Outrage spreads over Hegseth plan for Religious Affairs office at the Pentagon

Outrage spreads over Hegseth plan for Religious Affairs office at the Pentagon Religious freedom advocates fear Hegseth’s ‘disgusting, immoral, unethical and unconstitutional’ move will open the door to Christian nationalist influence - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in Pete Hegseth is opening an “Office of Religious Affairs” at the Pentagon under his direction, drawing alarms that the defense secretary is further eroding the church and state firewall and violating First Amendment protections. Hegseth, who has explicitly framed the U.S. war with Iran through the lens of his faith, has repeatedly invoked scripture and Christian prayer while promising violence against his enemies. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary has also rejected the founding principle of the separation of church and state and believes there is a “spiritual battle” waging between Christianity and America. The newly created office will serve as “a direct line to the secretary” and give military chaplains “an advocate at the highest levels,” Hegseth told troops and officials Wednesday in remarks from Quantico, Virginia. First Amendment advocates and religious freedom groups have condemned the move, fearing Hegseth will use the office to elevate a Christian nationalist agenda informing U.S. military policy and ostracize other faiths. “For more than 250 years, the military and its chaplains have served the diverse religious and spiritual needs of all our service members,” Americans United for Separation of Church and State president Rachel Laser said in a statement. “Hegseth’s new plan upends this to the detriment of all who serve.” “It’s yet another example of Hegseth abusing the power of his government position to impose his beliefs on others — and worse, it puts the needs of America’s service members second to this administration’s Christian Nationalist agenda,” Laser added. The First Amendment’s establishment clause prohibits the government from establishing a national religion or favoring one over another, while the free exercise clause ensures the freedom to express one’s faith. Thomas Jefferson had stressed the importance of a “wall of separation between the church and state” to prevent religious dominance in governance, often considered the spirit of those First Amendment protections. Hegseth, a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelicals Churches denomination that endorses Christian influence within government, is also close with controversial Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, who was invited to preach at the Pentagon in February. The new office isn’t explicitly Christian. A memo for the office notes that “nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to compel religious participation or to diminish the free exercise rights of any service member, civilian employee, or family member of any faith or no faith.” But the office will move chaplains directly the secretary’s control and “sponsor and oversee research, technology, and analytical tools to support and assess spiritual fitness, spiritual readiness, and spiritual resilience,” according to a memo. “No staff filters, no bureaucratic dilution — a direct line to the secretary,” Hegseth told troops Wednesday. Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman, author of No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism, said “it’s no accident” that Hegseth used the word “establish” to announce the creation of the office. “Hegseth is a full-throttle Christian nationalist who hates separation of church and state,” Huffman said. “He chips away at it all the time — through his monthly Christian church service at the Pentagon auditorium, his endless proselytizing, by removing religious minority faith codes from the Chaplaincy program … The road to Gilead is paved with dystopic crap like this.” Hegseth’s announcement follows complaints from active-duty military chaplains who say the secretary is evaluating whether faith leaders are ideologically aligned with Trump’s administration and Hegseth’s Christianity. Several chaplains, who serve as officers in the branches, said they fear unconstitutional retaliation and other professional repercussions if their views don’t align with Hegseth, an Evangelical Christian who has implemented sweeping changes to the military’s Chaplain Corps. “There appears to be an ongoing effort to determine whether subordinate chaplains ideologically align with the Secretary of Defense and the current leadership,” one chaplain wrote to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group supporting service members’ rights to religious expression. “The messaging is consistent enough that many of us understand what is being rewarded and what is not.” Under Hegseth’s leadership, the Department of Defense has diminished chaplains’ military ranks and narrowed the Pentagon’s list of recognized faiths to “streamline” how chaplains minister to other service members. The new list of 31 religions, culled from 200, eliminates atheism, paganism and humanist faiths, and 22 of the remaining faiths are Christian. The secretary also tossed out “Spiritual Fitness” guides that he said were too focused on “new age” concepts. Chaplains fear what appears to Hegseth’s “ideological alignment” could develop into a “broader narrowing of who is considered acceptable within the Chaplain Corps,” one chaplain wrote in a complaint to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Among those likely to be impacted are chaplains from racial minority backgrounds and minority faith traditions, as well as women, the chaplain said. Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, told The Independent that the group “condemns in the strongest terms extant in the English language the disgusting, immoral, unethical and unconstitutional actions” under Hegseth, who is “literally using the word ‘ESTABLISHMENT’ to create an office that viciously violates the ‘No Establishment’ clause of the First Amendment.” Weinstein said the group will continue to “fight the odious stench of Hegeth’s Christian nationalist bigotry, hatred, and prejudice every second of every day and night until the wretched filth of his fundamentalist Christian religious extremism is forever eradicated from the domain of the otherwise honorable United States military.” Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments [Image text:] OFFICEOF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS