Three Cheers for Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon Christian Prayer Service

by Zachary Mettler | May 23, 2025 | Government Updates Religious Freedom

It must have been a slow news week, because many media outlets are feverishly covering Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Wednesday morning prayer service at the Pentagon.

In past generations, such an event would have been seen as normal – not newsworthy.

The New York Times spent four pages reporting on the event, noting that the defense secretary “led a Christian prayer service in the Pentagon’s auditorium on Wednesday morning, during working hours, in which President Trump was praised as a divinely appointed leader.”

The Times reports the service was titled the “Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service.”

“[The event] was standing room only and ran for about 30 minutes, with Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of Mr. Hegseth’s church in Tennessee, as the main speaker,” the outlet notes, before adding, “The service is part of an increasing infusion of overt Christian evangelization in official government events during Mr. Trump’s second term.”

In his remarks at the service, the secretary said,

This is precisely where I need to be, and I think exactly where we need to be as a nation, at this moment, in prayer, on bended knee recognizing the providence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Knowing that there’s an author in heaven overseeing all of this, who’s underwritten all of it, for us, on the cross, gives me the strength to proceed.

Of course, attendance at the service was voluntary. But that didn’t stop The Times from insinuating it, along with other Trump administration actions, might “violate the First Amendment’s prohibition of establishing a state religion.”

Similarly, MSNBC’s Steve Benen – a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show” – said the event was “an inappropriate use of government resources” and argued it increased worries about “the emergence of Christian nationalism.”

Likewise, CNN reported the service was “highly unusual” and quoted a law professor who asserted the event was a “clear violation” of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

After receiving criticism for holding the prayer gathering, Defense Secretary Hegseth didn’t back down. He doubled down and reiterated the prayer service wasn’t a one-off. It will be a regular, monthly event.

Acting Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson issued a statement about the event:

Beseeching the Almighty has been an American tradition since George Washington prayed for our cause at Valley Forge. The United States was then, and remains now, One Nation under God.

The secretary also posted about the event on X:

The idea that a voluntary 30-minute Christian prayer event at the Pentagon could be portrayed as the establishment of a “state religion,” or a clear violation the Establishment Clause, is absurd.

The prayer service is no more an “establishment” of a state religion than many other actions in our nation’s history, including:

  • The Continental Congress’ endorsement of the Aitken Bible, known as “the Bible of the Revolution,” which was the first full Bible printed in English in America. In 1782, Congress “recommend[ed] this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States.”
  • President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 in which he declares it is “the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor.”
  • President Washington’s endorsement of “religion and morality” as “indispensable supports” to “political prosperity” in his Farewell Address.
  • President Abraham Lincoln’s overtly Christian second inaugural address, in which he mentions God six times and quotes Scripture twice, including Psalm 19:9, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether,” and Matthew 18:7, “Woe unto the world because of offenses for it must needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.”

Our nation has a long and remarkable history of acknowledging the Judeo-Christian God. If Congress, President Washington and President Lincoln can openly recognize and pray to God, so can Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Three cheers for the secretary’s bold and courageous Christian witness.

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Photo from Getty Images.