Prayer in the Pentagon - for violence against all who deserve no mercy

Pete Hegseth leads the United States Department of Defense. He does so with his Bible in his hand and his prayer on his lips, which cannot simply be dismissed as piety.

On Wednesday, Hegseth held his first monthly Christian service in the Pentagon since the start of the Iran war. Civilian staff and military personnel sat together, the service was broadcast live. Hegseth prayed that every bullet would find its target - “against the enemies of justice and our great nation.” And then the sentence that remains: “overwhelming violence against those who deserve no mercy.”

Pete Hegseth - former Fox host, fanatic, self-declared war minister. What he calls religion has nothing to do with religion. It is its abuse. And the world watches.

He said the prayer originally came from a military chaplain - spoken for the troops who captured the then Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Hegseth found it fitting to say it again. In the Pentagon. In front of federal employees. In the name of Jesus Christ.

This is not the language of a Secretary of Defense. This is the language of a crusade. Hegseth calls himself war minister - a title no Congress has ever granted him.

Hegseth belongs to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative network co-founded by the self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson. Wilson preached at the Pentagon in February. CREC pastors have appeared at Hegseth’s services at least three times. His church pastor Brooks Potteiger - the same one who publicly welcomed the death of a Democratic politician - will soon move to Washington to lead a new CREC congregation that Hegseth attends.

See our article: “I pray that God kills him.” - “Right. We want him to be crucified with Christ”

In a country without a state religion, the question arises what it means when a Secretary of Defense is not generally religious, but very specifically so - and in a very particular form of Protestant Christianity. Hegseth himself provides the answer. He says he hears a lot from the “freedom-from-religion faction.” They hate this. “The left is screaming, which means we are right over the target.” A sentence that in another context would be called intimidation.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit on Monday. The group wants to review internal communications about the services, their costs, guests, and any complaints from employees. It argues that even if participation is voluntary, the pressure on federal employees is real - because the man who prays is also the one who decides their careers.

At the same time, Hegseth has announced that he will restructure the military chaplaincy system. Less therapeutic counseling, more worship services. The number of recognized religious affiliations has been reduced from more than 200 to 31. Atheists, agnostics, Wiccans - removed. Those who do not fit the mold simply do not fit.

You sit with all of this and ask yourself how far this will go. A Secretary of Defense who defends crusades, whose pastor welcomes the death of political opponents, who prays for violence in the Pentagon and at the same time ignores the religious diversity of his own troops - almost 30 percent of American soldiers are not Christians.

Hegseth himself said he holds the services because he needs them. “More than anyone else.” Perhaps that is the most honest sentence he has ever said. But what someone needs and what he is allowed to enforce with the power of a department - those are two very different things. And he has long since crossed that line. In all religions of this world, no matter which one, there would likely be agreement on one point: Pete Hegseth - what a poor soul.