Hegseth hosts first meeting of what he says will be a monthly Christian prayer service at Pentagon

By Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky, CNN

(CNN) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hosted a Christian prayer service on Wednesday at the Pentagon for employees that included a sermon by his hometown pastor who said President Donald Trump had been “sovereignly appointed.”

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 the secretary to host a religious event during the workday for a particular religion.

“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 in opening remarks at 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.”

Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of Hegseth’s Tennessee church Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, delivered the sermon after Hegseth introduced him as his longtime “mentor.” A defense official said that no government funds were used to facilitate Potteiger’s visit to the department.

In a prayer opening the service in the Pentagon auditorium, Potteiger thanked God for Trump and other leaders who have been “sovereignly appointed,” and “the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our lands.”

In a statement, acting Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said, “The Office of the Secretary of Defense invited DoD personnel to attend a voluntary Christian prayer and worship service this morning. 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.”

While 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.

The front page of the brochure featured the seal of the Department of Defense, which retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rachel VanLandingham – a national security law expert and law professor at Southwestern Law School – said 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 US government endorsing a religion.

A former Pentagon lawyer who left the department in April called the service “incredibly problematic.” They added that the “core of the Establishment Clause is the state not endorsing a particular religion, but having a broadcast event is obviously an endorsement even if they don’t officially say, ‘this is a Pentagon event.’”

The event and Hegseth’s sponsorship of it is a “clear violation” of the Establishment Clause, VanLandingham added.

“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 while the event was billed as voluntary, the involvement and endorsement of the secretary of defense could put pressure on service members and civilian employees to attend. Pentagon policy says that a government act is a substantial burden to a service member’s exercise 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,” VanLandingham added.

Potteiger peppered his sermon with Pentagon-specific references.

“Our Lord, Jesus said in Matthew 10, not a sparrow will fall to the ground apart from my heavenly Father. If our Lord is sovereign, even over the sparrows’ fallings, you can be assured that he is sovereign over everything else that falls in this world, including Tomahawk and Minuteman missiles, including strategy meetings and war room debriefings. Jesus has the final say over all of it.”

Toward the end of his sermon, Potteiger said “we pray for the secretary’s Christian prayer service as an event … Lord, may this become a place where Christians come together to do just this, and we see you move in power, not just through the Pentagon, but through our nation’s capital and down throughout this great nation.”

Hegseth and Potteiger’s church is highly conservative, part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, whose governing documents state that “it is neither lawful nor honorable for women to be mustered for combat service,” and that “it is the duty of men—not women—to protect their homelands and nations.” Hegseth has also said previously that he does not believe women should serve in combat roles.

Asked about those comments during his confirmation hearing, Hegseth said he “respects ever single female servicemember” and was only concerned about standards being lowered for women.

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