How Christian Nationalists Took Control of the U.S. Military
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has some revealing tattoos. Across his right bicep is the phrase Deus Vult (“God wills it”), a rallying cry from the 11th century Crusades, and on his right pec is the Jerusalem Cross, which was carried by Christian crusaders on medieval campaigns to conquer the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
Back when Hegseth was a TV commentator, he laid out his vision for a new wave of American holy wars, both foreign and domestic, in American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free. “Surrounded by the Left, with the odds stacked against us,” he wrote, “only a crusade will do.” Since becoming defense secretary in 2025, Hegseth has attempted to implement a Christian crusade mentality within the U.S. military.
In the buildup to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in late February, Hegseth held a Christian worship service at the Pentagon. He prayed for God’s blessing on “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” and said, “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.” While President Trump warned Iran to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” Hegseth provided the religious apocalyptic validation for the violence—both positioning the U.S. war machine as being on the side of the angels: Deus vult.
Hegseth’s Christian crusade mentality eradicates the wall separating church and state. It gives a government endorsement to Christian nationalist soldiers who supposedly fight to protect God, country, and family. Trump’s war efforts, in this view, are not only removed from the legally mandated oversite by Congress, they are also sanctioned by God.
The rise of religious authority taking precedence over the military’s secular control was the result of what author Jeff Sharlet calls a “cultural transformation” of the American military. Sharlet’s 2009 article “Jesus Killed Muhammad” outlines the strategy for how a “small but powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officer corps” helped build a “godly army.” Prayer meetings, call-and-response shouts for evangelical cadets, and other actions lent uniformed support to the cause of Christian nationalism. Now, with Hegseth at the helm, Christian nationalist control of the U.S. military—the conflation of God and country—appears to be complete.
Several Christian organizations operate on or near military bases globally, including the Officers’ Christian Fellowship, the Navigators, the Overseas Christian Servicemen’s Centers, Valor, and Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International.
Cru Military, an affiliate of Campus Crusade for Christ (which is now called Cru), is present at U.S. boot camps and bases in 56 U.S. locations and in 35 countries worldwide, according to its website. In a 2005 sermon, Bob Dees, executive director of what was then called Military Ministry, preached, “We must pursue our particular means for transforming the nation—through the military. And the military may well be the most influential way to affect that spiritual superstructure.”
A goal of the OCF, which claims more than 15,000 members and is active at 80% of the U.S. military bases worldwide, is to create “a spiritually transformed U.S. military, with Ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit.” The OCF started a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps ministry for the “next generation of Christian officers”—60% of the nation’s active-duty officers get their commission through ROTC at more than 1,600 colleges and universities. An article on the group’s website presents U.S. wars as a spiritual battle “against the powers of this dark world,” citing Ephesians 6:12, where “our prayer orders become just as important as our operations orders.”
https://sojo.net/magazine/july-2026/how-...s-military
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has some revealing tattoos. Across his right bicep is the phrase Deus Vult (“God wills it”), a rallying cry from the 11th century Crusades, and on his right pec is the Jerusalem Cross, which was carried by Christian crusaders on medieval campaigns to conquer the Muslim Ottoman Empire.
Back when Hegseth was a TV commentator, he laid out his vision for a new wave of American holy wars, both foreign and domestic, in American Crusade: Our Fight to Stay Free. “Surrounded by the Left, with the odds stacked against us,” he wrote, “only a crusade will do.” Since becoming defense secretary in 2025, Hegseth has attempted to implement a Christian crusade mentality within the U.S. military.
In the buildup to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in late February, Hegseth held a Christian worship service at the Pentagon. He prayed for God’s blessing on “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy,” and said, “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.” While President Trump warned Iran to “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” Hegseth provided the religious apocalyptic validation for the violence—both positioning the U.S. war machine as being on the side of the angels: Deus vult.
Hegseth’s Christian crusade mentality eradicates the wall separating church and state. It gives a government endorsement to Christian nationalist soldiers who supposedly fight to protect God, country, and family. Trump’s war efforts, in this view, are not only removed from the legally mandated oversite by Congress, they are also sanctioned by God.
The rise of religious authority taking precedence over the military’s secular control was the result of what author Jeff Sharlet calls a “cultural transformation” of the American military. Sharlet’s 2009 article “Jesus Killed Muhammad” outlines the strategy for how a “small but powerful movement of Christian soldiers concentrated in the officer corps” helped build a “godly army.” Prayer meetings, call-and-response shouts for evangelical cadets, and other actions lent uniformed support to the cause of Christian nationalism. Now, with Hegseth at the helm, Christian nationalist control of the U.S. military—the conflation of God and country—appears to be complete.
Several Christian organizations operate on or near military bases globally, including the Officers’ Christian Fellowship, the Navigators, the Overseas Christian Servicemen’s Centers, Valor, and Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International.
Cru Military, an affiliate of Campus Crusade for Christ (which is now called Cru), is present at U.S. boot camps and bases in 56 U.S. locations and in 35 countries worldwide, according to its website. In a 2005 sermon, Bob Dees, executive director of what was then called Military Ministry, preached, “We must pursue our particular means for transforming the nation—through the military. And the military may well be the most influential way to affect that spiritual superstructure.”
A goal of the OCF, which claims more than 15,000 members and is active at 80% of the U.S. military bases worldwide, is to create “a spiritually transformed U.S. military, with Ambassadors for Christ in uniform, empowered by the Holy Spirit.” The OCF started a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps ministry for the “next generation of Christian officers”—60% of the nation’s active-duty officers get their commission through ROTC at more than 1,600 colleges and universities. An article on the group’s website presents U.S. wars as a spiritual battle “against the powers of this dark world,” citing Ephesians 6:12, where “our prayer orders become just as important as our operations orders.”
https://sojo.net/magazine/july-2026/how-...s-military
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
