The Hegseth Follies
There are more important stories than religion at the Pentagon. Like the frontal assault on freedom of the press, or the fact that we are low on artillery, or the coked-up, performative bellicosity of the Secretary. There is something so appallingly jittery about Pete Hegseth that it makes you fear he will press all the buttons at once. Good luck to each of us when the whole world is Dresden.
But I keep coming back to the issue of religion. Hegseth is nothing if not a Grand Inquisitor, a restless propagandist for Christian Nationalism. He has just narrowed the number of “permitted” religious identities that can be serviced on American military bases. He has installed his pastor as a kind of orthodox enforcer of the religious extremism that he, himself espouses. He touts Trump as the rod of the Living God, sent to punish the enemies of Christianity, and he recruits his subordinates to worship with him at the Pentagon. Like Hegseth, they are eager to curry favor, especially when it comes to the Big Orange Boss.
And there also seem to be consequences for moderates. In the middle of World War III in the Mideast, Hegseth paused the action to fire Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., formerly the Army Chief of Chaplains. I wish I could say something certain about Green, but he has offered no public comment on being dumped. And the Pentagon has been mum on the firing, which is apparently contrary to standard practice. Chaplains last for a very long time and they are rarely if ever dismissed during their tenure, especially when there is an active war being waged. For all the obvious reasons, it’s bad for morale.
Two factors, however, come to mind. Green is Black, which is bad for your career during a racist administration like Drumpf and Co. A disproportionate number of federal workers fired since the DOGE purge began have been Black people and women who were tagged as DEI hires. Given the role of the federal bureaucracy as an accelerator of gains for African Americans and many others, this is especially bad news for American society.
The other fact is Green’s self-evident moderation. You can see it in his face, his demeanor, his reputation. He has been in the service since 1994, after having been endorsed by the National Baptist Convention, USA, a guiding Black force in American religion. Far from being a fire-breathing ideologue, he seems like a natural bridge-builder and live-and-let-live clergyman. That’s perfect for an institution like the U.S. Army.
But not for a revivalist like Peter Hegseth, who sees himself as a Son of Light, commissioned to root out heterodox non-conformists. Let’s pray to God that Hegseth is rooted out, discarded for his contempt for our Constitutional sacraments.