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Pete Hegseth’s Unholy War

What kind of Christianity is being proclaimed when the language of Jesus is attached to military power?

People in the Pentagon deride self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth for many reasons. There was his ridiculous dressing down of America’s admirals and generals in 2025. His fixation on troops’ testosterone levels. And a fair amount of the scorn has revolved around Hegseth’s monthly Pentagon prayer services where he peddles an unholy brand of Christianity rooted in rage and bloodlust.

Hegseth — a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a conservative network of Christian congregations co-founded by the self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson — reportedly hears all sorts of outrageous religious utterances and then regurgitates them. At one of his worship services, Hegseth read a fake Bible verse from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 movie “Pulp Fiction,” which he said was recited by combat search and rescue missions in Iran. The violent rhetoric, an altered version of Ezekiel 25:17, is bellowed by Samuel L. Jackson’s character in the movie just before he shoots a man to death: “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger…”

Another time, Hegseth offered up what he said were the words a military chaplain prayed prior to the invasion of (the overwhelmingly Christian nation of) Venezuela. “Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans and break the teeth of the ungodly,” Hegseth intoned at another of his monthly services. “Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. … Let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse, that evil may be driven back and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them.”

Hegseth has apparently replaced the turn-the-other-cheek, love-thy-enemy Jesus you might remember with a curb-stomping Christ who brays for war, revels in violence, and seeks to dispatch America’s enemies to the fiery depths of hell. So today, TomDispatch regular Liz Theoharis — the founder and executive director of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) — takes a hard look at Hegseth and the question Christians have been asking for thousands of years: What would Jesus do? 

— Nick Turse, editor of TomDispatch

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Hegseth’s Theology and the Question: What Would Jesus Do?

There is a question Christians have been asking for generations: What would Jesus do?

It is a deceptively simple question that is printed on bracelets and bumper stickers, taught to children in Sunday schools, and invoked when Christians are discerning how faith should shape public life. The question becomes considerably more demanding when the decisions at stake concern war, immigration, poverty, political power, and the use of military force.

In addition to the recent attention about his military strategy, social and political beliefs, and leadership style, Pete Hegseth’s public theology deserves serious attention from those unfamiliar and disinterested in religion as well as adherents of Christianity.

Trump’s Holy War Abroad and at Home

As secretary of defense, Hegseth has increasingly spoken about American power in explicitly Christian language. He has hosted Christian worship at the Pentagon, invoked Scripture in connection with military service, emphasized the Christian foundations of the United States, and described some Trump administration policies — including border enforcement — as “biblical.” Indeed, speaking at a Christian media convention last February, Hegseth connected the health and founding of the United States with Christianity and characterized border and immigration policies as mandated in the Bible.

The question about Hegseth’s faith and religious practice, however, cannot simply be whether he is sincere. The question is more fundamental: What kind of Christianity is being proclaimed when the language of Jesus is attached to military power? Or perhaps a simpler but harder question: In the face of war, authoritarianism, economic, environmental, and political crises: What would Jesus do?

A Christianity of Power

The Christian faith has always contained competing visions of what it means to follow Jesus. There is a Christianity that blesses kings, armies, empires, and national ambitions. There is another Christianity that remembers a Palestinian Jewish leader who was unhoused and a migrant and was executed by an imperial power after heralding the arrival of a radically different kingdom. This distinction matters a great deal.

Hegseth routinely emphasizes strength, warriors, national identity, borders, enemies, and divine blessing. And joining forces with Israel to prosecute the war with Iran has only heightened the stakes of his rhetoric. Early in the conflict, Hegseth cited Psalm 144, including its language about God training hands for war and fingers for battle.

Far-Right Religious Leaders Advising Trump........

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