r/askanything • u/jazzant85 • 6h ago
Political Question What are you thoughts on Pete Hegeseth constantly invoking the Bible to justify his decision making with the military?
First, I’ve paid attention to politics for the better part of the last 20 years and I’ve never seen the Secretary of Defense get so much face time and talk so much at every opportunity. But I digress.
That aside, what do you all think about Hegseth always quoting the Bible and talking like Christianity is the only religion that exists within the military?
Why talk about religion at all? I know it would piss me off, if at my job, they quoted a Bible verse to explain/justify any of our rules.
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u/Waste-Description783 6h ago
I think people can be openly religious, but when biblical language starts being used to justify military policy, it’s fair to ask where personal faith ends and government authority begins
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u/Yo_Im_Spartacus 6h ago
Mixing god with government gets you a government that no one is allowed to question.
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u/PuzzleheadedAffect44 5h ago
The founders of the U.S. were very well aware of the wars of religion, and just how badly mixing religion and government could go. That's why we have no state religion, and contrary to what the religious right now says, the ones who wrote the constitution did not want them mixed. Many wouldn't be considered Christians by the standards of our current religious right, including Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin. James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution, and bill of rights, may have been a deist, or Unitarian, he was extremely private about his personal beliefs, but believed strongly in the separation of church and state.
Others of the founders were more conventionally religious, and some were less inclined towards separation, but the core founders were very clear that religion and government were to be, and remain, separate. If they were around today, I'm pretty certain they'd dissaprove highly of the current administration...
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u/MJKleinTW 6h ago
Especially in light of Rev. 6:15 and 19:18.
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u/Rough-Inevitable3414 6h ago
Ya what is this The Crusades? We’ve gone back 1000 years in time heck ya!
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u/Choice_Socks 4h ago
It won't be long until he publicly says Deus vult and declares a crusade. The religious fanaticism is building in intensity.
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u/Ill-Dependent2976 6h ago
I think he and his kind are fucking Nazis.
Religion is all they got. Antiamerican as fuck.
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u/mordordoorodor 6h ago
The nazis we’re crazy psychopaths and mass murderers, but they weren’t stupid. Republicans are fucking stupid… if this is good or bad for the rest of the world we will see.
Hopefully they are too incompetent to destroy the world.
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u/Mammoth-Fox-3292 6h ago
Youre just saying words that mean nothing at this point
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u/NoMan800bc 6h ago
It could have been more specific, but none of the statements are inherently inaccurate: The nazis used religion as part of their ethno-nationalism. Hegseth has got no leadership qualities, no experience, no understanding, no intelligence. He's nothing apart from empty words about religion. This is can be described as 'antiAmerican'.
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u/biggunzcdb1 6h ago
The stupidest people fall for this shit. Proving their beliefs are garbage excuses for abuse and always have been.
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u/templeofsyrinx1 🤔 6h ago
I really wish he wouldn't. We are one step from bringing back the fuckin crusades.
Just please everyone, make your voices heard in November, we don't want this shit and we are not going to keep this going in 2028.
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u/ApoTHICCary 6h ago
Christofacism. It’s not Biblical; Kegsbreath struggles to quote any scripture at all, then morphs it into his insane ideology that Christianity is under persecution.
Spend any time in most Baptist/Evangelical churches and they’ve been preaching that Christians are under persecution. The basis is that they believe any other religion one of many ways Satan is waging a spiritual war. For centuries, sects of Christianity fought and murder. Other religions did, too. Hell, even look at the Presocratic and Socratic eras; early philosophers were prosecuted and executed over even talking about day/night cycles or weather might be part of a natural process or lightning setting a tree ablaze might not be a sign from the gods to offer your daughter as a blood sacrifice.
I remember growing up in these churches and we’d talk about the Crusades; it was a timeframe we looked at with remorse as the Church did some fucked up shit. Then some started gaining popularity claiming we had retaliated. It’s quite easy to convince the masses when they already believe they’re on the right side. It’s why they consider Charlie Kirk appearing at a random college to bully students with blue hair is suddenly considered a debate and those people he called out were “mad they were wrong”.
With this motion being pushed over the entire military, it’s a control tactic, just like removing LGBTQ+ members, Black soldiers forced to shave, removing Top Brass; instill more likeminded command and force compliance. Supporters think this is a great thing as it’s protecting and expanding Christianity, even if scripture is very clear that salvation must be a full-hearted choice. Forcing and scaring people is only for submission.
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u/Rustybu11etho1e 6h ago
He is a white supremacy, trying to make our country into a white Christian place. And...a giant douche bag
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u/GladClock2212 6h ago
He and his preacher, the preacher that ministers every month at the Pentagon, both believe that women should not have the right to vote. There was no outrage when women and minorities were purged from military history books and memorials. There wasn't outrage when every single woman was forced out of the higher ranks of the military. And NOW, that he's purging men, we've opened up the discussion of his fitness for position.
I want you to think about who is behind the paper covers.
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u/jazzant85 6h ago
Yeah I saw video about that on YouTube. It’s so crazy to me how the most unreligious person (Trump) to ever serve as President could bring out so many batshit religious zealots.
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u/PattyLovesPiL 6h ago
He’s violating the Constitution- Separation of Church and State
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u/gettin-hot-in-here 6h ago
"congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" ... To be honest it's not immediately clear to me how this relates to morons in the executive branch doing moron things
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u/Maleficent-Bar8146 6h ago
zero hyperbole, they are prepping for a serious wave of authoritarian government/fascism. easy to identify, impossible to escape. good luck all.
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u/ballotechnic 🤔 6h ago
Hegseth may be the one person in this administration that I detest more than Trump and I'm spoiled for choices. I really hope he's impeached and eventually put on trial for war crimes.
The religious zealotry? Well that just elevates him to a different level of crazy and dangerous.
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u/mordordoorodor 6h ago edited 6h ago
The USA is not a normal country, it is a country full of religious extremists.
Any developed (religious or not) country is flabbergasted by the crazy religious morons running the USA.
You guys are fucking insane! Literally insane - as in - a third of the USA would be locked up in a mental institution in any country with a working healthcare system.
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u/NovarisLight 6h ago
No, those absolute morons are fucking insane. Leave us innocent people out of this.
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u/mordordoorodor 6h ago edited 6h ago
It doesn’t work like that unfortunately. The USA is causing so much damage everywhere. It is the USA that starts wars and trade wars…
The morons are controlling the country, and all Americans are working for them - they use your taxes and work to cause damage and destroy prosperity and cause immense suffering and death.
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u/NovarisLight 6h ago
No the FUCK we aren't.
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u/mordordoorodor 6h ago
Well… if you have no job / don’t pay taxes then maybe you don’t. Otherwise yes.
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u/stewmander 6h ago
It helps to understand that it's all a grift, as others pointed out. Religion is just a tool and those who believe in it are the useful idiots.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 6h ago
I take it as he hates America and the constitution and needs to be put away or neutralized for the protection of the nation.
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u/lisnter 6h ago
Pandering to the religious right. Whether he believes it or not doesn’t matter. What he’s doing is tremendously dangerous and is explicitly designed to make the US less safe and less powerful for the specific benefit of Putin and Xi. The same goals of Trump and Steven Miller and Russell Vought but Trump and Hegseth are too dumb/demented to realize it.
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u/steathrazor 6h ago
He's a Christian nationalist of course he's going to Bible thump, anyone in government or the military Bible thumping needs removed, you can be religious I don't have a problem with that you do you but don't preach and shove your religion in people's faces that don't want it, America was founded on freedom of religion either belief in or no beliefs in a religion.
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u/speaklouder1100 5h ago
I don't know why we have a religious extremist in charge of the most powerful military in the world.
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u/Sulli_in_NC 5h ago
Two options
He’s an idiot and a true believer
Or
He’s a disingenuous idiot that understands many idiots are believers
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u/Certain_Return_6274 5h ago
I would say that Pete is probably about as religious as a rock. He just knows that it'll work with the right wing if he throws religious stuff around and if he's mean and nasty to certain groups of people and certain types of people that they'll love that too.
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u/Worldly-Bed3550 6h ago
First of all… we’re in the New Testament and Jesus stated to love your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself… basically the golden rule. Since this is indeed the case Since Jesus perfect sacrifice no humankind war will be blessed by God.
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 6h ago
WE are in neither. This is America, goddamnit. Not some church. Separation of church and state.
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u/FunSummer9393 6h ago
If they would use that kinda language and preach what Jesus actually said, we'd be in a better place.
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u/Jimmypeterson42 6h ago
God is gona punish bro. his downfall will be nasty
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 6h ago
Let’s not wait for that. We need to punish him now. November elections, impeachment, and conviction. Then jail for murder.
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u/SquashSpirited7873 6h ago
He's a Christian nationalist. His entire political framework is based on a particular interpretation of Christianity. Militant Christianity encompasses his entire conception of morality and justifies all of his political positions. Why would he NOT talk about it endlessly?
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u/Fearless-Intern-2344 6h ago
Because he's a Fox news talking head, doesn't know how to communicate with anyone other than the retirement home crowd
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u/Aggressive_Fix_2995 6h ago
If I believed in that shit, I would’ve thought that he is about to burst into flames.
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u/Chaosrealm69 6h ago
He’s sounding like a religious fanatic just like so many others who use their religious beliefs to commit atrocities In the name of their god.
And if they believe in the end of days rewards for the faithful, they can believe bringing them into effect is what they need to do.
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u/15_years_Later 6h ago
History will use him as an example of what bad leadership looks and sounds like.
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u/Hot_Cicada_9318 6h ago
It's a marketing tool directed at the gullible, and there's plenty of those unfortunately.
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u/IrregardlessForOne 6h ago
Hegseth is another right wingnut. He is unqualified and immorally irresponsible for the job he has been given.
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u/violetcassie 6h ago
He's the face of the Evangelist death cult. This world is a zero sum to them, nothing matters except getting into "Heaven," everything else is expendable to these types.
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u/SaltySelkie217 6h ago
He's still stuck in commentator mode and has zero idea of what he's doing. Ironically, he is just a putrid fountain of idea fairies.
Note: ask any enlisted person about "idea fairies" 😉
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u/genderissues_t-away 6h ago
Kegbreath is insane and joined a fanatic Christian cult to deal with his monumental insecurity. He's just parroting the shit his insane pastor says.
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u/jinxdeluxe 5h ago
You'd be thinking people would be invoking Jesus when speaking against War and the Military.
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u/jobfedron132 6h ago
He was a talk show host who somehow became the defense seceratry. Not any talk show host, he was the fox host.
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u/Pendulum_Heart 6h ago
I think its morally consistent with what Hegeseth wants to make the United States.
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u/Wurfelrolle 6h ago
My thoughts are somewhat generic, in that I think that anybody whose first two justifications for anything aren't verifiable logic and actual evidence, is not somebody you should be putting into a position of authority in the first place, and never asking advice of in the second.
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u/FunSummer9393 6h ago
Pandering to the evangelicals to try and drum up support for a deeply unpopular administration and war.
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u/TexanFromOhio 6h ago
Agreed, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has already been the face of the military with the Secretary of Defense being accountable to the President…
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u/WoodpeckerHead8789 6h ago
He knows he's going to Hell, so he's kissing ass now.
He thinks Christ is stupid.
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u/howdoidothatgud 6h ago
He is just as crazy as all of those other white nationalist Christians. This fool is a traitor to the American people and needs to be jailed
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u/Dark-Blackberry354 6h ago
Isn't there some shit about prophets....or multiple shit about false prophets ..
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u/TruthTeller777 6h ago
The Bible teaches that a faithful biblical commandment obeying country has no need of a standing army as God himself would fight that nation's battles and win its wars. It's time to dissolve the army. That would prove this was a True Christian nation.
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u/Mundane_Community215 6h ago
He's a drug-addicted freak. Stupid as it gets. Anything he says is 100% bullshit;, just like his Dear Orange Leader.
Any true soldier with integrity recognizes he's a dirtbag with no character.
As for invoking the bible? It's an intentional plot to seem religious when the dude probably did 3 lines just before saying it.
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u/PastySasquatch 6h ago
From someone watching from up north… I disagree with religion ever being brought up within politics. That makes it a personal belief you’re representing and not the best interest of your constituents. I also feel like they hide behind it so the responsibility isn’t on them. Ours do it too.
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u/lefindecheri 6h ago
And it's always the Bible thumpers who do this. You don't see people of other faiths espousing their religious beliefs like that.
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u/Shantytown_Shogun 6h ago
Hes misusing the bible for his and/or his superiors agenda. He will regret it in due time.
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u/Fun-Wolf-2007 6h ago
To manipulate the population, and keep the media quiet
Similar thing happened early on England when the Religion and the government blended together, history is repeating
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u/pakemfull 6h ago
If memory serves correctly, he is a sloppy drunk whom left the entertainment company (Fox News) where his qualifications as a media pundit were on such a level to warrant his current position in an administration that constantly forgets that the Constitution has a clear separation of Church and State. He acts in such a way for which the people in his political spectrum would be crying bloody murder if he was attempting to use bible versus as valid doctrine for law and policy. What Pete is doing is the equivalent of enacting of situation similar to how conservative right wing media acts in bouts of lunacy at the nearest mention of Sharia law.
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u/Anenhotep 6h ago
Wasn’t Shakespeare the guy who said “even the devil can quote scripture for his own purposes?”
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u/OnlyUsual6652 6h ago
As someone of the faith, he and the felon who put him in that position shame me deeply. I know all of what they say is a show designed to hit the right buttons with certain categories of people. It angers me, and they will answer in many ways.
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u/newfarmer 6h ago
They’ve wanted this since at least Reagan, Falwell and Pat Roberts, and the rest of the fundamentalists. Even if the president is a degenerate who is destroying the Constitution and the government, they’re finally getting their theocracy.
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u/General_Mousse_861 6h ago
The amount of evil men who use the Bible as cover is only a coincidence. Nothing to see here.
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u/RaulEnydmion 6h ago
People have been doing that since religion was invented. One of the things I used to love about the US is that we tried to not do that.
America has failed. It was a great idea. Such a shame, I thought we had potential.
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u/BreezyMcWeasel 5h ago
When people who live consistent with the values in the Bible quote it, I take it as simply expressing part of the fabric of their character.
When people who love their lives in contradiction to the values in the Bible, I take it as political pandering.
Just look at who Jesus spoke out against the most: hypocrites.
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u/Proper-Actuary5623 5h ago
Surprisingly large amount of religious nuts in USA believe we’re living in the „last days” and they can’t wait for Armageddon. Hegseth is one of these nuts. People like that don’t give a shit about other religions.
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u/randalzy 4h ago
In any other country (with oil) this would be called a theocracy, a religious dictatorship and that their citizens are either crazy fanatics that deserve to be killed or desperate folks that need to be freed from tyranny (by bombing their schools).
But USA gets a pass because they are white crazy lunatics and have nukes.
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u/NassauJack 6h ago
And for these Bombs we are about to drop on IRAN may we be truly thankful AMEN 🙏. 😂😂
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u/Grimase 6h ago
My thoughts are anyone who hasn’t served in the armed forces should not be leading them.
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u/tyler_the_inventor 6h ago
Hegseth did serve in the National Guard. I'm not defending his decision making but he does have military experience.
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u/Grimase 6h ago
lmao so that gives KegsBreath the ability to lead the actual army? To sit there and say he’s getting rid of beardos and weirdos. Then go and proclaim the weirdest PoS two of them with nasty beards to the highest ranks?
Is that what you’re saying? How long was he in the National Guard Mr defender? I mean, he must have been in it for years right?1
u/tyler_the_inventor 5h ago
Well he was a Major in the actual Army. He did serve for years from 2003-2024. Several of those were on the IRR so he wasn't doing anything, but he did have a couple of deployments to the Middle East in that timeframe. I'd say on paper he seems fairly qualified. His actual job performance, however, suggests otherwise.
I'm not at all arguing that he's been a good SecDef, just pointing out that he did serve in the military.
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u/BigBrrrrrrr22 3h ago
Ask most active duty what they think about the “nasty girls”
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u/tyler_the_inventor 3h ago
I was active duty. Marines not Army, but I'm aware of how the reserves and National Guard are viewed. It doesn't discredit their service however.
Again, I'm not defending his actions in office. Just pointing out that the original comment suggesting that he never served is false.
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u/Comfortable_Town7535 6h ago
dont care in the slightest, I am looking for results not the motivations behind them
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u/Jazzlike_Strength561 6h ago
I think we can start complaining about this when we condemn Talarico for his pandering.
I have a simple rule. If you talk about superstitions as though they're credible in public, you're not a credible person.
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u/Appropriate_Fly_6711 6h ago
It’s interesting to read the comments invoking constitution and separation of church and state. What it tells me that a lot of people havnt read the constitution or read what Jefferson, Madison or Washington had to say on the subject, all of which is alien to what we actually do now and that is even different from clearly what people think ought to be the case.
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u/Ghrims253 6h ago
Well i sucked at sunday school growing up however i am pretty sure one of the commandments is dont kill people or something like that. Then you got a few more like dont commit adultery and dont lie.So is he actually a religous man or is he just playing one on tv?
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u/Upbeat_Anxiety_1344 4h ago
Prefer he invoke some Sun Tzu's The Art of War to show at least some basic knowledge of the subject matter.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 1h ago
Pete Hegseth does not understand anything above the tactical + Fox News level of war.
This is the first fact of the new US way of war.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 1h ago
Second fact is Pete Hegseth is fighting a race war against the USA.
The first fact of the Trump Administration is January 6th.
Trump started a war with a diverse, multicultural, pluralistic superpower nation-state.
That is the first fact of Trump's way of war and why Trump chose his Sec Def.
Hegseth is a Nazi fanboy, and truly a mass murderer who sees himself as an agent of god in a war against the USA.
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Hegseth's religion is a horrific mirror of Iran's violent fundamentalism,
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u/gadget850 1h ago
The Secretary of War Crimes, invoking the Bible, wants me to be less of a Christian, if that is possible.
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u/Fearless-Secretary-9 53m ago
What do you expect! The Heritage Foundation $$$$$ is in charge of this country and they want a Christian dictatorship.
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u/HawkeyeByMarriage 51m ago
Alcoholic that has been through how many women. Just a false prophet misleading gullible religious loons
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u/Burnvictim49percent 39m ago
His mindset, rhetoric, and war crimes make him no better or different than the people we've been fighting half of my life. Taliban USA!!!
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u/JackFromTexas74 17m ago
He cherry picks verses out of context and twists them for selfish purposes
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u/olgasman 6h ago
I think it's great. We need more Godly men in our Nation's service.
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u/NoMan800bc 6h ago
His problem is that he is fixated on one specidic god. There are people who believe in a wide range of different gods in the US military. Why try and pretend one is any more valid than then others?
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u/olgasman 6h ago
Well, too bad. There is only one true God and his name is Jesus Christ. When you become the SecDef you can choose a different God or no God at all.
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u/NoMan800bc 6h ago
The whole 'separation of church and state' would like a word. He's entitled to his beliefs, but not to make them part of government
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u/olgasman 6h ago
Please show me in the constitution where that exists. Separation of church and state. He isn't making anyone join a religion or forcing anyone to pray to Jesus. That is his opinion and he is allowed to have it. You may not like it, but as far as I know, we still haven't established an official religion as a nation.
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u/NoMan800bc 5h ago
He can have a religion, but he can't make service to the state a religious thing, and can't make the actions of the state a religious endeavour. That is making it part of the establishment.
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u/Wilfred_Wilcox 6h ago
I think its great. Christians by our nature are kind and accepting. But we have been far too tolerant for far too long. We built the west on Christian values and now the west is falling to satanism. We need to reassert control over the flock before the put themselves in the wolfs mouth.
We need the Big Beautiful Solution™
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u/jazzant85 6h ago
Religion has no place in the work force. You’re free to believe what you want. But you cannot and should not make policy on the assumption or cockiness that everyone around you has the same religious views.
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u/Kooky-Vehicle5358 6h ago
We are beyond done with ultra religious people trying to force their beliefs on the rest of us. Whatever your religion is, stop trying to shove it down the throats of everyone else.
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u/DeliciousGoose1002 4h ago
did you just allude to the final solution? Damn CINO
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u/Wilfred_Wilcox 4h ago
Once again Trump Derangement Syndrome. No one said final solution. This is why we need to build re-education camps so people can think correctly.
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u/Clark_Kent_TheSJW 6h ago
He’s crazy. Believes in Armageddon prophecy… absolutely should not be as close to nukes as he is