It’s good to see that CNN isn’t taking long to freak out over the prayer service Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had his pastor host, finding “a national security law expert” to call it a “clear violation” of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
The headline itself was actually quite neutral, at least by CNN standards: “Hegseth hosts first meeting of what he says will be a monthly Christian prayer service at Pentagon.”
Go on X, and you’d find Haley Britzky — who shared a byline on the story with Natasha Bertrand — advertising it thusly:
Pete Hegseth hosted a “Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service” at the Pentagon today with his pastor from Tennessee, in what lawyers told us was a “clear violation” of the 1st Amendment’s prohibition on the US gov endorsing a religionhttps://t.co/GUniA9NjWa
— Haley Britzky (@halbritz) May 21, 2025
Yes, apparently, it’s time for CNN to go Chicken Little about a prayer service, even though the reporters admitted that “[w]hile the Pentagon offers routine religious accommodations and services to personnel of different faiths, none of them are broadcast live internally, held in the auditorium or hosted by the secretary.
“And none of them are advertised like the service held on Wednesday morning — the Pentagon sent an email to DOD employees reviewed by CNN encouraging employees to attend in-person, and to RSVP to a dedicated internal email address for the prayer services. A brochure entitled ‘Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service’ with details of the service was also handed out to employees as they entered the room.”
A brochure! With a secretary of Defense who has made it clear he’s a Christian! I don’t see why this isn’t before some judge in the D.C. Circuit Court with a universal injunction against it already.
“The service, which Hegseth told the audience would be a monthly event, was held in the Pentagon auditorium and broadcast live on the department’s internal TV network. Current and former defense officials told CNN it was highly unusual for the secretary to host a religious event during the workday for a particular religion,” CNN noted.
Are CNN reporters skeptical of Christianity or do they downright hate it?
And then there were the remarks given by Hegseth and his pastor, Brooks Potteiger of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Tennessee.
“This is precisely where I need to be, exactly where we need to be as a nation at this moment, in prayer, on bended knee, recognizing the providence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” Hegseth said at the start of the service.
“This is something we plan to do on a monthly basis, on a voluntary basis, here in the auditorium. I hope you’ll let those you work with know about it.”
During the opening prayer, Potteiger thanked God for the president and other leaders He has “sovereignly appointed” and “the way that You have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our lands.”
Thanking God for sovereignly appointing leaders and for “stability and moral clarity”? I dunno, sounds pretty good to us.
It didn’t sound good to retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham — that national security law expert they found, currently teaching at Southwestern Law School. She said that the seal of the Department of Defense on the front of the brochure — that darned brochure again! — “was indicative of Hegseth and the government’s sponsorship of the event, and could be a violation of the the First Amendment’s prohibition on the U.S. government endorsing a religion.”
“I think it’s sponsorship in the true sense of the word, outside of funding — he’s advocating for this, he is putting his weight of the official Office of the Secretary of Defense behind a particular religious event and inviting someone to the Pentagon to conduct it,” she said. “That’s wrong.”
And she added that while the event was voluntary, Hegseth’s involvement might violate the Pentagon policy, which states it creates a substantial burden on a service member’s freedom of religion if it “places substantial pressure on a service member to engage in conduct contrary to a sincerely held religious belief.”
“Of course, folks in a rigidly hierarchical organization like the military think, ‘Oh, it’s optional, but when it’s being sponsored by the [secretary of Defense], yeah, I better go’… It’s deeply problematic,” she said.
Right. As someone on X pointed out in response, during World War II, then-President Franklin Roosevelt and the U.S. government issued Bibles to troops with the commander-in-chief’s signature endorsing it, and nobody has really thought twice about this:
In World War 2 the U.S. Government issued Christian Bibles to the troops, endorsed by the President, you historically-illiterate “journalist” https://t.co/q5cmo1u29l pic.twitter.com/T3FDJCXlBw
— Michael Cassidy ✝️ 🇺🇸 (@MichaelCassidy) May 22, 2025
Nor, in fact, do Hegseth’s staff think much of the CNN hyperventilating, either.
“The Office of the Secretary of Defense invited DoD personnel to attend a voluntary Christian prayer and worship service this morning,” acting Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said via a statement.
“Many different faiths have regular services in the Pentagon Chapel or elsewhere in the Pentagon. This service was an opportunity for Believers to appeal to Heaven on behalf of our great nation and its warfighters. Beseeching the Almighty has been an American tradition since George Washington prayed for our cause at Valley Forge.
“The United States was then, and remains now, One Nation under God. At this time, OSD envisions that these prayer and worship services will be a monthly occurrence. Any participating civilian clergy are responsible for their own travel and accommodations expenditures.”
That may not be a prayer, but still: Amen. Keep at it, Secretary Hegseth.
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