Faith and Firepower: Pete Hegseth Brings Prayer Back to the Pentagon

A Prayer at the Pentagon

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth started a Christian prayer meeting, personally leading it and announcing it will be held monthly. The Democrats, predictably, lost their minds over this. I’ll explain why, but first…

Memorial Day Reflection

This Memorial Day, I’m thankful to God for giving us a commander-in-chief who understands the military’s role—and a Secretary of Defense who honors that role as well. When Pete Hegseth was questioned by the liberal media about the prayer meeting, their outrage wasn’t just about the meeting—it was about how he spoke and how he looked.

They were bothered by the way he talks with his hands and by the large cross tattooed on his forearm. How inappropriate, they said. But if it had been a rainbow flag, they’d have praised him. They’re trying to make a big deal out of the tattoo, but Pete Hegseth isn’t a politician. He’s not some left-wing bureaucrat like the ones Biden and Obama placed in charge of the Pentagon. He’s a combat veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He understands the military’s purpose.

Military Tradition and Religious Freedom

With the left, the issue is never the issue. They’re claiming that a Christian prayer meeting could make Muslims and Hindus feel bad. But in my time in the military, we had various prayer groups, including ones for different faiths. I attended a Christian prayer group led by a lieutenant commander. That’s part of our military tradition.

George Washington himself prayed at Valley Forge, asking the Lord Jesus Christ to protect his troops. Christianity and prayer are longstanding traditions in our armed forces. But Democrats, socialists, and communists want to remove God from every institution—and they want to weaken our military while they’re at it.

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Culture Wars in Uniform

This effort began long ago. Bill Clinton’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy allowed gay men to serve in the military, as long as they didn’t speak about it. When I served, we had a different phrase: “If you’re gay, you can’t stay.”

Then came Obama, taking it further. And then the Marxists in the Biden regime pushed it to extremes. Conservatives have been saying for four years that Biden wasn’t running anything—now even the left admits it. He was reading lies off a teleprompter, nothing more.

Some individuals were enlisting just to get free transgender surgeries. They weren’t deployable because they required frequent hormone treatments. That made them ineffective soldiers. That’s why the Trump administration and Pete Hegseth said, “No, transgenders can’t stay.”

Military Standards and Readiness

Only 8% of Americans meet military requirements. If you’re overweight, if you can’t run a mile and a half in a set time, if you can’t pass the ASVAB test—you’re out. This push to accommodate people who don’t meet basic standards was pure political experimentation. It was an attempt to weaken the military.

But now the military is stronger than ever. Since Hegseth became Secretary of Defense, we’ve had record recruitment numbers. No real man wants to join a military full of transgender and homosexual soldiers. The military has one job: to defend the United States. And it does that by killing and blowing things up.

To make the military great again, we must make it lethal again. We believe in peace—but peace through strength. Under President Trump, we had peace in the Middle East, we stopped Russia from invading Ukraine, and now it looks like Trump could broker a peace deal to end the war. He’s a peace president, but he knows peace only comes through strength.

Faith vs. the Left

Why do Democrats hate God so much? When Obama ran for president, his advisors told him to throw in a line about God to win some Southern Christian votes. So they added something vague like “God bless America” to the Democratic platform.

But when they asked the delegates to vote on it, the hall was silent on “yay” and loud on “nay.” Despite that, party leadership overrode the vote and inserted God into the platform. I watched it live. For 15 minutes straight, Democrats booed God.

Socialists and communists hate God because their god is the government. Their religion might be communism, socialism, or statism, but it’s all about control. They don’t trust everyday Americans to have freedom. They want control over you, over your family, and over your faith.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. That terrifies them. They think we’re all knuckleheads and only Ivy League elites can govern the nation. But military people think differently.

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Military Converts to Conservatism

Men enlist in the military from all political backgrounds. But by the end of a four-year or 20-year career, 90% of them are conservative Republicans. They’ve seen the world. My son-in-law went to Africa to help bring clean water to villages. Every country he visits makes him more grateful to be an American.

In some countries, you get killed for speaking out or for a woman not wearing a burka. These soldiers come back thankful. In contrast, when young Americans go to Harvard or Yale, they get indoctrinated by anti-Semitic, anti-American professors. They end up praising Hamas and hating their own country.

Memorial Day, Chaplains, and Christian Heritage

This Memorial Day, I’m thankful that freedom of religion is still respected in our military. Nine military chaplains have received the Medal of Honor—five Catholic priests and four Protestant pastors. That’s part of our proud history.

The military has long been built on Christian prayer, Christian fellowship, Christian values, Christian work ethic, and Biblical law. The military, like America, was founded on these principles. It was one of the last institutions untouched by leftist ideology—until Obama, Clinton, and Biden nearly ruined it. But now it’s returning to its roots.

Archbishop Broglio and Religious Liberty

I once spoke with Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who is both the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Archbishop for the Military Diocese. Every military chaplain is under his leadership.

When Obama tried to require chaplains to marry gay couples, Broglio went to Pope Francis. The Pope said: “Tell them you will not allow your chaplains to marry same-sex couples, to bless same-sex unions, or to counsel same-sex couples.” And Broglio told Obama just that. Obama backed down.

The Wall of Separation

Some people bring up separation of church and state. But if you know our history, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence, you know that clause was designed to protect religion from the state—not the other way around.

The wall goes one way: government can’t enter the church. But we, as citizens, have the right and the duty to engage in government. From the beginning, you see this in the courts and in Congress. Even today, every session of Congress begins with a prayer led by the congressional chaplain.

Final Thoughts

This weekend, I plan to release some patriotic videos about great chaplains. If you haven’t seen them yet, I’ve made a few already about Catholic military chaplains.

This Memorial Day is about the men and women who died for us. Most of them were Christian men. The media can spin it however they want, but the truth is clear: most of the Americans who died for our freedom and safety were Christian men.