Pete Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon with a theology that doubles as a battle plan. The U.S. defense secretary, speaking at a Christian worship service inside the building, invoked divine blessing for "overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy" when discussing Iran.
His framework is stark: Iranians are "religious fanatics." His brand of evangelical Christian nationalism, while not invented by Hegseth, has found unusual power within the Trump administration, backed by a president whose own religious identity remains deliberately obscure.
The moment reveals something larger than one official's personal convictions. It captures a collision between global norms and a particular vision of American religious authority that treats faith and military force as natural partners.
The Hymn No One Sings Anymore
"Onward Christian Soldiers," written in 1865 by English clergyman Sabine Baring-Gould, once stirred Victorian congregations and school assemblies with its call to march as warriors with the cross going before them. The martial language fit that era. Modern generations, however, found the triumphalism troubling. Few churches sing it now. It became a historical artifact, a reminder of an age when religious militancy felt natural to Western institutions.
Yet the song's core impulse has not disappeared. It has merely changed uniforms. Hegseth's theology echoes that old refrain, dressed now in the language of strategic defense and modern combat doctrine.
The constitutional separation of religious practice and state power makes his Pentagon prayer service itself remarkable. Such gatherings remain rare enough to warrant notice. That a sitting defense secretary would use one to frame military action against a specific nation through an explicitly Christian lens pushes further still.
The danger lies not in personal faith itself, but in the marriage of unchecked religious conviction with unquestioned military authority. History and contemporary conflict zones offer repeated lessons on what happens when one ideology claims exclusive moral truth and the power to enforce it.
Hegseth's intolerance sets him apart even within American evangelical circles, though his alignment with Trump has granted him institutional weight previously unavailable to such views. The question now is whether other voices within faith communities, across religions and denominations, will offer counterargument or remain silent.
The brutalisation of international norms requires a response grounded in ethics, not mere policy critique. If the world still possesses moral order worth defending, that case must come from somewhere. Religious institutions and leaders possess particular standing to make it, if they choose to do so.
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