At Pentagon Christian service, Hegseth prays for violence 'against those who deserve no mercy'

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/pete-hegseth-pentagon-christian-worship-service-30db48b6ceb8af5e6172fb3ba2eafaa0

At Pentagon Christian service, Hegseth prays for violence ‘against those who deserve no mercy’
By TIFFANY STANLEY
Updated 2:58 PM CDT, March 25, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, hosting his first monthly Christian worship service at the Pentagon since the Iran war began, prayed Wednesday to have “every round find its mark.”

“Every month it is fitting to be right here,” he told the gathered civilian employees and uniformed military personnel. “All the more fitting this month, at this moment, given what tens of thousands of Americans are doing right now.”

He read a prayer he said was first given by a military chaplain to the troops who captured then-President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela.

“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” Hegseth prayed during the livestreamed service. “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”

Hegseth frequently invokes his evangelical faith as head of the armed forces, depicting a Christian nation trying to vanquish its foes with military might.

“I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back till they were consumed,” he read from the Psalms on Wednesday.

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"Kill them all, rape their women and enslave their children. And then kill them. And kill some more. Praise Jesus"

[Bread and Circuses]

1. We need to stop mincing words.... Religions....all of them....are twisted by evil people

Whenever anyone mentions God to claim their superiority or rights , look out!

[Trueblue1968]

2. KegsSeth deserves no mercy. He is full of hate. I believe he is Of The Devil

[vapor2]

3. Fucking warmongering sicko

[doubleplusgood]

4. He's what I call a "Vengeance Christian"

You know the type...they focus on the most cruel, barbaric, and bloodthirsty parts of the old testament + the psycho BS from the Book of Revelation. All the while ignoring any of the good stuff that is attributed to Jesus.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Hegseth has 'threatened' military chaplains who refuse to back his Iran war plans: report

Hegseth does not believe in the First Amendment. Hegseth believes that his version of radical christianity is the only acceptable religion. Jews, Muslims, Hindus and any other religions do not belong in Hegseth's military.

Hegseth has 'threatened' military chaplains who refuse to back his Iran war plans: report

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-03-29T14:00:23Z

https://www.rawstory.com/hegseth-iran-2676634943/

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has alienated a critical group within the military establishment — religious leaders and chaplains — by weaponizing Christianity to justify the Iran war and creating an atmosphere of fear for those who refuse to comply with his ideological demands.

According to Washington Post analyst Michelle Boorstein, Hegseth's inflammatory rhetoric at a recent Pentagon prayer service has triggered serious alarm among military chaplains and senior officials who view his approach as a dangerous departure from Pentagon norms.

At the prayer service, Hegseth invoked religious language to justify military violence, saying: "Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision … and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.".....

Pentagon insiders describe the atmosphere as chilling. An anonymous Department of Defense source characterized the environment as "terrifying," noting that personnel working under Hegseth fear being punished or fired for failing to embrace his Christian nationalist worldview.

An unnamed member of a recent Joint Chiefs chairman's leadership team articulated the constitutional threat directly: "I don't approve of cramming your religious faith down people's throats, and when the top of the chain couches these operations in this hyper-Christian tone, it flies in the face of the freedom of religion that the Constitution enshrines and that our men and women in uniform sign up to defend."

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. MaddowBlog-Hegseth's unprecedented embrace of Christian nationalism sparks backlash

The defense secretary isn’t just exercising his faith in line with his conscience, he’s also erasing the First Amendment’s church-state line.

Good points here from @stevebenen.com: Pete Hegseth isn't just claiming that God sanctions his bloodlust and his war crimes; he's also erasing the church-state separation in numerous ways, which Steve helpfully lists in this piece:
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Greg Sargent (@gregsargent.bsky.social) 2026-03-31T19:08:38.471Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/hegseths-unprecedented-embrace-of-christian-nationalism-sparks-backlash

Toward the end of Monday’s briefing, a reporter reminded White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt that Pope Leo XIV, in remarks delivered on Palm Sunday, said God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” Citing a Bible passage, the pontiff added, “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: Your hands are full of blood.”...

Take Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for example. The Washington Post reported earlier this week:

Longtime norms are being upended by the proselytizing Christian campaign of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, say multiple former high-ranking military officials and experts on religion and law. Rather than boosting cohesion through a more universal spiritual uplift, they say, the new approach violates the Constitution and undermines the bonds of mutual respect between troops that are essential, especially in wartime.

The scope of the beleaguered Pentagon chief’s embrace of Christian nationalism is quite broad. In recent months, Hegseth has:

led Christian prayer services in the Pentagon’s auditorium;

invited radical Christian nationalist figures to speak at official prayer services;

used social media to promote messages that suggest his faith should dominate over other religious traditions; and

argued during an official press briefing that Americans should take a knee and pray “in the name of Jesus Christ,” at the same briefing in which he quoted Scripture.

At an event last week, Hegseth took matters to a new level when he prayed for U.S. troops to inflict “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy. … We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ.”......

The New Republic’s Greg Sargent had a related report this week:

If Hegseth truly believes his war on Iran is unfolding in accordance with his conception of biblical law — the highest authority of all — then that explains why he treats all those niggling secular constraints as unbinding on him. Maximum violence and killing of the enemy — who cry out to God but, unlike Hegseth, don’t get an answer back from Him — are affirmatively good.

‘It’s not the way somebody who claims to be a person of God — a religious person — should think,’ [Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona], who has flown many combat missions himself, told me. War, he added, ‘is a morally and ethically complicated thing for any person. Any serious warfighter struggles with it.’ If we don’t wrestle with this, Kelly said, we’ll ‘start to lose ourselves.’

Looking ahead, there are limited options to curtail the defense secretary’s public advocacy of Christian nationalism — Donald Trump could intervene, though that seems exceedingly unlikely — but Hegseth’s critics are not powerless. On the contrary, some of the Pentagon chief’s policies related to religious promotion have already sparked litigation, which opens the door to possible court-imposed limits. Watch this space.