WASHINGTON (AP) — Since becoming defense secretary, Pete Hegseth has found plenty of ways to bring his conservative evangelicalism to the Pentagon.
He holds monthly Christian worship services for employees. Promotional videos for his department show Bible verses alongside military footage. In speeches and interviews, he has often argued that the United States is a Christian nation and that the military should embrace God, potentially jeopardizing the military’s secular mission and hard-won diversity.
Now, in the wake of the U.S. and Israel’s war with the Islamic theocracy Iran, the defense secretary’s Christian rhetoric has taken on new meaning.
“The mullahs are desperate and confused,” he said at a recent Pentagon news conference, referring to Iran’s Shia Muslim clerics. Later he recited Psalm 144, a passage shared by Jews and Christians: “Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”
Heggs has a history of defending the Crusades, the brutal medieval wars between Christians and Muslims. In his book “American Crusaders” published in 2020, he wrote that those who enjoy Western civilization should “thank the Crusaders.” Two of his tattoos are based on Crusader imagery: the Jerusalem Cross and the phrase “Deus Vult,” or “God Wills,” which Hegseth called “the battle cry of the Christian knights as they marched toward Jerusalem.”
Matthew D. Taylor, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University who studies religious extremism and a frequent critic of Hegseth, said, “The United States under Pete Hegseth has willingly gone to war with Muslim countries, which is exactly the kind of situation that people like me warned about before the election and during his appointment.”
Taylor said Hegseth’s rhetoric and leadership “will only exacerbate and intensify the Iranian regime’s fear and deep hostility toward the United States.”
When asked if Hegseth viewed the Iran war from a religious perspective, a Defense Department spokesman pointed to a recent CBS interview in which Hegseth appeared to confirm this.
“We are fighting religious fanatics who seek nuclear capabilities to trigger a religious Armageddon,” Hegseth said of Iran’s leaders. “But from my perspective, I mean, obviously I’m a man of faith and he encourages our troops to have faith and rely on God.”
Allegations that US military commander cited Bible prophecies remain unproven
Generations of evangelicals have been influenced by their own versions of the end of the world and the end of the world, spread through books like the Abandoned series and The Late Great Earth or the horror movie A Thief in the Night. Some evangelicals support the prophecy that a war involving Israel is key to the return of Jesus.
John Haji, a Christian Zionist pastor and president of Christians United for Israel, said of the Iran war, “We are at the right moment, just as prophecy said.”
However, the co-founders of the Hegesian sect did not teach this theology. Pastor Doug Wilson of the Reformed Evangelical Church is considered a postmillennialist, meaning he believes that most of the apocalyptic events in the Bible have already occurred, paving the way for the gradual Christianization of the world before Christ returns.
Heggs did not say that the Iran War was part of Christian prophecy. However, days after the conflict began, rumors emerged that U.S. military commanders were telling troops that the war fulfilled biblical prophecies about the end of the world and the return of Christ.
The AP was unable to confirm the claims, which came from only one source: Mikey Weinstein, the head of the watchdog group the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Thirty congressional Democrats asked the Pentagon inspector general to investigate based on allegations Weinstein said he had received from hundreds of soldiers.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Weinstein declined to provide documents or original emails he received from military personnel. Troops fear reprisal, so they don’t speak to the media, even though their identities remain protected, he said.
Three major religious watchdog groups — the Religious Liberty Foundation, the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations — said they had received no similar complaints. The Pentagon declined to comment on the allegations.
Hegseth wants to reform military chaplaincy
Hegseth’s church network, CREC, promotes a patriarchal form of Christianity in which women cannot hold leadership positions and pastors believe homosexuality should be criminalized. Hegseth retweeted a video last year in which a CREC pastor spoke out against women’s suffrage. Wilson, the group’s best-known leader, considers himself a Christian nationalist and preached at the Pentagon in February at Hegseth’s invitation.
Both Wilson and Hegseth raised questions about Muslim immigration to the United States. Wilson believed that the country should restrict Muslim immigration to keep Christianity dominant. In “American Crusade,” Hegseth laments rising Muslim birthrates while Muhammad is a popular boy’s name in America
As head of the armed forces, Hegseth oversaw changes consistent with his conservative Christian worldview, including banning transgender troops, limiting diversity initiatives and reviewing the role of women in combat.
“The intrusion of Christian nationalist policies, not just Christian nationalist rhetoric … is what is troubling,” said Christopher Newport University political scientist Youssef Johoud.
Hegseth pledged to reform the military’s chaplaincy workforce and provide spiritual care for troops of all faiths and no faith. He rescinded the 2025 U.S. Army mental health guidance and wants to restore chaplains’ religious focus, which he said in a December video message had been minimized “in an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism.”
Rabbi Laurence Bazer, a retired U.S. Army colonel and chaplain, said that when military leadership’s language is drawn entirely from one faith tradition, it can make service members feel like outsiders.
“The U.S. military embodies the full diversity of this country — people of all faiths come forward to serve,” Bazzell said in a statement. “This diversity is a strength worth protecting.”
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Associated Press writer Konstantin Tolopin contributed to this report. Associated Press writer Peter Smith contributed from Pittsburgh.
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