Shortly after controversial evangelical preacher Doug Wilson preached at the Pentagon in February, he declared that his Christian Nationalist vision for the United States was a Protestant nation where public Catholic worship would be banned, like that of Hinduism and other religions. On Wednesday…
Lawsuit seeks to protect Stars and Stripes from Hegseth’s control
A lawsuit filed against the Pentagon seeks to reverse its takeover of Stars and Stripes, the news organization that provided independent news coverage for the U.S. military since 1861. Federal regulations governing the publication ensured its ability to provide “a…
LDS Church added back to Pentagon list after outcry
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth slashed the number of religious affiliations recognized by the Pentagon from more than 200 to 31 and set off a political firestorm in the process. The loudest reaction came when U.S. Sen. Mike Hill, R-Utah, and…
The Fake Faiths of Our Founders?
Every Pete Hegseth story somehow becomes a story about Christian nationalism, but few are as on the nose as last week’s. The Pentagon announced the culling of the US military’s list of recognized religions from 211 to 31. Military.com broke the news that the Department of…
How American religion inspired Cole Allen’s violence
During the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last Saturday, Cole Allen breached a Secret Service checkpoint and fired shots at agents in an attempt to assassinate the president of the United States and other high-ranking officials. About 10 minutes prior, from…
‘Fake Christians’ in America aren’t funny, comedian warns
Comedian John Fugelsang brought some sober truth to participants at the 2026 Summit for Religious Freedom sponsored by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. While cracking joke after joke, he highlighted the dangers of Christian nationalism and offered…
Baptist journalist broke the story of Hegseth’s Pulp Fiction prayer
A Baptist journalist is responsible for identifying Pete Hegseth’s prayer as cribbed from Pulp Fiction, and his attention to detail has gone around the world. It was Brian Kaylor, editor of Word&Way, who broke the news of last Wednesday’s Pentagon worship…
St. Augustine is key to the difference between Pete Hegseth and Pope Leo
In the aftermath of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent Pentagon prayer and Pope Leo XIV’s Palm Sunday homily, much of the public commentary has settled into a familiar framework. A conservative official invoked God in the context of war and a supposedly…
Despite exalting Trump and evangelicals, Labor secretary is out
The Trump administration’s secretary of Labor, who has used the office to promote Christian nationalism and idolatry of Donald Trump, has been removed as “multiple scandals and investigations closed in on her,” according to The New York Times. “The Labor…
Pete Hegseth Quoted A Bible Verse. Turns Out It Was A Rip-Off Of ‘Pulp Fiction.’
In a move that seems indicative of the Trump administration’s increasingly fractured relationship with the Vatican, Pete Hegseth appeared to mistake lines from a classic crime film for Scripture during a public appearance this week.
War in Iran: A clash of fundamentalisms
Whatever its specious rationales and eventual outcomes, one underlying fact about the war in Iran is clear: What is largely fueling this dangerously combustible conflict is essentially a clash of fundamentalisms — Islamic, Jewish and Christian. When speaking of Islam generally, it is important to state emphatically that most of the world’s Muslims are peaceable peoples. (In my former role as a leader of the Alliance of Baptists, we entered…
Pete Hegseth’s Gospel of Carnage
I guess a zealot, by nature, can’t hide — too extreme are his convictions, too grand his designs, too consuming his arrogance. And so, over recent weeks, Pete Hegseth has fully revealed himself.