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In the conflict initiated by the United States against the Islamic Republic, the US Secretary of War, a title he prefers, frequently emphasizes that the Christian God supports his efforts.
During an interview with CBS News broadcast on Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that Iran should not underestimate American resolve, as it is divinely sanctioned.
He asserted, “Our capabilities are superior. Our resolve is stronger. Our troops are unmatched. The protection of our almighty God shields these forces, and we are fully committed to this undertaking.”
Major Garrett, the CBS reporter, then inquired if Hegseth perceived the conflict through a religious lens.
Hegseth responded, “I mean, clearly, we are confronting religious extremists who aim for nuclear capabilities to trigger a religious Armageddon.” He later added that troops “require a connection with their almighty God in such times.”
Days later, shortly after participating in a dignified transfer ceremony for fallen soldiers, Hegseth cited Psalm 144 at a Pentagon press conference: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”
Hegseth has consistently expressed a desire to reorient the nation.
“America was established as a Christian nation,” he declared at a recent National Prayer Breakfast. He continued, “It remains a Christian nation in our core identity, if we can preserve it,” thus blending religious commentary with a well-known remark by Benjamin Franklin concerning the US as a republic versus a monarchy.
“Not only are we combatants equipped with the tools of freedom, we are ultimately armed with the tools of faith,” he stated, adapting Franklin D. Roosevelt’s concept of the US as the arsenal of democracy to his religious perspective.
Hegseth claims that one of his tattoos — a Jerusalem Cross, a religious symbol linked to the Crusades — caused him to be labeled an extremist and prevented him from joining his unit’s assignment to President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. This symbol has historical ties to the Crusades, when European Christians sought to reclaim the Holy Land from Muslims.
The phrase Deus Vult, meaning “God Wills It,” is also tattooed on Hegseth. In his 2020 book “American Crusade,” he describes this phrase as “the battle cry of Christian knights as they marched to Jerusalem.”
Opposition to Islamists, defined as those seeking to restructure society and government based on Muslim faith, has been a significant driving force in Hegseth’s public career.
In “American Crusade,” he asserted that the US faces a “crusade moment” reminiscent of the Christian invasion of the Holy Land in the 11th century. Hegseth claims that Islamists are aided by American “leftists” against devout Christian Americans.
He wrote, “We do not wish to fight, but, like our Christian brethren a millennium ago, we must.” He anticipated the idea of the US going to war alongside Israel.
While “American Crusade” advocated for military action against ISIS, the US is now allied with Israel in a war against Iran, an Islamic republic. In another section of the book, Hegseth detailed his perception of the danger Islam poses to the US.
While the US and Israel commenced hostilities this year with airstrikes that killed Iran’s leader, the Trump administration contends the conflict has been ongoing since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which ousted the US-backed shah.
As defense secretary prior to the war, Hegseth initiated an effort to “restore the Chaplain corps.” Military chaplains are expected to serve all faiths, but Hegseth aims to revise their guidelines to emphasize God more and reduce reliance on secular terminology.
“Faithful warriors,” he posted on X, have been marginalized by secular humanism within the military.
He promotes a monthly prayer that is broadcast across the Pentagon. In February, Hegseth invited his pastor, Doug Wilson, a Christian nationalist who advocates for the US to become a Christian theocracy, to address the US military.
Last year, in an interview with CNN’s Pamela Brown, Wilson elaborated on his view of women as “the kind of people that people come out of” and defended the concept of the US as a Christian theocracy.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), an advocacy group for servicemembers’ rights, reports having received numerous complaints in under a month of the war. CNN cannot independently corroborate these complaints. According to MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein, a former Air Force attorney, those who file complaints fear retaliation.
However, he indicated that the complaints include discussions among military leaders suggesting the war on Iran aligns with end-times biblical prophecies. House Democrats have called for an investigation into these grievances.
Weinstein conveyed to me that Hegseth’s rhetoric gives the impression to the Muslim world that the US is launching its own crusade.
He remarked, “We appear precisely like a ninth iteration of the eight prior crusades, from the 11th through the 13th century.” He added, “For Boko Haram, ISIS, the Taliban, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, regardless of whether they are Shia or Sunni, we are simply attacking a large Muslim nation, and this only serves as an immeasurable propaganda boon for those we are fighting.”
Hegseth does not appear to have spoken publicly about end-times prophecies or the idea that Israel’s reclamation of the Holy Land foreshadows revelation. Nevertheless, he openly embraces the concept that the US should align with Israel for religious reasons.
Both a Christian and a Zionist
During his confirmation hearing last year, Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, posed a supportive question to Hegseth, asking if he identified as a Christian Zionist.
Hegseth replied, “I am a Christian, and I strongly support the state of Israel and its vital self-defense, as well as America’s role as a strong ally to them.”
Zionism is the belief that Jewish people have the right to establish and protect their own nation in the Middle East. Christian Zionism, as a distinct concept, posits that the right of Jews to return to the Holy Land is divinely promised in Genesis.
Allyson Shortle, a professor of politics and religion at the University of Oklahoma and co-author of a book on Christian nationalism, explained, “Some Christians, in particular, believe that Israel represents the fulfillment of biblical prophecy, especially concerning the second coming of Christ.”
Shortle conveyed to me that Hegseth’s specific brand of evangelical Christianity aligns with a perspective of American exceptionalism, suggesting that Americans are unique and engaged in a broader moral conflict with other societies.
“Christian nationalism and American religious exceptionalism are intimately linked, positioning Christians at the top, with everyone else falling below in a very dominant manner,” Shortle observed.
To an individual holding this worldview, Iran “represents the opposing side of a struggle that is as much about principles, beliefs, and values as it is about national interests,” stated Daniel Hummel, author of books on evangelicals in the US and director of the Lumen Center, a Christian scholars’ community in Madison, Wisconsin.
“Notions about Israel’s chosen status or that events unfolding in the Middle East possess cosmic significance are widely held views, particularly among White American Christians,” Hummell noted.
While she characterized Hegseth’s opinions as somewhat extreme, Shortle pointed out that approximately half of Americans do endorse some form of Christian nationalist ideology, including the belief that the US was founded as a Christian nation and is divinely inspired.
“Without understanding that this might be part of the Christian nationalist movement, people tend to favor the general concept sufficiently,” Shortle stated, adding, “an alarming number of Americans, given its association with many anti-democratic outcomes and beliefs.”
Hegseth experiences no such dilemmas. In “American Crusade,” he reconciled Jesus’s peaceful teachings with his opposition to diversity initiatives and his overall call to arms by stating:
“So-called tolerance appears as capitulation to Islamists, because it is. Jesus did instruct us to turn the other cheek, but I am quite certain he wasn’t advising a secretary of defense at that moment,” Hegseth wrote at the time.