In Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s military, few things have stepped into the spotlight the way religion has.
In his recent "State of the Force" address, he said faith is essential and the U.S. military must prepare for both physical and spiritual warfare.
"Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God. God is good, evil is not, and America’s military must understand the difference," he said.
Under his leadership, the Pentagon has slashed its official list of recognized religions from more than 200 to 30. Military chaplains' ranks have been stripped from their uniforms, replaced with a marking of their religion. And Christianity has taken center stage in department messaging.
"Each of us committed to the nation with the sentiment of the sixth chapter of the book of Isaiah," Hegseth said during his address. "Lord, here I am. Send me. Send me to fight the Redcoats. Send me to fight the Communists. Send me to fight the Islamists. Send me."
The Pentagon is using the tagline "Send Me" in recruiting ads and other outreach initiatives.
During his address, Hegseth also announced the creation of an Office of Religious Affairs, which he said will directly oversee chaplains and report to him.
'Everybody is going to get fire-hosed with this'
The former Chief Chaplain of the Air Force, retired Major General Howard Stendahl, said these changes feel contradictory to the founding principle of freedom of religion.
"Temptation to establish religion - it's a dangerous and precipitous possibility with the rise of Christian nationalism," Stendahl said.
Stendahl, who was the senior pastor for 680,000 military personnel, said the explicit reference to one religion would have been a foreign idea during his 30 years of chaplaincy. Ordained as a Lutheran minister, Stendahl said he strove to honor and respect the religious preferences of a diverse fighting force.
"I wouldn't want any member of the military - or certainly the constituency, our population of the United States - to believe we wage war in the name of Jesus Christ," he said.
He said contrary to Hegseth’s assertion that the chaplain corps had become too secular, it was deeply committed to helping troops practice their faith to the fullest extent. For some service members, he would seek out faith leaders of their religion and bring them to the base.
Stendahl and other former chaplains worry those kinds of practices are becoming less common.
"This is really going in a direction away from accommodation to 'Gosh, golly, if you want to do well and stay in favor of this administration, here's the exact hymns that you'll be singing, so to speak, and the verses you'll be using in Scripture,'" said Retired Major General William Razz Waff.
Waff, an Episcopal priest and past national chair of the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Pastoral Services, said he's seen an influx of chaplains from evangelical faiths, a trend that began before Hegseth was appointed.
"Very concerned that we’re going to have this funnel of evangelical Christianity, one flavor, and everybody is going to get fire-hosed with this," Waff said.
Chaplains must be recommended to the military by an endorsing agent of their faith. Waff said evangelical organizations have prioritized training and placing chaplains in the military. Among them is Liberty University, the Christian college which recently formed a new partnership with the Pentagon.
"Liberty University has their own endorsing officer, and they're flooding the zone," Waff said. "It is unbelievable."
Liberty University did not respond to several phone calls and emails requesting an interview about its military chaplaincy program.
Advocates support new Religious Affairs office
Some advocates have been hoping to see changes to military religion protocols for years. The Liberty Counsel, a group that advocated for the Trump Administration's ban on transgender service members, said Hegseth's directives are a positive sign.
"He has the right to his beliefs," said Daniel Schmid, the organization's Vice President of Legal Affairs. "As long as he's not imposing them on anyone, and I don't think he is, I think he's trying to protect everybody's faiths, then that's a step in the right direction."
Schmid applauds the creation of a Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs. He hopes it will prevent things like mandatory COVID vaccinations, which he called a violation of religious freedom in the military.
In Hegseth’s announcement of changes to the chaplain corps, he said chaplains had been "degraded" during an era of political correctness, and that the Army spiritual fitness guide only mentioned God once.
"It alienates our warfighters of faith by pushing secular humanism," Hegseth said.
The Trump Administration recently released a list of the “top 250 victories for people of faith.” The list said ten of these wins "strengthened our military." Three of those reference the repeal of the COVID vaccine mandate and the reinstatement of service members who refused to take the shot.
A spokesperson said the Pentagon has no additional details to provide about how the Office of Religious Affairs will function or who will lead it.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
