Pope tells Trump administration that God does not want their holy war
In 1962, the Supreme
Court ruled it unconstitutional under the Establishment Clause for
public school officials to sponsor or encourage prayer in school. State
regulations in New York required public schools to open each day with both the
Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer in which the students
recognized their dependence upon an un-named and unspecified God. Under that
law, students could absent themselves from the prayer if they found it
objectionable. A parent sued.
The Court found that the recitation of a state-composed,
non-denominational prayer in public schools was a form of religious
indoctrination, even if the prayer was not specific to one denomination, even
if it was optional.
The rub then and now is that “optional” participation in a
setting controlled by the government is never completely optional.
The Jewish kid, the Muslim kid, the Buddhist kid, or the child taught to love
God as nature instead of a vindictive
creep in the sky has to set themselves apart from the other kids in
order not to participate in the prayer. Even standing there silently while the
popular kids mouth the prayer all around you can signal difference— defiance
against the norm, even. Given stigma and peer pressure, the Court acknowledged
that there are social ‘costs’ for not adhering to the group norm. That’s why
reinforcing religion as a norm is a form of government indoctrination prohibited
under the First Amendment.
Hegseth: First Amendment Who???
Despite the decades-long smacking clarity of the law, Pete
Hegseth, the former Fox News bobblehead who renamed the Department of Defense
the Department of War without permission from Congress, can’t stop imposing his
own religion on the military.
Hegseth holds a monthly
Evangelical prayer service at the Pentagon. He announces and promotes
his monthly worship coven, what some have called “combative
Christianity,” through formal announcements to the troops, and by
encouraging attendees to spread the word.
Similar to the school prayer case, these
‘voluntary’ services aren’t entirely voluntary even though Hegseth
says they are. They are held in the official Pentagon auditorium, and are
broadcast on the Pentagon’s internal TV network, a
system designed for maximum saturation at military installations
available to over 1.4 million active duty personnel, 1.2 million National
Guard/Reserve, 650,000 civilian employees, and thousands of military residents.
The First Amendment is woke now?
Hegseth also promotes his personal pastor who preaches
that women shouldn’t have the right to vote, and has brought him to the
Pentagon. Through this and
other means, Hegseth is moving to advance white, male Evangelical
troops by merging his brand of church with his brand of state.
The Pentagon says Hegseth is embracing America’s proud
history as a “Christian Nation,” which reflects this administration’s
appalling historical ignorance. It’s a problem, not just because it’s an
ignorant violation of our most revered First Amendment, but because it divides
the troops and is therefore dangerous.
Military safety requires troop cohesion, which is why,
throughout history, enemies
frequently try to divide opposing troops. Hegseth, now in command of
the world’s most powerful armed forces, doesn’t seem to grasp this basic,
fundamental, ‘War
for Dummies’ military logic. A scholar at Georgetown University’s
Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs said
it best: “The ideological consolidation of the military is something that
we have historically not wanted. We want the
military to be diverse. We want the military representative of
the American people.” To be obvious about it, would you want your son in the
trenches with someone he doesn’t fully trust, or who doesn’t fully trust him,
because their religious differences have been amplified?
The Pope to Hegseth: God doesn’t like your hateful ways
In promoting Trump’s illegal war in Iran, Hegseth recently
invoked Christ’s name in
wishing for “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.” Setting aside the blatantly anti-Christian message of
“violence” and “no mercy” for human beings, which also violates international laws of
combat, Hegseth’s prayer lusts shamefully for violence. Pope Leo XIV isn’t
having it.
Pope Leo, in an indirect but pointed rebuke, said during
his Palm
Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square that “God doesn’t listen to the
prayers of those who make war, or cite God to justify their violence.” Opposed
to Trump’s war in Iran, he then prayed for the Middle East, tacitly
acknowledging that civilians, as well as troops under Hegseth’s command, are in
danger given Hegseth’s obsession with “killing” people without regard to law.
The chilling effects of Hegseth’s attempt to impose
Christian Nationalism on the troops are real. One senior Army civilian who has
worked in the Pentagon for decades told
the Washington Post that, “people who work there are afraid to talk to
one another or their superiors about concerns over Hegseth’s actions…limits
that used to exist around proselytizing have evaporated under Hegseth.” The
situation, the person said, is “terrifying: If troops are trained to believe
that God is on our side, what precludes us from doing anything we
want to win? The strength of our military is our people, and their sense of
belonging to their unit and their service.”
Advancing Christian Nationalism among the troops is not just
an affront to U.S. history and the most revered First
Amendment to the Constitution, it puts soldiers at risk. Here’s hoping the
Generals are talking amongst themselves.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial
attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A
defense. She writes the free Substack, The
Haake Take.
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