Pete Hegseth Launches Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs to Strengthen Troops’ ‘Spiritual Health’
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently announced the creation of an Office of Religious Affairs, which would raise “spiritual health at the same level as physical health.”
During his Sept. 30 “State of the Force” address in Quantico, Virginia, Hegseth said that the office and its director would report directly to him in order that soldiers would receive “religious support” from chaplains rather than “secular careerists” and “lawyers.”
“Our department is, you might say, 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, and America’s military must understand the difference,” Hegseth added.
He also cited from Psalm 33:12, which states “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” in addition to Ephesians 6:10, in which the apostle Paul urges believers to “put on the whole armor of God,” and Isaiah 6, when the prophet says to God, “Here am I; send me!”
According to a memo regarding the new office, it would “obtain sufficient funding and resources for religious affairs,” and “oversee research, technology, and analytical tools to support and assess spiritual fitness, spiritual readiness, and spiritual resilience” of soldiers.
The creation of the office should not be “construed to compel religious participation or to diminish the free exercise rights of any Service member, civilian employee, or family member of any faith or no faith,” the memo added.
The creation of the Office of Religious Affairs has been met with a polarizing response.
Hegeth’s pastor, Doug Wilson, who is one of the founders of the conservative denomination, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, said he told Religion News Service that while he knows “next to nothing about the scope of the new office.” However, Wilson did add that he has hope the new office will be a good thing, especially “considering the source of it.”
Evangelist Franklin Graham, who serves on the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission, thought the new office was “a great idea.”
“Unfortunately, not all administrations have treated military chaplains as necessary — but they are some of the most necessary because they are entrusted with caring for the spiritual well-being of our men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line to protect our nation,” Graham, president of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, told RNS.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State, however, denounced the Secretary of Defense’s new office.
“It’s yet another example of Hegseth abusing the power of his government position to impose his beliefs on others — and worse, it puts the needs of America’s service members second to this administration’s Christian Nationalist agenda,” the organization said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, is also not a fan of the newly announced office. He made his dissatisfaction known, telling USAToday that his organization "condemns in the strongest terms" what he called Hegseth's "immoral, unethical and unconstitutional action.”
Weinstein contended that the effort violated the First Amendment ban on the government "respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
He added that the organization would continue working against what he described as "Christian nationalist bigotry, hatred and prejudice" in the military until "fundamentalist Christian religious extremism is forever eradicated."
Per the memo announcing the establishment of the Office for Religious Affairs, the office will deliver “a comprehensive baseline report of all unfunded and underfunded religious affairs requirements” within 90 days.
Photo Credit: ©Alex Wong/Getty Images
Originally published October 02, 2026.
