Ninety-five percent of American service members identify as religious, and War Secretary Pete Hegseth just gave them a direct line to the Pentagon’s top leadership.
Hegseth announced Wednesday the establishment of the Office of Religious Affairs, a move designed to support troops and the chaplains who serve them. The decision immediately drew fire from Democrats and media figures who accused him of violating the Constitution’s Establishment Clause.
They’re wrong.
“No staff filters. No bureaucratic dilution. A direct line to the secretary,” Hegseth explained. “This is not going to be a paper-pushing shop; it’s going to have real teeth. It’ll protect budgets, demand infrastructure and strengthen religious support. The experts, our chaplains, will finally have an advocate at the highest levels.”
The new office aims to reverse years of neglect that Hegseth says left military chaplains without a voice at the highest levels of defense policy.
“Political correctness and secular humanism got a vote, chaplains did not,” he said. “Budgets were cut. Resourcing and manpower needs were ignored. Base chapels fell apart.”
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Hegseth framed the move as putting spiritual readiness on equal footing with physical fitness. “We’re placing spiritual health at the same level as physical health,” he said. “The department is putting on the full armor of God because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual. God is good. Evil is not. America’s military must know the difference.”
Nowhere in his announcement did Hegseth suggest chaplains would be steered toward any particular faith. Military chaplains have traditionally served troops of all backgrounds, even when ordained in their own faith traditions, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism.
That didn’t stop the predictable outrage.
Former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd took to social media with a snarky suggestion: “Can someone get this man a copy of the Constitution. Lots of pocket versions available.”
Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, went further, accusing Hegseth of building “the road to Gilead,” a reference to the dystopian theocracy in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
“It’s no accident that he used the word ‘establish’ here,” Huffman complained. “Hegseth is a full-throttle Christian nationalist who hates separation of church and state.”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Jewish Democrat, used the announcement to justify her support for U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who has voiced support for allowing Sharia law in the United States.
“When people ask me how I, as a Jew, can support @AbdulElSayed, it’s bc nothing is more dangerous to religious minorities in the U.S. than the creation of a state religion,” Nessel wrote, ignoring El-Sayed’s position on Sharia.
Here’s what the critics conveniently forget: The Establishment Clause bars Congress from passing a law establishing a state religion. Hegseth isn’t Congress. He’s not passing legislation. He’s creating an administrative office to support service members who already have chaplains serving them.
The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Supporting the 95% of service members who claim religious faith isn’t establishing a state religion. It’s honoring the free exercise clause that follows immediately after.
For too long, men and women in uniform have watched their spiritual support systems erode under administrations more concerned with political correctness than troop welfare. Hegseth’s move signals that era is over.
Chaplains will finally have someone in their corner at the Pentagon’s highest levels. And service members who put their lives on the line for this country will have the spiritual resources they need and deserve.
This article originally appeared on American Faith and is reposted with permission.
