Prestonwood celebrates Trump and Supreme Court in morning worship

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on July 2, 2025.

“This is a time for us to celebrate America,” Prestonwood Baptist Church Pastor Jack Graham declared in his all-white suit in a scene reminiscent of a Jesse Gemstone sermon in HBO Max’s The Righteous Gemstones.

Top: Jack Graham last Sunday at Prestonwood: Bottom: Danny McBride as Jesse Gemstone on “The Righteous Gemstones.”

“Just because you love America doesn’t mean you don’t love Jesus more. And we do love Jesus most of all, but we love our country,” he said last Sunday at the suburban Dallas megachurch.

As the worship team played the songs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Marine Corps to the sounds of explosions and jets flying overhead, those from the congregation who had served in each branch stood when their song was played. With American flags and official branch seals displayed on the screens, commanders from each branch stood on the stage and saluted the congregation.

As they marched off stage, a men’s trio came forward to sing “God Bless America” as larger-then-life images of the American flag swirled across the wall-to-wall video screens behind them, as if they were draped in the flag.

It’s nearly the Fourth of July, so “God and country” services are on full display across the land — although few are likely as over the top as at Prestonwood, which also is known for its extravagant Christmas pageant with flying drummers suspended over the congregation.

Remember it was in downtown Dallas in December 2021 when then-former President Donald Trump delivered the Christmas message at First Baptist Church of Dallas, using the pulpit to criticize his successor, President Joe Biden and warning, “Our country needs a savior right now.”

Trump, of course, sees himself as that savior, as do so many of his followers.

Whether at Christmas or the Fourth of July, these Christian nationalist-themed services are nothing new. When I first began leading worship in the 1990s at an independent fundamentalist Baptist church, I sang a song for the Sunday morning service comparing the U.S. military’s sacrifice to Jesus’ sacrifice, and then comparing our commitment to Jesus with our commitment to the United States.

The worship of Trump and the United States is so over the top and obvious that it can be easy to condemn it as idolatry without reflecting on how its theology is built. But if we’re going to disarm Christian nationalism and turn authoritarian Christianity’s weapons of warfare into plowshares and garden tools, we’re going to need to be secure enough in our relationship with God and brave enough to question some of the underlying theological threads being used to sacralize harm.

Morning worship at Prestonwood Baptist Church June 29.

Echoes of empire

As he began his comments, Graham continued his nationalistic theology by citing the oft-quoted Psalm 33:12. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” He immediately added, as in a prayer: “You are our God. You are our Lord. We know that many have turned from you. And many nations roar in these days. But may our nation be a beacon of hope. May we be a light to the world because those of us who follow Jesus.”

But rather than reflecting on this passage’s ancient Near Eastern context in relation to the story of the Israelites, Graham implied this verse can be applied to the 21st century United States of America by supporting the agenda of the Trump administration.

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