While secretary of defense Pete Hegseth’s links to an extremist church and crusader tattoos caused a stir during his confirmation hearings, the former Fox & Friends host is now openly bringing his ultra-conservative brand of christianity to the Pentagon.
Veterans tell the Guardian that Hegseth’s religiosity – rubbing off in new recruitment ads and official US Department of Defense social media activities – is dividing the ranks and doing untold damage to the future of the US military.
In one of the Pentagon’s latest videos that it posted on X – with the message: “We Are One Nation Under God” – paratroopers are seen dropping from the back of airplanes as soldiers in full tactical gear aim assault rifles at an unknown enemy somewhere in the whirling sands of what looks like the Middle East.
“I pursued my enemies and overtook them,” text from the book of Psalms appears across the screen as the scene unfolds in a desert resembling where medieval crusaders once fought. “I did not turn back till they were destroyed.”
Days before the ad was posted, Hegseth, on his personal account, reposted a CNN segment about pastor Doug Wilson – Hegseth is a congregant at one of Wilson’s churches – with the quote “All of Christ for All of Life,” a slogan for embracing christianity in every facet of society (including government). In the original report, Wilson contends that women should not have the right to vote. Many critics saw the post as showcasing Hegseth’s own pitiful track record with feminism and undermining promises he made to Senator Joni Ernst to champion women in uniform.
The Pentagon would not respond to questions about its biblically inspired recruitment ads or its use of christianity on social media, but chief spokesman Sean Parnell did say Hegseth is an unashamed backer of Wilson.
“The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson,” said Parnell in a statement to the Guardian. “The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”
Mike Pruitt, a navy veteran and Democrat congressional candidate in Virginia who is trying to flip a red seat that includes the town of Charlottesville – the site of the infamous and racist Unite the Right rally in 2017 – said the secretary of defense is sowing discord among the troops.
“I have certainly heard from friends of mine who are still in service expressing frustration about the way that their role is being cast as political,” said Pruitt, who served in the US navy for eight years. “It is not their job to speak out and therefore, that kind of concern and frustration within active service right now, folks on the ground, is just completely invisible to the media narrative.”
Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq war veteran and the CEO of non-profit watchdog Task Force Butler, which investigates extremism in the ranks, agreed with Pruitt and said he’s already felt the divisions Hegseth’s beliefs have inspired among members of the military.
“Every time Hegseth does one of these things, I’m getting messages from active duty troops, reaching out to me more and more, saying ‘How do I get involved?’,” said Goldsmith, referring to the work his organization has done to out neo-Nazis and far-right links in the military community. “We’ve got active-duty troops who recognize that the military they’re serving in, has become a threat to democracy.”
Outside of the “anti-war protesters during the Bush era”, Goldsmith says he has not seen this level of resistance to Pentagon policies amongst the military and veteran community, “in the last 20 years”. Another veteran who spoke with the Guardian also similarly quipped that Hegseth’s antics were seen as “cringe” among soldiers still in uniform.
But the Pentagon, which was facing a recruitment shortfall and new lows in enlistments before the second Trump administration took power, has said its reinvigorated campaigns under Hegseth have already led to a surge in numbers—something Goldsmith said was unsurprising and telling of the times.
“We’re gonna see a lot of christian nationalists join the military,” he said. “They’re not gonna perform very well, and our national security will suffer for a generation for it, because those that don’t wash out will be toxic leaders.”
Goldsmith continued: “They won’t be able to develop the next generation of troops that follow, and that is going to have a disastrous effect on the United States and on the global stage.”
Pruitt, who said his two central guiding identities are being an American who serves his country and a practising Christian, explained that Hegseth’s view of faith is rooted in a toxic machismo and not all in the inclusive teachings of Jesus. Instead, the congressional candidate believes the current head of the DoD is using religion to fuel his megalomania.
“The man has all his ‘deus vult’ tattoos and his hospitaller crosses because he wants to imagine himself as the picture book hero, as the knight,” said Pruitt. “That is not what our military is, that is not what our country is, and that is not what the Christian mission is.”
Responding to the January 6 attacks on Capitol Hill that saw hundreds of active duty or former US servicemen caught participating, former president Joe Biden made it one of his first policy initiatives to tackle extremism among government workers and specifically, in the military. His secretary of defense, Loyd Austin, issued a historic “stand-down order” in February 2021, making servicemen across the military reflect on the issue of extremism followed by rolling out expanded guidelines on what constitutes extremist activities while in uniform, policing of soldiers’ social media accounts and new recruitment requirements.
Sitting Republicans and talking heads on Fox News, where Hegseth was once a weekend host of Fox & Friends for several years, seized on the initiative as a recruitment killer and politicized what was a verifiably historical and dangerous problem that continues to plague the US military.
As soon as he took the reins of the Pentagon, Hegseth went about rooting out thousands of transgender troops and firing senior female service members and high ranking officers of color, all the while preaching that his department will no longer be “woke”
“[Transgender] troops are being forced out in the middle of their service and denied their retirement benefits is not something that makes our country stronger,” said Pruitt, “which I think is fundamentally the mission of the secretary of defense, is to actually make our country stronger and more safe.”
