Faith and Freedom: Mark Meadows Honors America’s “Miraculous” Founding

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President Donald Trump’s former White House Chief of Staff urges prayer, courage, and conviction in preserving liberty for future generations at Regent University’s “The American Miracle: 250 Years of the Declaration of Independence.”

On September 25, 2025, Regent University’s Robertson School of Government (RSG) launched the first event in its five-part series, The American Miracle: 250 Years of the Declaration of Independence, featuring the Hon. Mark Meadows — former Chief of Staff to President Donald J. Trump. Speaking before a full audience in Regent’s Library Auditorium and online at Regent.edu/250th, Meadows addressed “Challenges and Opportunities to Make a Difference,” offering faith-filled insight into America’s founding, government, and future.

RSG Dean Michele Bachmann opened the event by presenting Meadows with the Robertson School of Government’s Distinguished Statesman Award and prayed that “we, in our generation be faithful to come up to the task, to preserve liberty for this generation and for the young people that are in this room as we hand the baton to them.”

In his opening remarks, Meadows reflected on America’s unique calling. “People are wanting to know, you know, is this experiment that we get to call home actually going to survive,” he said. “And yet, I am here to say that God ordained us for such a time as this to make sure that we proclaim his name and that we fulfill that calling that we’re on.”

Meadows shared candidly about his personal journey from private business to public service. “Here I was a business guy, being elected to Congress. It was never on my bucket list. Never wanted to be a member of Congress—felt a calling. In fact, when I felt that calling, literally I called my wife. I said, ‘Well, I think the Lord’s asked me to run for Congress.’” The moment, he recalled, was overwhelming. “I literally got physically ill, had to pull over on the side of the road… I didn’t want this. And yet… we prayed, we knew that indeed, that this was the calling.”

Turning to America’s beginnings, Meadows highlighted a lesser-known hero of independence: Caesar Rodney of Delaware. “He goes through a driving rainstorm, 26 hours on horseback from Delaware to Philadelphia, arriving just in time to cast the deciding vote to make sure that we declared our independence,” Meadows said. “By signing his name, he was essentially signing his death warrant for the love of what we get to call home. And it was that kind of total sacrifice… that we all get to join.”

Yet Meadows lamented that Rodney’s statue “has been taken down in Delaware. He cautioned, “If we continue to let our government become so weaponized and ‘woke,’ we are losing the very moral foundation of who we are as a nation — that Judeo-Christian values that we embraced so long ago.”

Reflecting on his time in the White House, Meadows said, “I’ve had the unique opportunity to serve President Trump as his… Chief of Staff. The president is the hardest working man in Washington, D.C., by exponentially. He never sleeps.” He described receiving phone calls “at three eighteen in the morning” followed by a check-in “at seven thirty in the morning to see how I’m coming with a project.”

The former congressman noted both the challenges and the importance of standing firm in today’s political climate. “What we have to do is stand up for what is right and good for our country,” he urged. “You need to make sure they hear the clarion call from you. Even if you think your voice doesn’t work, it’s important that you hear that what we have is… we need that fine balance.”

Meadows credited President Trump’s leadership on key moral and national issues. “This President Trump has been more pro-life and pro-Israel than really any president we have ever had,” he said. “He takes all kinds of input from all kinds of people… because he will go at great lengths to do this.”

He shared anecdotes that pointed to deeper truths about leadership, accountability, and faith. Meadows also explained how decisive governance can shape policy, recounting how the Trump administration swiftly stopped funding for the Wuhan Lab during the COVID-19 crisis. “Little things get done in the executive branch with a phone call or with a stroke of a pen,” he said. “But that’s for good or bad.”

Meadows continued, “The executive orders that have come in from those that want to make sure our military men and women are not just fighting military men and women, [but] that they’re indoctrinated on all kinds of other issues that, quite frankly, we wouldn’t have accepted even a decade ago. And yet, by the stroke of a pen, they made that institutionalized. … This president is making sure that gets rooted out.”

Calling for accountability and reform, Meadows observed, “Our inability to reign in a government that continues to grow and grow and grow has to be stopped. It will be painful to stop it. And you’ve seen when some of that gets stopped, what happens? There are people rising up in Washington, D.C. saying it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened.”

He emphasized the need for public servants of integrity: “We need to make sure that we promote people in the federal government based on merit. And if they’re not performing, we ask them to use their talents somewhere else.”

Despite the challenges facing the nation, Meadows offered hope rooted in faith and prayer. “We must be willing to sacrifice our lives like Caesar Rodney. We must be willing to answer the call like President Trump and others have done. But we must most of all start it on our knees, as George Washington did, to know that indeed, that we’re being led by our Heavenly Father to do what is right and good, and righteous for our country.”

At the close of the event, Meadows prayed over Regent’s students and the next generation of Christian leaders: “Lord, I pray that you would just put a special anointing on this younger generation to be bold for you—to know that our nation is one that sends a message to the rest of the world, that this Christian nation is willing to stand by their God and their Savior. In Jesus’ name, amen.”