It’s never been more important than on this Veterans Day to acknowledge nonreligious and non-Christian veterans — especially given the current Pentagon leadership’s Christian nationalist actions.
FFRF has erected a monument to the proverbial “atheists in foxholes” at its office building in Madison, Wis., thus making such an acknowledgment.
At a time when half of active military members are either atheist or agnostic (18 percent) or have no religious affiliation (32 percent), unpatriotic Pentagon moves to infuse and enforce conservative Christianity are alarmingly increasing. These theocratic diktats include:
- Erasing atheism. The Pentagon has eliminated atheism and numerous minority religious and nonreligious identities from its official religious affiliation classifications.
- Reshaping the military chaplaincy around Christianity. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has called for sweeping changes to the Chaplain Corps, disparaged secular humanism and emphasized a more explicitly religious approach to military spiritual readiness.
- Creating a sweeping new Office of Religious Affairs with authority to assess a service member’s supposed “spiritual fitness.”
- Using official military communications to promote Christianity. Pentagon messaging has increasingly featured biblical verses, Christian imagery and religious declarations, including Hegseth’s references to a “heavenly king,” “putting on the full armor of God” and assertions that “the real battle is spiritual.”
- Institutionalizing sectarian prayer. Hegseth has inaugurated monthly evangelical prayer services at the Pentagon during the workday. At the first service in May 2025, he declared that the nation needed to be “on bended knee, recognizing the providence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
CNN recently reported that Ryan Higgins, Hegseth’s senior adviser on religious matters, has spent years openly rejecting the separation of church and state, promoting conspiracy theories and spreading racist and homophobic rhetoric.
“Our service members swear an oath to defend the Constitution, not Christianity,” says FFRF Co-President Dan Barker.
This Veterans Day holds particular significance for FFRF following the death of World War II veteran Joseph Cunningham, a longtime FFRF member and former member of its board, who died Oct. 30 at age 100. Cunningham stands in the photograph that accompanies this statement beside FFRF’s monument honoring “Atheists in Foxholes” at its national headquarters in Madison, Wis.
FFRF’s unique monument to “atheists in foxholes” is made of the same granite as Mount Rushmore. It serves as a testament to the U.S. military’s diversity in the face of Hegseth’s theocratic propaganda. It resides in FFRF’s Rose Zerwick Memorial Courtyard and Patio outside Freethought Hall, FFRF’s bustling office building in downtown Madison. Veterans, their families and active-duty freethinkers are cordially invited to visit and contemplate FFRF’s “Atheists in Foxholes” monument, which honors freethinking veterans and their service.
The words, penned by FFRF principal founder Anne Nicol Gaylor, read:
In Memory of
Atheists in Foxholes
And the countless freethinkers who have served this country with honor and distinction.
Presented by the Freedom From Religion Foundation with hope that in the future humankind may learn to avoid all war.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With about 40,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights across the globe. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
