When Pete Hegseth, the former Fox & Friends host turned secretary of defense, walked into the Pentagon earlier this year, he brought more than his signature cable-TV bravado. He also carried a brand of muscular Christianity rooted in crusader imagery, biblical rhetoric, and ties to a church whose pastor believes women should not have the right to vote. Now, just months into his tenure, veterans and watchdog groups say Hegseth’s religiosity is not only reshaping Pentagon messaging but also threatening to fracture the very institution he leads.

From Fox Studio to the Pentagon

Hegseth’s confirmation hearings were already contentious. Senators grilled him over tattoos referencing medieval crusades and his affiliation with pastor Doug Wilson, a polarizing figure who preaches “All of Christ for All of Life”—a slogan Hegseth himself proudly reposted on social media. Wilson’s views, which include opposition to women’s suffrage, alarmed lawmakers across the aisle, though Hegseth promised to support women in uniform.

But once installed at the Pentagon, Hegseth wasted no time weaving his faith into the machinery of the Department of Defense. One official recruitment video, posted on the Pentagon’s official X account, shows paratroopers descending from aircraft, assault rifles raised against an unseen desert enemy. Across the screen flashes a verse from Psalms: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them. I did not turn back till they were destroyed.” The post’s caption read: “We Are One Nation Under God.”

To many Americans, it looked more like a holy war trailer than a military recruitment ad.

“A Threat to Democracy”

Veterans have begun sounding alarms. Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq War veteran and CEO of Task Force Butler, a nonprofit that tracks extremism in the ranks, says the fallout is already visible.

“Every time Hegseth does one of these things, I get messages from active-duty troops asking, ‘How do I get involved?’” Goldsmith told the Guardian. “We’ve got soldiers who recognize that the military they’re serving in has become a threat to democracy.”

Goldsmith warns that recruitment campaigns dripping with Christian nationalist overtones may succeed in the short term—boosting enlistments at a time of historic lows—but at a dangerous cost. “We’re going to see a lot of Christian nationalists join the military,” he said. “They won’t perform well, and those that don’t wash out will become toxic leaders. Our national security will suffer for a generation.”

Voices of Dissent

Mike Pruitt, a Navy veteran and Democratic congressional candidate in Virginia, calls Hegseth’s approach “toxic machismo dressed up as religion.”

“The man has all his ‘deus vult’ tattoos and Hospitaller crosses because he wants to imagine himself as a storybook knight,” Pruitt said. “But that is not what our country is, and that is not what the Christian mission is.”

Pruitt insists his critique comes not from hostility toward faith—he describes himself as both a practicing Christian and proud veteran—but from Hegseth’s weaponization of it. “Faith should uplift, not divide. What Hegseth is doing is fueling his own megalomania,” he said.

A Backlash Years in the Making

The debate over religion and extremism in the military did not begin with Hegseth. In the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection—where scores of active-duty and former service members were found among the rioters—President Joe Biden’s administration took steps to root out extremist elements from the ranks. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a historic “stand-down order” in 2021, forcing units across the armed forces to confront extremism head-on and tightening rules around service members’ political activities.

Conservatives blasted the initiative as “woke social engineering.” Among the loudest critics was Pete Hegseth, then a Fox News personality. Now, as the Pentagon’s top official, he is reversing those policies—ousting transgender troops, sidelining senior women officers, and stripping bases of diversity programs, all while insisting that the U.S. military should once again be “God’s army.”

A Divided Force

Not everyone in uniform is protesting. Some see in Hegseth a long-overdue corrective to what they view as a drift toward “political correctness” in the armed forces. Recruitment numbers, once at crisis levels, have reportedly surged under his tenure, though the Pentagon has refused to provide detailed breakdowns.

But among those who have served, disquiet runs deep. “It’s not the job of troops to speak out publicly,” Pruitt explained, “which is why so much of the frustration you hear from active service members is invisible to the media narrative.”

Privately, soldiers describe the crusader-themed rhetoric as “cringe,” while veterans like Goldsmith warn that the United States is laying the groundwork for its own undoing. “They won’t be able to mentor the next generation of troops,” Goldsmith said. “The damage won’t show today. It’ll show ten, twenty years from now, when America’s global influence has eroded.”

The Image of a Knight

For now, Hegseth shows no signs of retreating. His spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that the secretary “very much appreciates many of Pastor Wilson’s writings and teachings.” And his social media feeds continue to blend biblical verses, patriotic slogans, and militarized imagery into a seamless narrative of holy war.

In Hegseth’s mind, critics say, the Pentagon is not merely a defense headquarters. It is a pulpit.

“He wants to be the knight, the crusader, the savior,” Pruitt said. “But that’s not the job of a secretary of defense. His mission is supposed to be keeping America safe. Instead, he’s remaking the military into his own image of faith and force. And that’s a dangerous road.”