{"id":74564,"date":"2026-06-08T16:25:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=74564"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:25:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:25:17","slug":"jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In January of 2016, Patheos invited the diverse blogs hosted here to participate in an \u201cinterfaith round table\u201d responding to the question \u201cAre Mormons<\/a> Christian?\u201d<\/p>\n

I accepted that invitation by offering a Series of Unhelpful Questions that I still consider to be helpfully unhelpful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the MAGA Faith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s some useful background, I think, for a story that emerged over this past weekend, first reported by Military.com: \u201cDOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military\u2019s Recognized Religion List<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revised list, according to documents obtained by Military.com, includes Agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Islam (Muslims), Judaism, Sikh, and a wide range of Christian-based groups like Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists. \u2026<\/p>\n

This restructuring of faith codes, which help identify service members as well as the military in planning for appropriate religious coverage to include them, has now excluded minority faith\/worldview groups including Atheists, Asatru, Deists, Druids, Eckankar, Heathens, Humanists, Magick, New Age churches, Pagan, Rosicrucianism, Shaman, Spiritualists, Troth, Unitarian Universalists and various Wiccans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The list of religions was \u201cstreamlined\u201d from 211 groups down to just 31.\u00a0The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> (LDS church officials recently decided to discourage the name \u201cMormons\u201d) made the cut, but while it is still on the Department of Defense\u2019s list of officially recognized religions, it is no longer officially grouped among the \u201cChristian\u201d religions.<\/p>\n

So that same Patheos prompt from 10 years ago became a front-page headline for the Salt Lake Tribune: \u201cAre Latter-day Saints Christian? The U.S. Defense Department doesn\u2019t appear to think so<\/a>..\u201d<\/p>\n

For nearly a decade, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been engaged in a top-down rebrand meant partly to solidify its focus and bona fides as a Christian religion.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Defense, led by conservative evangelical Pete Hegseth, appears unconvinced.<\/p>\n

On Friday, spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed on social media a report that the department had trimmed its list of recognized religious affiliations, used by its chaplains, from more than 200 to 31.<\/p>\n

The Latter-day Saint faith was among those to make the cut. But there was a catch.<\/p>\n

The list denotes 20 faiths as Christian, including Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Baptist and Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses. Not, however, the Utah-based faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The local paper expresses some gentle, polite \u201cconcern\u201d about this change, goodness gracious, but the Military.com follow-up story focuses on the alarm and anger the change has sparked: \u201cDOD\u2019s New Official Recognized Religions List Draws Strong LDS Rebuke<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah lawmakers are among those expressing discontent with the Department of Defense\u2019s new list of recognized religious faiths and beliefs, specifically alarmed at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) being excluded as a Christian religion.<\/p>\n

\u2026 The change, now officially acknowledged by the DOD after Military.com\u2019s initial reporting, has ruffled the feathers of LDS followers\u2014who include Republican lawmakers at state and federal levels\u2014openly criticizing the new list.<\/p>\n

Among them are Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who on Sunday took to social media calling for the Pentagon to \u201cnot just reconsider it, but undo it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lee \u2014 a far-right, ultra-MAGA senator \u2014 then wound up spending much of his weekend on Twitter, replying to white evangelicals and fundamentalists condemning his faith as heresy and apostasy and a lie from the pits of Hell. That\u2019s not a new thing, mind you \u2014 evangelicals and Latter-day Saints have long regarded one another as false or mistaken religions and each has long considered the other to be a legitimate target for proselytizing, as people who need to convert and get saved lest they suffer eternal peril. But most of these Twitter Christians were not trying to evangelize. They were, instead, celebrating the exclusion of LDS believers as a victory for the hegemony of their forms of Christianity and of religion.<\/p>\n

They were emboldened and, they seemed to think, legitimated<\/em> by this new list of religious classifications issued by government officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>For these MAGA Christians, government officials have the power to officially confirm and affirm their faith. This is what makes that faith, and them,<\/em> real and true and official. It has Caesar\u2019s official seal of approval. (A seal that might be worn, perhaps, on their right hands and their foreheads.<\/p>\n

These Christians are confused. A similar confusion was expressed this weekend by another [in]famous Twitter Christian, the MAGA activist and \u201cworship\u201d singer Sean Feucht<\/a>, who posted this in the comment section of Elon Musk\u2019s personal blog: \u201cWhen the separation of church and state was created, people didn\u2019t realize WHY it was created. The separation of church and state was NEVER meant to keep the church out of the government, but it was meant to keep the government from putting their hands on the church..\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a popular bit of rhetoric for white\/Christian nationalists who regard the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment as being in conflict with the Establishment clause. In their view, the establishment of religion \u2014 their<\/em> religion \u2014 is the only sure way to guarantee their right to free exercise.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a trap. It\u2019s the foolishness of the kind of fool who imagines that tyranny is a great system as long as you get to be the tyrant.<\/p>\n

Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor. It puts the government in charge as the arbiter of true religion and true orthodoxy, inviting and empowering that government to determine the difference, and to enforce that determination with the sword.<\/p>\n

Sean Feucht sees Pete Hegseth as an ally \u2014 as a fellow (white) Christian on his side in the battle to establish (white) Christianity as the official, hegemonic religion enforced by the full power of the government. So when the Pentagon whittles down its list of officially recognized \u201cChristian\u201d religions to just 20 he can celebrate this as a victory because that list still, for now, includes his own form of nondenominational Charismatic Pentecostalism<\/a>. But that sect is ultimately incompatible with the Neo-Confederate Pseudo-Calvinist Reconstructionism taught by Hegseth\u2019s mentor, Doug Wilson. And religious establishment cannot accommodate such a broad diversity of officially privileged sects.<\/p>\n

The list will always have to be whittled down again. And again.<\/p>\n

Religious establishment is like The Highlander<\/em>: In the end, there can be only one.<\/p>\n

The cleverest Christian nationalists understand this \u2014 the tenured Catholic Integralists and the Theonomists and the handful of intellectual-ish types amongst the New Apostolic Reformation. They understand that what they\u2019re doing now is clearing the board for the end game, when the ultimate winner \u2014 the one very specific, singular sect \u2014 will emerge as the final and only acceptable form of true religion. And so while they\u2019re working together now with these other (and, in their view, false and illegitimate) strains of white Christianity, they\u2019re already planning for how they will ensure that it is their ever-more particular sect that winds up on top.<\/p>\n

But, again, they still won\u2019t be \u201con top.\u201d Because the prize of establishment is surrender to Caesar \u2014 granting the government the power to decree which sect is the official one, and to determine what makes anyone a legitimate member of that sect, and what tests and inquiries and inquisitions it sees fit to require those official believers of the official sect to perform in order to prove their official status.<\/p>\n

Establishment can never be a right, only a privilege, and privileges are always conditional. Even for the most earnest members of the established sect, someone else \u2014 Caesar, the government \u2014 will be the one setting those conditions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":74570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-74564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-state"],"yoast_head":"\nJesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-08T20:25:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2026\/06\/image-55.png.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"634\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"623\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-08T20:25:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-08T20:25:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so","description":"Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so","og_description":"Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2026-06-08T20:25:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":634,"height":623,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2026\/06\/image-55.png.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/","name":"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-06-08T20:25:17+00:00","dateModified":"2026-06-08T20:25:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Establishment is a prison for the established religion just as much as it is for all of the other sects and slight-variations of that religion that establishment would officially forbid or disfavor.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2026\/06\/08\/jesus-loves-me-this-i-know-for-pete-hegseth-tells-me-so\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Jesus loves me, this I know, for Pete Hegseth tells me so"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}