On September 30, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered what amounted to an evangelical sermon to an assembly of more than 800 top military commanders at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia. “The era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now,” said Hegseth. “This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that shit.” Hegseth introduced a series of policy changes with the aim of restoring the military’s “warrior culture” and making the military “the most lethal … [and] bad ass fighting force on God’s green earth.”
Purging Diversity: Grooming a WASP Crusade
The Secretary of War’s policy changes constitute attacks on service personnel of color and women. Hegseth opens his remarks declaring the “new War Department golden rule is this: Do unto your unit as you would have done unto your own child’s unit. Would you want him serving with fat or unfit or untrained troops alongside people who cannot meet basic standards? Or in a unit where standards were lowered so certain types of troops could make it in,” initiating his attacks on diversity supporting policies. “Frankly, it’s tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it’s completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands around the country and the world.” Moreover, there will be “no more beards, long hair, superficial, individual expression,” no more “beardos… We’re going to cut our hair, shape up, shave our beards and adhere to standards, because it’s like the broken windows theory of policing,” a gesture to the racist theory of policing that justifies disproportionate targeting of communities of color. “If you want a beard, you can join special forces,” Hegseth’s beloved unit, where soldiers, or, as he prefers, warriors, are permitted not to shave. “If not, then shave. We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans.”
Veteran, anti-war activist, and co-producer of the Empire Files, Mike Prysner, points out in response to progressive societal changes and recruitment concerns, the military modified its policies on shaving so that Black servicemen would not have to maintain a close shave, which causes skin irritation, but rather what is defined as a “shaving profile.” Now Hegseth is “saying you can no longer be in the military without a close shave and no skin condition,” which, adds Prsyner, that “upwards of 80% of black servicemen can be discharged within the year.”
Hegseth also reversed policies that allow service personnel to file anonymous complaints about sexual misconduct, so they are less likely to be subject to retaliation by perpetrators, who are not infrequently a victim’s commanding officer. Sexual assault is pervasive in the military.
Nevertheless, Hegseth, who himself was accused of sexual assault and reached a settlement with the accuser, declared: “No more frivolous complaints. No more anonymous complaints. No more repeat complainants. No more smearing reputations. No more endless waiting. No more legal limbo. No more sidetracking careers. No more walking on eggshells.” It’s not difficult to predict that as a result of this policy reversal to make the military great again, service personnel will be less likely to report assaults and more likely to be at risk of being assaulted.
The fitness regulations will have a similar effect, as the expectation is that all service personnel will meet the standards for elite servicemen, even as the majority of military tasks do not require elite levels of fitness. “Simply put, if you do not meet the male level physical standards for combat positions, cannot pass a PT test or don’t want to shave and look professional, it’s time for a new position or a new profession.”
The “military has adapted to women, sexual minorities, and persons of color gaining rights by modifying policies to ensure access… But,” adds Prysner, “Hegseth views such changes as a product of the ‘woke left,’ which is tantamount to weakening warrior culture, and a principal target of his American crusade for freedom. In a not so veiled attack on women, sexual minorities, and persons of color, Hegseth asserts that “For too long we’ve promoted military leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called ‘firsts,’” These destructive ideologies are an anathema to the constitution and,” he revealingly adds, “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” Hegseth’s attack on the policies that were hard fought for and won over the decades embodies the regressive nature of his theology.
Hegseth’s purging policies follows the removal of top female military leaders, an White House executive order barring trans persons from military service, the firing of Black Air Force General CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff as part of the Trump administration’s campaign to crush diversity programs and diversity supporting leaders, and most recently Hegseth’s restoration of the Medal of Honor to 20 soldiers who participated in the massacre of more than 250 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890.
Evangelical Fascism on the Rise
Hegseth’s Christian warrior theology was spelled out in American Crusade (2020), Battle for the American Mind (2022), and The War on Warriors (2024). In Crusade, Hegseth rails against leftism, feminism, socialism, secularism, environmentalism, elitism, political correctness, anti-racism, and Islamism, the “most dangerous ‘ism’,” to each of which he devotes entire chapters, and calls for a war on educational institutions and China, “the villains of our generation,” and support for Israel.
A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard’s Kennedy School, an army veteran who served in Iraq and the military base at Guantanamo at a time when the torture of prisoners held without charge was being widely reported and condemned, Hegseth bears an 11th century Christian crusader cross tattooed on his chest with the words, Deus Vult, God wills it, on his bicep.
The introduction to American Crusade declares: “Our future existence as sons and daughters of freedom requires the satisfaction of a single paramount objective: the categorical defeat of the Left. America cannot, and will not, survive otherwise…. This time in our history calls for an AMERICAN CRUSADE. Yes, a holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.” Not surprisingly, the final chapter, echoing Trump’s sales-pitch, is titled, “Make Crusade Great Again.”
Hegseth’s vision reverberates with the ideological battle articulated in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and Project Esther, and a slew of authoritarian executive orders. Among the most recent of these is titled “Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization,” which identifies antifa activities to include movements that “portray foundational American principles (e.g., support for law enforcement and border control) as ‘fascist’ to justify and encourage acts of violent revolution, …. anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity [no other religions are named] extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”
As the billionaire class does all they can to maintain US hegemony, they are bolstered by white supremacist Christian nationalists, who find no more ideologically driven and religiously zealous proponent of US economic and political domination through military might than self-described and marked Christian crusader and United States Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth.
What remains to be seen is how much push-back there will be against Hegseth and the Trump administration’s xenophobic, militaristic, and authoritarian white supremacist Christian nationalism from progressive Protestant Christian church leaders and the new American pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, who, as Andrew Chesnut explains in a recent Patheos article, may be moving in a liberation theology direction to support the oppressed and alter the structures that deny people the basic necessities of life. Perhaps light will shine in this era of seemingly endless darkness to challenge the regressive policies of the Trump administration and the violence of US empire.
By guest contributor Dr. Mark D. Wood, Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. His research focuses on the intersection of religion, racism, capitalist-political economy, and liberation movements. He co-chairs the Religion and Nature section for the American Academy of Religion Southeast Region.
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