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If you poke around the Freedom 250 page of the White House’s website—an experience I don’t especially recommend, by the way—you’ll find President Trump’s invitation to join something called “America Prays.” Started in preparation for next week’s July 4 semiquincentennial, the initiative urges people of faith to mark this anniversary as a time of “prayer and rededication of the United States as one nation under God.” We’re praying people here at Sojourners, so when someone invites us to pray, we’re generally game. But as we looked around the White House website, those prayers didn’t quite capture the words we most wanted to say to God as our nation approaches this milestone. Instead, we published alternate prayers. In our June issue, we asked more than a dozen pastors, writers, activists, and faith leaders how they would pray with honesty and humility for the United States. The resulting collection of prayers—from contributors including Father James Martin, Kat Armas, Julia Alvarez, Lydia Wylie-Kellerman, Randy Woodley, and more—strike a noticeably different tone from the White House’s suggested resources. And if you’re looking for other ways to mark America’s 250th birthday with truth and justice, we’ve got you covered: Historian Jemar Tisby makes a case for not flinching from difficult truths, while Kenji Kuramitsu offers a liberating dose of tough love. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette’s hymn about America being a “city on a hill” has a surprising twist. And my colleague Darren Saint-Ulysse makes a compelling case for having more—not fewer—flags in church.
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