July 12, 2026
NewsHound
Prior to the 250th anniversary of the United States, thousands came to the National Mall in Washington for "Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee Of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving." The eight-hour-long event,
created and organized by Freedom 250 in collaboration with the White House, drew throngs of people over the weekend, who waited in line to stand in front of the center Stage. One of the attendees was
Emma Cieslik, a queer Catholic religious scholar. Emma is the director for Queer and Catholic, and wrote in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR) how the Great Controversy book that was given away at Rededicate 250 contains anti-Catholic conspiracies, written by Ellen White. In Emma’s
own words,
“I attended the event as a Catholic public historian, curious about the materials that attendees, organizers and protestors were distributing.
But the materials that I and other members of the public received revealed deep-seated tension between Catholics and Protestants at an event focused on Christian unity and featuring Catholic speakers. I saw echoes of the same anti-Catholic conspiracies that have existed since the very beginning of the United States, and have affected the way that American Christianity has been constructed. The juxtaposition between the event's anti-Catholic elements and its Catholic speakers emphasized the
ongoing fracture between Protestants and Catholics in Trump's MAGA coalition.
I, like everyone who walked up from the Smithsonian metro stop, was handed a bag with the screenprinted logo "Religious Freedom 250" from
Amazing Facts International, a
multimillion dollar religious nonprofit organization
run by Pastor Doug Batchelor.
In it was Ellen Gould White's The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem: The Great Controversy Between Good and Evil, along with a glossy magazine titled "Religious Freedom and America in Bible Prophecy: The Future of Earth's Last Superpower Revealed" published by Amazing Facts and other assorted leaflets. While not officially affiliated with the event, the bag and its contents closely mirrored Rededicate 250's design, and they were the only materials that I was handed while walking around the event.
I was already skeptical of the materials because [Ellen]White is
well-known for her
anti-Catholic views. In fact, her book The Great Controversy, which argues that the Catholic Church
misinterprets the Second and Fourth Commandments, is a prominent source of
anti-Catholic conspiracies.
But what I encountered inside of the magazine was even more blatant.
