The Freedom From Religion Foundation is renewing its urgent call to the Department of Defense and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to halt sectarian religious services in official Pentagon spaces, following troubling details about the inaugural event.
Despite advance warnings from FFRF about the clear constitutional violations such an event would pose, Hegseth and the Pentagon invited all staff to attend a Pentagon-sponsored Christian worship service on government property during official working hours. The event, reportedly attended by hundreds of Department of Defense employees and broadcast across military channels, was organized by Hegseth and featured his personal pastor, Brooks Potteiger — a minister known for promoting Christian nationalism and political partisanship — who delivered a sermon declaring President Trump a “divinely appointed” leader.
Potteiger opened the service by thanking God for Trump and other officials who were “sovereignly appointed,” praising Trump for bringing “stability and moral clarity to our lands.” The service included sectarian preaching, worship songs, bible readings, and the Lord’s Prayer — all conducted from the Pentagon’s main auditorium, a symbolically significant site of U.S. government power.
Hegseth himself offered a prayer to “King Jesus,” stating: “We come as sinners saved only by that grace, seeking your providence in our lives and in our nation. Lord God, we ask for the wisdom to see what is right and in each and every day, in each and every circumstance, the courage to do what is right in obedience to your will. It is in the name of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray. And all God’s people say amen.”
Potteiger closed the service by calling on God to spread the influence of the prayer meeting beyond the Pentagon: “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.”
Says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor: “This was a desecration of the secular principles embodied in the Constitution Hegseth is tasked with upholding. The Founders threw the king out, and deliberately gave sovereignty not to a monarch or a divinity but to ‘We the People.’ Hegseth’s comments are an embarrassment and a disgrace to his office.”
Hegseth has described the prayer event as the first of a planned monthly series — raising serious alarm that the Pentagon is now hosting an institutionalized Christian worship program sanctioned by top federal officials.
“This is an egregious abuse of government power,” says FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott. “If the Pentagon, a command center of global military operations, can be converted into a venue for Christian worship and political messaging, then the wall between church and state is not just being breached, it’s under siege.”
In response, FFRF has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking all planning materials, internal communications, legal reviews, and records concerning the use of Pentagon resources for the event. The request also seeks clarity on whether personnel were pressured or incentivized to attend, whether attendance was recorded, and how the event was promoted internally.
“This is a wake-up call,” adds Gaylor. “Theocrats are embedding Christian nationalism into the highest levels of government — and if we don’t push back now, the damage to our democracy could be lasting.”
FFRF is demanding that the Department of Defense immediately cancel any future “Secretary’s Prayer Meetings” and recommit to its constitutional obligation to religious neutrality. The Pentagon must represent all Americans — not function as a megachurch for one religion or political agenda.
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 more than 42,000 members, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
