Has a confirmation hearing ever before featured an avowal like this: “As Jenny and I pray together each morning, all glory — regardless of the outcome — belongs to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His grace and mercy abound each day. May His will be done.”
Pete Hegseth was not auditioning for a job as pastor, but to head the Pentagon, overseeing a military whose members take an oath of office to uphold not Christianity but the United States’ secular and godless Constitution.
Yet, the Senate Armed Services yesterday was treated to such volunteered displays of piety by Hegseth, who was silent over allegations against him of rape and workplace drinking.
Coverage of the four-hour hearing in the New York Times described Hegseth as portraying his life as a redemption story. While repeatedly refusing to say whether a sexual assault accusation or excessive drinking or marital infidelity should disqualify someone from leading the Pentagon, Hegseth said, “I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real. I have failed in things in my life, and thankfully I’m redeemed by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The Fox News anchor, who served in the military, has been accused of being a lightweight unqualified to oversee almost 3 million employees and a roughly $850 billion budget. The Freedom From Religion Foundation previously declared him “unfit to lead the Pentagon,” noting his associations with extremist Christian nationalists and written statements (and tattoos) calling for “an American crusade.”
That was even before reports surfaced that Hegseth was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a California hotel room in 2017. She told police she believed Hegseth drugged her drink. She remembered Hegseth arched over her with his dog tags “hovering over her face.” After he ejaculated on her stomach, she said he told her to “clean it up.” Hegseth denied the assault but paid her a settlement.
The allegation is alarming, given the history of cover-up and whistleblowing over military sexual assaults. About 8,500 reports of military sexual assaults were made in the most recent fiscal year, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Bipartisan legislation and President Biden’s 2023 executive order only recently took away from commanders’ prosecutorial power for sexual assaults.
Hegseth deployed prayer as a defense after the sexual assault allegations first surfaced, getting what The Daily Beast describes as his “mistress-turned wife” to participate in a Republican prayer call. His third wife, Jennifer Rauchet, became pregnant with Hegseth’s child in 2017, while he was still married to his second wife and the same year as the sexual assault allegation. So much for Christian family values.
His comments about women are also quite concerning. He wrote in his latest book that “woke” generals have left the military “effeminate” and that “the next commander in chief will need to clean house.” He said in November, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective.” At yesterday’s hearing, he said that women have a place in the military, just not in special operations, artillery, infantry and armor units.
The New Yorker has reported that Hegseth frequently became highly intoxicated at a workplace.
“If Pete Hegseth were still in uniform,” Associated Press pointed out, “his extramarital affairs and a decision to flatly ignore a combat commander’s directive would not just be drawing the attention of senators — they could have run afoul of military law.” Members of the military can be court-martialed for such actions.
But hey — why worry, since Hegseth has been redeemed by his Lord and Savior? As philosopher/theologian Martin Buber once observed: “Evil people tend to gravitate toward piety for the disguise and concealment it can offer them.”
It has to be emphasized here that one-fifth of active duty personnel have no religious affiliation.
“There are indeed many atheists in foxholes,” notes FFRF Co-President Dan Barker. “We would be highly concerned about the rights of nonbelievers in the military under the direction of a morally compromised fanatic like Hegseth.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 40,000 members, working to promote the constitutional principle of separation of state and church and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
