Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Message: “Religion is Coming Back to America”

On November 25, 2025, during the annual Thanksgiving turkey-pardoning ceremony, President Donald Trump declared that “the churches are coming back” because more “people are praying” and “religion is coming back to America,” calling this resurgence a “big deal.” But what exactly does he mean? Is he speaking of a genuine spiritual revival taking place across the nation? Is he referring to churches regaining political influence? Or is President Trump suggesting a union of both—a renewed religious interest combined with increased political activism from religious institutions?

There is nothing inherently wrong with churches coming back in a spiritual sense. Every believer should pray for genuine revival and reformation. A nation always benefits when its people love God and seek to embrace His moral principles and strengthen the family and the community as a whole. That is, in fact, the true mission of the church—to persuade hearts through the agency of the Holy Spirit, not through political force or civil legislation.

But if “the churches are coming back” means something more—such as churches taking the reins of civil government—then we are treading upon dangerous territory. When religious institutions start influencing public policy or utilizing political power to uphold their beliefs, we risk creating a spiritual crisis. If “coming back” means promoting laws that declare Sunday to be the Lord’s Day of rest or advancing other pro-religious mandates through the legal system, then that is precisely the kind of church-state union that prophecy warns about.

The issue is not religion itself, but religion using the state to enforce its observances. A spiritual revival is a blessing; a political revival that seeks to legislate worship is a path that leads directly to the “image of the beast.” Whenever religious bodies gain civil power to compel conscience—even for causes that seem moral or beneficial—the principles of religious liberty are sacrificed, and prophecy tells us exactly where that road leads.

So yes, churches “coming back” can be good—if it refers to moral awakening and spiritual renewal. But if it means churches reentering the political arena with the goal of enforcing religious doctrines, especially Sunday sacredness, then it becomes a sign of the final movements foretold in Revelation 13.

“The image of the beast represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas” (Great Controversy, p. 445).