‘No Quarter, No Mercy’: Pete Hegseth’s Militarized Faith
‘No Quarter, No Mercy’: Pete Hegseth’s Militarized Faith
The pope doesn’t run American foreign policy. Why should Doug Wilson?
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was challenged on Wednesday during a House Armed Services Committee hearing over remarks he made on March 13.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) brought up something the secretary of war said during a press conference: “You said, ‘We will give them no quarter, no mercy.”
“An order for no quarter, or no survivors, is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions,” Moulton said. “You understand, that’s murder. Do you stand by that statement?”
Hegseth sidestepped the accusation, replying, “The Department of War fights to win. And we ensure that our warfighters have the rules of engagement necessary to be as effective militarily as possible.”
When Hegseth said last month of the U.S. military that “we will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies,” some legal experts expressed concern that he was promoting or even admitting war crimes.
Hegseth also encountered protesters Wednesday, who asked the secretary as he walked by, “Why did you order the bombing of school children?” and “How many Iranian school girls have to die for Israel?” They were referring to the February 28 U.S. bombing of a girls elementary school in Minab, Iran that killed 175 people, most of them children. The tragedy has been blamed on bad or outdated intelligence and even AI.
Pope Leo has condemned the war, including the school bombing. The families of over 100 children killed in that bombing wrote a letter to the pope to show their gratitude for being a voice for peace.
Hegseth’s close spiritual adviser Brooks Potteiger had a different kind of message nine days after the school bombing. After thanking God for the “sovereignly appointed” President Donald Trump and Secretary Hegseth, the pastor said before military leaders at the Department of Defense, “There’s a temptation to think that you’re actually in control and responsible for final outcomes, especially for those who issue the commands and do the aiming and the shooting.”
“But you are not ultimately in charge of the world,” Potteiger said at the monthly worship service.
Citing Matthew 10, Potteiger said, “If our Lord is sovereign even over the sparrow’s fallings, you can be assured that he is sovereign over everything else that falls in this world.”
“Including Tomahawk and Minuteman missiles” Potteiger added. “Jesus has the final say over all of it.”
I’m not a service member or military veteran, nor am I a theologian. But as an American concerned about my country’s foreign policy, I can’t help but notice the difference in tone and kind between the treatment of the killing of school children by Hegseth’s religious circle compared to that coming from Pope Leo.
More importantly, I can’t help but notice what it could mean for American foreign policy in this administration.
Hegseth has invoked God to justify the U.S. war with Iran and has invited his own pastor, Douglas Wilson, to pray at the Pentagon. On April 10, the Guardian published a story by Julia Carrie Wong titled “Pete Hegseth’s holy war: the militant Christian theology animating the US attack on Iran.”
The story notes that Hegseth’s Tennessee church under Wilson is a certain flavor of Calvinism. “They believe that nothing happens that isn’t in God’s will,” Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, told the Guardian. They believe that God directs everything that happens.”
Presumably even guiding Tomahawk and Minuteman missiles.
“If God would order a genocide in Deuteronomy 20,” Ingersoll added, citing that biblical passage in which the Israelites are instructed by God to “destroy every living thing” in particular cities, “what makes you think he wouldn’t cause a girl’s school to be attacked?”
No mercy.
The most instructive part of the Guardian analysis was arguably this history (emphasis added):
In the aftermath of the second world war, a culture of militant masculinity developed among white evangelicals in the US, according to historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez. A professor at Calvin University who frequently comments on Hegseth, Du Mez traced the emergence of this strain of evangelicalism in her 2020 book Jesus and John Wayne.
Whereas in the 19th century, the ideal of “Christian manhood” would have been focused on virtues such as honor, dignity and gentlemanliness, by the early 21st century, the ideal evangelical man had morphed into something that looks a lot more like Hegseth.
“You could not get a better embodiment of that ideology, that particularly militaristic conception of Christianity and ends-justifies-the-means mentality that baptizes violence and cruelty in the name of righteousness” than Hegseth, said Du Mez.
Cruelty indeed.
In America, everyone is allowed to follow their own faith according to their own conscience, and that freedom is protected by law. No matter how true or untrue, no matter how positive or negative, no matter how merciful and compassionate or not. That is for individuals and churches to determine on their own. America’s Founders intentionally set it up this way.
But American leaders should not be able to prioritize their personal religious beliefs over the interests of the country they serve. Many Americans in the 1960 presidential election worried that, if elected president, John F. Kennedy’s allegiance would be to Rome and his Catholic faith more than to the United States. Kennedy answered that by assuring his countrymen, “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic.”
The secretary of defense takes orders from the commander-in-chief. But if any part of Hegseth’s particular Christian faith is now a significant factor in the direction and execution of U.S. foreign policy, we’ve got a problem. Hegseth’s seeming admission or even possible defense of potential war crimes is concerning, particularly if his own faith brand is a stamp of approval for such crimes in his mind.
On Palm Sunday in late March, almost exactly a month after the school bombing, Pope Leo cited Isiah 1:15 and said, “Jesus does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, he rejects them, saying: Even though you make many prayers I will not listen, your hands are full of blood.”
“Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” the pope said. “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”
This was a clear message and warning by the Holy See to those who use Jesus Christ’s name to justify war. Still, Pope Leo is not the president of the United States. Nor is the American capital Rome, and it never should be.
Neither Hegseth’s church nor any other should command American foreign policy.
“How many Iranian school girls have to die?” protesters asked the secretary Wednesday, without getting an answer.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t an answer.
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