Military Chaplains Say Promotions Are Tied To Pushing Pete Hegseth’s Christian Ideology

Active-duty U.S. subject chaplains opportunity activity nether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is evaluating whether religion leaders are ideologically aligned pinch Donald Trump’s management and Hegseth’s Christianity.

Several chaplains, who service arsenic officers successful nan branches, said they fearfulness unconstitutional retaliation and different master repercussions if their views don’t align pinch Hegseth, an Evangelical Christian who has implemented sweeping changes to nan military’s Chaplain Corps.

“There appears to beryllium an ongoing effort to find whether subordinate chaplains ideologically align pinch nan Secretary of Defense and nan existent leadership,” one chaplain wrote to nan Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit group supporting work members’ authorities to belief expression. “The messaging is accordant capable that galore of america understand what is being rewarded and what is not.”

Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez told The Independent that “these claims are false,” but nan complaints travel Hegseth’s overhauling of nan Chaplain Corps complete nan past year.

Under Hegseth’s leadership, nan Department of Defense has diminished chaplains’ subject ranks and narrowed the Pentagon’s database of recognized faiths to “streamline” really chaplains curate to different work members. The caput besides tossed retired “Spiritual Fitness” guides he said were excessively focused connected “new age” concepts.

Those guides are ostensibly designed to thief work members place their individual faith, foundational values and civilized grounding to amended hole them for conflict, whether those ideas stemmed from religion, accuracy aliases different modes of thinking.

But successful a video announcing plans to overhaul nan Chaplain Corps and belief fittingness initiatives, Hegseth said chaplains are “not affectional support officers” aliases “therapists.”

“Faith and kindness were traded for self-help and self-care,” he said.

He derided nan Army’s belief fittingness programme for promoting secular humanism, saying it “mentions God 1 time” and “mentions feelings 11 times.”

“It moreover mentions playfulness, immoderate that is, 9 times,” he said. “In short, it’s unacceptable and unserious. So we’re tossing it.”

Spiritual fittingness “is now being presented arsenic inherently religious,” a chaplain wrote to nan Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The complaints were first reported by The Daily Beast.

“Chaplains are progressively expected to beforehand it, and nan unit to support its existent guidance is becoming difficult to ignore,” nan chaplain said.

The chaplain besides warned against reforms that person importantly expanded nan power of “supervisory chaplains” complete their ministry, which could effect their promotions.

“If those determining what constitutes ‘effective ministry’ besides expect alignment pinch a peculiar belief aliases ideological perspective, nan information strategy becomes much than a measurement of ministry capacity — it becomes a system for shaping nan early creation of nan Chaplain Corps,” nan chaplain wrote.

Another brace of subject chaplains said they were pressured by administrative unit successful their bid to subordinate a “commander’s situation dream telephone tree.”

“It was much than evident that nan only belief associated pinch this alleged ‘crisis telephone tree’ was Christian by nan galore statements made by nan bid conception administrative staff,” they wrote.

The staffer’s attempts to enlistee nan chaplains was “clearly an effort conscionable arsenic we joined this portion to make judge we were Christians successful sync pinch I conjecture our commander’s evident Christian belief views,” they said.

The Trump management has many times been accused of dismantling nan church-and-state firewall and violating First Amendment protections by sharing explicitly Christian messages.

Hegseth has explicitly framed warfare pinch Iran done nan lens of his faith and has rejected nan founding rule of nan separation of religion and state. He has many times invoked scripture and Christian dream successful his remarks while promising unit against his enemies.

The caput besides invited self-described Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson — who has defended slavery, wants to criminalize homosexuality and has advocated for repealing women’s correct to ballot — to preach astatine nan Pentagon successful February.

Last month, nan Pentagon reduced a database of much than 200 antecedently recognized religion traditions to 31. The database nary longer includes atheists and Unitarian Universalists, among others.

“Secretary Hegseth is not ‘streamlining’ anything. He is elevating 1 constrictive belief worldview from nan apical of nan concatenation of command,” according to said nan Rev. Paul Raushenbush, a Baptist curate and caput of nan progressive Interfaith Alliance.

“That is dangerous, discriminatory and fundamentally un-American,” he said successful a statement. “The First Amendment does not let nan authorities to create a level of faiths, and it surely does not let nan Pentagon to determine which beliefs are worthy of recognition.”

Chaplains fearfulness what appears to beryllium “ideological alignment” could create into a “broader narrowing of who is considered acceptable wrong nan Chaplain Corps,” 1 chaplain wrote.

Among those apt to beryllium impacted are chaplains from group number backgrounds and number religion traditions, arsenic good arsenic women, nan chaplain told nan Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

“I sincerely dream I’m wrong. But from my perspective, nan operation of nan Spiritual Fitness inaugural and nan caller information strategy appears to create a building that could reward ideological conformity while discouraging theological and taste diversity,” nan personification said. “That would beryllium a profound displacement for a Chaplain Corps whose ngo is to supply for nan free workout of belief crossed a pluralistic force.”