Baptizing the Battlefield: Pete Hegseth’s Holy War at the Pentagon
(RNS) — What happens when the Pentagon becomes a pulpit?
Jonathan Woodward
October 6, 2025
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A Secretary of War leads worship at the Pentagon—how far can faith go before it becomes policy?
Pete Hegseth calls it a “warrior ethos.” Critics call it a constitutional crisis. In this episode of Complexified, Amanda Henderson talks with RNS reporter Jack Jenkins about the Secretary of War’s efforts to merge his conservative evangelical faith with U.S. military leadership — from worship services inside the Pentagon to viral recruitment videos that pair the Lord’s Prayer with fighter jets. Together they unpack how Hegseth’s theology of power is reshaping one of America’s most secular institutions, what it reveals about Christian nationalism’s hold on the political right and why it matters for democracy itself.
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