During the Cold War, it was common to hear American political figures condemn “Godless communists” in the then-Soviet Union. In fact, the conflict led the United States to go out of its way to create a contrast with our foes: If Russia was going to be atheistic, many American politicians said, it was incumbent on us to become less secular.

As a result, in 1954, Congress officially changed the Pledge of Allegiance to include the phrase “under God.” Three years later, federal lawmakers kept going, adding, “In God We Trust,” to all paper currency.

Seven decades later, the U.S. is at war with a literal theocracy run by radical religious clerics — but instead of moving in the opposite direction, key American officials are using faith-based war messaging that sounds awfully similar to the kind of language Iranians use all the time.

On Monday, the day before the tenuous ceasefire was announced, Donald Trump not only insisted that God supports U.S. actions in Iran, but he said he was in a position to convey God’s wishes to the public. Around the same time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explicitly likened the rescue of a missing American airman shot down over Iran to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The day after the ceasefire was announced, we heard more of the same. MS NOW reported as part of the network’s liveblog coverage:

Hegseth invoked God throughout [his Pentagon press conference], again tying his Christian faith to U.S. military endeavors.

Referring to the war with Iran, Hegseth said, ‘Our troops, our American warriors, deserve the credit for this day, but God deserves all the glory.’

The beleaguered Pentagon chief went on to say U.S. service members have carried out their duties “under the protection of divine providence,” adding that combat operations have enjoyed “miraculous protection.”

It’s a free country, and the defense secretary’s personal religious beliefs are no one’s business but his own. That said, there is a broader political and governmental significance to this.

First, as world history has shown over the course of generations, when leaders assume that they enjoy divine support for their military ambitions, it rarely goes well.

Second, when the rhetoric from Iran’s theocratic officials and Pentagon officials is effectively indistinguishable, it’s a reminder that the Defense Department is probably on the wrong track.

And finally, it’s striking to see the extent to which the Republican administration’s religious posturing has faced unusual pushback from some of the most prominent figures in the global faith community.

Take the pope, for example.

Pope Leo XIV recently chastised those who invoke God as supportive of military might, saying in a homily on Palm Sunday, “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

This week, after Trump issued a genocidal public threat, saying he was prepared to kill “a whole civilization,” the pope seemed to suggest that Americans should contact members of Congress as part of a political pushback campaign.

“I would like to invite everyone to think in their hearts of so many innocent children, so many totally innocent elderly people who would also be victims of this escalation,” the pope said. “I would like to invite everyone to pray, but also to seek ways to communicate — perhaps with congressmen, with authorities, saying that we don’t want war; we want peace.”

Massimo Faggioli, a Trinity College Dublin professor and author of several books on Catholicism, told MS NOW, “It’s not normal at all. This is the pope who is intervening in the democratic process, in the representation process of a modern political system: That is really extremely rare.”

“It’s the equivalent of the nuclear button for the Vatican,” he added. “They don’t do that — ever.”

In other words, Team Trump, which has spent months clashing with the faith community, is adding a new front to the culture war, even as it fights a literal hot war against theocrats in the Middle East. Watch this space.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post ‘God deserves all the glory’: Hegseth sparks controversy with faith-based message appeared first on MS NOW.

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