type: timeline_event
On February 4, 2026, House Speaker Mike Johnson co-hosted the second annual National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. — an event organized by the Family Research Council and its president Tony Perkins. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise attended alongside congressional members, Trump administration officials, and state attorneys general. Johnson, who helped found the event, proclaimed that America "was forged on a biblical foundation" and pleaded for God's "continued favor" over the nation while praying for courage to "defend and restore" that heritage.
Speakers throughout the event characterized abortion rights, LGBTQ+ equality, environmental protections, and secular governance as "sins" and "demonic attacks" on the nation — framing the legislative agenda of the majority party and Speaker of the House explicitly in terms of spiritual warfare. The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a formal letter to Johnson on February 12 condemning his role, arguing that a sitting Speaker using his official platform to endorse an explicitly ideological religious event violated the Establishment Clause and the constitutional requirement of religious neutrality in government.
The gathering functioned as a coordination event for the overlapping networks of the Christian right, the congressional majority, and the Trump administration — demonstrating the organizational infrastructure through which Family Research Council doctrine flows into legislative priorities. For the institutional capture timeline, this event illustrates how the Council for National Policy (CNP)-linked network (FRC is a CNP affiliate) uses congressional leadership to normalize theocratic framing of public policy, collapsing the distinction between legislative governance and religious mission.