Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led his first monthly Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the Iran war began on Wednesday, praying for "every round to find its mark" against the nation’s adversaries.
The service, livestreamed to a wider audience, saw Hegseth tell gathered civilian employees and military personnel that it was "all the more fitting this month, at this moment, given what tens of thousands of Americans are doing right now."
During the service, Hegseth read a prayer he attributed to a military chaplain, stating, "Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy."
He also quoted from the Psalms, declaring, "I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed."
Hegseth frequently invokes his evangelical faith as head of the armed forces, often portraying the United States as a Christian nation seeking to vanquish foes through military might.
His Christian rhetoric has drawn renewed scrutiny amid the expanding Iran war and global conflicts, particularly given his past defense of the Crusades, the brutal medieval wars between Christians and Muslims.
While expressions of faith are common in American public life, Hegseth often goes beyond standard calls for divine blessing. Last week, he asked Americans to pray for service members "in the name of Jesus Christ," a practice he repeated on Wednesday.
Ronit Stahl, author of "Enlisting Faith: How the Military Chaplaincy Shaped Religion and State in Modern America" and a historian at the University of California at Berkeley, noted that while broad religious language is not unusual, "the shift towards the specificity of Jesus Christ and therefore Christianity and in Hegseth’s case, a particular form of Protestant Christianity, is new, especially coming from the defense secretary."
Stahl questioned the implications for a nation with no established religion, asking, "what does it mean to have a leader being not just broadly religious or religious in a pluralistic sense, but religious in a very particular sense?"
Advocacy group files lawsuit
Hegseth is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a conservative network co-founded by self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson. CREC pastors, including Wilson, have preached at Hegseth’s Pentagon services multiple times.
A lawsuit was filed Monday by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, challenging the services. The advocacy group also filed a similar suit against the Labor Department, where Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer hosts monthly prayer gatherings reportedly inspired by Hegseth. The lawsuit seeks to enforce a public records request from December, demanding internal Pentagon communications regarding the worship services, their costs, guests, and any employee complaints.
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United, alleged in a statement: "Secretaries Hegseth and Chavez-DeRemer are abusing the power of their government positions and taxpayer-funded resources to impose their preferred religion on federal workers. Even if these prayer services are presented as voluntary, there is pressure on federal employees to attend in order to appease their bosses."
‘Making the chaplain corps great again’
Military chaplains typically provide worship services within the defense department, ministering from their specific traditions while offering spiritual care to troops of any faith or none. Hegseth announced two reforms on Tuesday, which he described as "making the chaplain corps great again."
He stated his desire for chaplains to focus more on God and less on therapeutic "self-help and self-care," despite the military’s increasing reliance on chaplains to address growing mental health distress among troops.
In a video message, Hegseth also announced that chaplains would no longer wear their rank on their uniform, instead being identified by religious insignia. He argued this change would remove "unease or anxiety" service members might feel about approaching officers for spiritual care. Additionally, he revealed that the military is reducing the number of recognized faith codes, or religious affiliations, from over 200 to 31.
This reduction eliminates many small Protestant denominations, as well as identifications for Wiccans, atheists, and agnostics. The Pentagon did not respond to requests for more information about these changes, and the updated list of religious affiliation codes has not yet been released.
The military is religiously diverse; a 2019 congressional report indicated that nearly 70% of troops identify as Christian, while nearly a quarter were listed as "other/unclassified/unknown," with smaller percentages of atheists/agnostics, Jews, Muslims, and adherents of Eastern religions.
A turning point in Hegseth's faith
At Wednesday’s worship service, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, an Air Force chaplain and Southern Baptist pastor, delivered a message on overcoming fear and following Jesus. Collins, a former congressman, continued a pattern of only evangelicals presiding at Hegseth’s services.
Hegseth began hosting worship at the Pentagon in May 2025, with his Tennessee pastor, Brooks Potteiger, preaching. Potteiger is set to relocate to Washington, D.C., to lead Christ Church DC, a new CREC congregation that Hegseth has attended.
Raised Baptist, Hegseth has stated that he experienced a turning point in his faith in 2018, after which he began attending an evangelical church in New Jersey whose pastor preached at the Pentagon last year. He and his wife later moved to a Nashville suburb to enroll their children in a classical Christian school affiliated with the CREC, and began attending Potteiger’s CREC church, Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship.
Hegseth addressed his Pentagon worship services at a gathering of Christian broadcasters in February, remarking, "We mostly do it because I need it more than anybody else." He added, "We hear a lot from the ‘freedom from religion’ crowd. They hate it. The left-wing shrieks, which means we’re right over the target."
