Trump marks National Day of Prayer with executive order

By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump marked the National Day of Prayer with faith leaders in the White House Rose Garden.

The White House says Trump signed an executive order to create an initiative on "faith and opportunity" to provide recommendations on administration policies affecting faith-based and community programs.

"Today we are launching another historic action to promote religious freedom. I will soon be signing an executive order to create a faith initiative at the White House. The faith in - thank you very much. The faith initiative will help design new policies that recognize the vital role of faith in our families, our communities, and our great country. This office will also help ensure that faith based organizations have equal access to government funding, and the equal right to exercise their deeply held beliefs. We take this step because we know that in solving the many, many problem and our great challenges faith is more powerful than government and nothing is more powerful than God," Trump said.

Members of a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where more than two dozen worshippers were killed in a November 2017 shooting, attended the event.