Christian Nationalists Administration in Action

By Wornie Reed

Early Easter Sunday morning, the President of the United States sent out the following message.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fin’ Strait, you crazy b**ds, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President Donald J. Trump.”

This insane rant was probably a war crime in its very utterance.

The person occupying the role of Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, had already requested that all Americans pray “Every day, on bended knee, with your family, in your schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.” At a time when the U.S. and Israeli militaries are dropping thousands of bombs on a majority-Shiite Muslim nation, the explicitly Christian nature of Mr. Hegseth’s inappropriate call stood out. Among other characterizations, it implies that the war with Iran is a religious war.

Mr. Hegseth’s calls to prayer in the Pentagon press room and the monthly, voluntary Christian worship services that he has organized in the Pentagon auditorium are a stark departure from the way military chaplains are taught to minister to their flock. They are taught to reflect the nation’s religious diversity. About 70 percent of troops identify as Christian, according to a 2019 study by the CongressionalResearch Service. Thus, 30 percent do not, as in their ranks, many faiths are represented. U.S. military chaplains represent an increasing religious diversity that, in addition to Christians, includes Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and humanist faiths. And the chaplains provide counseling for all, regardless of faith.

“It is one thing to say, ‘We should get on our knees and pray to God,’ but when you say ‘to Jesus Christ our Lord,’ that really narrows the field,” said the Rev. William D. Razz Waff, an Episcopal priest and board-certified chaplain who served in the Army. “Chaplains are there for every faith.”

Pope Leo has not referred specifically to Mr. Hegseth, but during his Palm Sunday homily, Leo said that God rejects the prayers of “those who wage war,” and that their “hands are full of blood.” And in a homily during a Mass between Palm Sunday and Easter, Leo said that the Christian mission had often been “distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”

On Easter, the Pope called for peace again. “Let those who have weapons lay them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace,” Leo said in the message. “Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue. Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them.”

And then this past Sunday, in an unhinged series of posts, Trump slammed Pope Leo as weak and soft on crime, writing that he prefers Pope Leo’s older brother, who is a self-described MAGA type, and later, unbelievably, posting a picture of himself as Jesus healing the sick. Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a brief response, “I am disheartened that the President chose to write such disparaging words about the Holy Father. Pope Leo is not his rival; nor is the Pope a politician.”

In case so-called Christian Nationalists dismiss criticisms from prominent Christian leaders as merely differences in faith, I offer comments from one of their previously rabid compatriots, former Republican Representative Margaret Taylor Greene. She responded to Trump’s Easter profane tirade repeated above, “[Look at] what President Trump posted [on Easter morning]. Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God, stop worshipping the president, and intervene in Trump’s madness.

“I know all of you and him, and he has gone insane. And all of you are complicit.

“I’m not defending Iran, but let’s be honest about all of this. The Strait is closed because the US and Israel started the unprovoked war against Iran based on the same nuclear lies they’ve been telling for decades. That any moment Iran would develop a nuclear weapon. You know who has nuclear weapons? Israel.