lincoln-memorial.htm.
- U.S. Continental Congress. “A Proclamation for a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, March 16, 1776.” Library of Congress. Accessed May 18, 2026. https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.24404500/?st=text
- Lincoln, Abraham. “Second Inaugural Address.” March 4, 1865. In The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Roy P. Basler, 8:332–33. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1953.
