The Freedom From Religion Foundation upbraids the U.S. Department of Education for using its official platform to promote a sectarian message from evangelist Franklin Graham.
Graham is a religious extremist with a long track record of exclusionary rhetoric. By featuring his blog post, the department has blurred the line between state and church and abandoned its duty to serve all Americans, regardless of their beliefs or lack thereof.
Today — not coincidentally the National Day of Prayer — the Department of Education published a post from Graham titled, “We Need Prayer: A Return to Respect, Responsibility, and Reverence in Our Nation’s Schools.”
We don’t need prayer — we need the Constitution.
The National Day of Prayer itself was founded through the efforts of Graham’s father, Billy Graham, whose stated goal was to bring “the Lord Jesus Christ” to the nation. The bill establishing the observance was introduced by Sen. Absalom Robertson, father of televangelist Pat Robertson, who framed it as a religious weapon against communism. From its inception, the Day of Prayer has been about Christian nationalism, not national unity, and it remains a tool for promoting a narrow religious agenda.
Let’s be clear: Franklin Graham is not an educator. He is the head of two evangelical organizations and has a long history of anti-LGBTQ-plus, anti-Muslim and anti-secular rhetoric. For the Department of Education to publish his sermon, because that is what this blog post is, raises serious concerns about the Trump administration intending to use public schools to promote Christianity.
Graham’s so-called “three Rs” — Respect, Responsibility and Reverence — may sound inoffensive, but the third “R” is a theological demand, not a civic virtue. “Reverence for God,” especially as defined by one religious sect, is not an educational goal. Our public schools are not pulpits, and our Constitution does not require — and in fact forbids — religious reverence from government institutions.
Public schools are meant to educate, not proselytize. Students have every right to pray privately and voluntarily — and they do. But the government has no business promoting prayer, religious observance or any particular faith. Graham’s blog does just that, pushing for religion to be inserted into classrooms, pep rallies, graduations and school boards. That’s not about student rights — that’s about religious takeover, ignoring almost eight decades of Supreme Court directives protecting student rights of conscience.
Graham frames the growing diversity and inclusivity of our society as “rebellion” and “moral decay.” He portrays secularism as a threat, ignoring that public schools are legally and morally obligated to serve all students, including religious minorities, the nonreligious and LGBTQ-plus youth. What he calls “traditional values” are, in truth, discriminatory dogmas that have no place in our taxpayer-funded education system.
The most disturbing aspect of this situation is not Graham’s rhetoric — it’s that the U.S. Department of Education gave him a government megaphone. Federal agencies must remain neutral on matters of religion. By featuring Graham’s theological manifesto, the department appears to endorse a particular religious viewpoint. That’s unconstitutional, divisive and unacceptable.
“We are appalled that the Department of Education would promote Franklin Graham’s sectarian and regressive vision of public education,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “Public schools exist to serve all students, not to impose ‘reverence’ for one group’s deity. The department should be defending our secular Constitution, not enabling a religious crusade.”
FFRF calls on the Department of Education to remove the blog post immediately and recommit to its secular mission. Public education belongs to all Americans, not just those who adhere to Graham’s brand of conservative evangelical Christianity. Promoting his personal theology through a federal platform sends a dangerous message: that only Christian families are truly welcome in our public schools.
That message is not just wrong — it’s profoundly un-American.
Public schools must remain secular spaces — free from coercion, dogma and religious favoritism. The Department of Education should be focused on evidence-based learning and inclusive civic values, not nostalgic religious revisionism. Anything less is a betrayal of our shared constitutional promise.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
