Chris Bambery argues that the religious zeal of the Republican right in general, and Pete Hegseth in particular, add a terrifying dimension to US war aims

A constant narrative about Iran is that it is a theocratic state led by religious fanatics who want to keep women in the home and much more. This is obviously an inaccurate portrait of the Islamic Republic but what’s interesting is that so many in the US administration seem keen on the idea of a theocratic state themselves, and portray their war with Iran as a clash between Islam and Christianity.

President Donald Trump issued an Easter message in a film for the White House website, saying, ‘religion is growing again in our country for the first time in decades’.

A message published on the White House website, said President Trump ‘stands as a fierce defender of the Christian faith’ and the US is a ‘beacon of liberty, honouring the Biblical values and heritage that built our nation’.

Trump has established the White House Faith Office, led by televangelist and Trump’s faith adviser, Paula McCain, who organised a prayer event for him in Holy Week in the Oval Office. Around twenty evangelical leaders prayed for wisdom and guidance in leadership, protection for the president and US troops, and strength during the Iran conflict. This was the second prayer meeting Trump has held in a month.

Pete Hegseth, the self-styled US Secretary of State for War, is an evangelical Christian, a member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), founded by Doug Wilson, who self-identifies as a Christian nationalist and has himself led a prayer service at the Pentagon. Wilson has described himself as a ‘Paleo-Confederate’, meaning that the Confederacy was right on all constitutional and cultural issues in the American Civil War.

At the prayer service at the Pentagon in February 2026, Wilson told the assembled military that, ‘If you bear the name of Jesus Christ, there is no armor greater than that. Not only so, but all the devil’s R&D teams have not come up with armor-piercing anything’.

CREC leaders call for the implementation of biblical law and a theocratic state structured on Christian patriarchy.

One of the tattoos on Hegseth’s right arm reads ‘Deus Vult’, which means ‘God Wills It’, and was a battle cry in the First Crusade initiated by Pope Urban II.

Another on his right breast is a Jerusalem Cross, another Crusader symbol. We know this because Hegseth is not shy about showing these off.

Hegseth has a history of defending the Crusades, the medieval wars in which Christian armies captured Palestine. In his 2020 book “American Crusade,” he wrote that those who enjoy Western civilization should ‘thank a crusader’.

Perhaps we should recall that when the First Crusade captured Jerusalem they murdered its inhabitants – Muslim, Jewish and Christian – and boasted about riding through blood up to their horses’ reins.

In March Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing that, ‘The mullahs are desperate and scrambling’, and went on to cite Psalm 144, a passage of Scripture that Jews and Christians share: ‘Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle’.

In another speech Hegseth told his audience, ‘We’re fighting religious fanatics who seek a nuclear capability in order for some religious Armageddon. But from my perspective, I mean, obviously I’m a man of faith who encourages our troops to lean into their faith, rely on God’.

At a Pentagon Christian prayer session Hegseth called for, ‘Overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy’. He went on to state, ‘Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation’.  He prayed for US troops as if they were crusaders saying, ‘Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy’.

The day before the service he announced changes to the military’s Chaplain Corps, which he said had been ‘infected by political correctness and secular humanism’ until they were ‘watered down’ to be ‘nothing more than therapists’ who focused more on ‘self-help and self-care’ than faith or virtue.

When, over Easter Weekend the US rescued a USAAF airman shot down over Iran, Hegseth likened it to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ:

‘You see, shot down on a Friday, good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday. A pilot reborn, all home and accounted for, a nation rejoicing, God is good’.

We need to make it very clear that many Christian leaders, including the Pope, have spoken out against this war. But the fact that evangelical Christians like Hegseth are in charge of it, makes it more terrifying, because it is not a war bound by geopolitical aims alone.

But you never know. As Bob Dylan sang in God On Our Side:

The words fill my head, and they fall to the floor
That if God’s on our side, he’ll stop the next war