Report: Pentagon Eyes Defending “Armageddon” Briefings
Religious-freedom group claims a Pentagon source reports some are defending the briefings as personal speech
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The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) claims that a Pentagon source says military officials are preparing a public defense for military commanders telling troops that the Iran war is a holy war, fulfilling evangelical Protestant prophecy.
The Pentagon has remained mum on the issue since I asked on Monday about complaints from the troops, and since other media outlets began inquiring after my report appeared. One non-commissioned officer said in a complaint that their commander briefed the unit that Jesus had anointed Pres. Donald Trump to ignite Armageddon in Iran, leading the way for Jesus to return.
MRFF President and Founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan administration, told me today that a high-ranking Pentagon official says some brass there are concerned about the issue, but have remained silent publicly while assessing whether the complaints are true and how to respond.
The complaints are true, the MRFF claims the source said. “They are getting feedback that it happened,” Weinstein said. “Commanders have admitted they did this.”
But they say they have a good excuse.
The defense they’ve offered, according to Weinstein, is that “These are my sincerely held religious beliefs.” That phrasing evokes some legal protections in U.S. law, but military guidelines are stricter.
That’s especially true when religious beliefs are propagated by military commanders to their troops, especially in an official capacity.
Weinstein said his Pentagon source says the commanders have explained “I was simply sharing them [their beliefs]” but not instructing their units to embrace any one theology, or take action based on those beliefs.
The military, however, is different from civilian life. Suggestions from commanders carry considerably more weight than a boss’s.
And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly platformed his Protestant beliefs, even announcing last year that the Pentagon would weaken rules against religious incursions into military life.
In a letter released this morning, leaders of the Congressional Freethought Caucus called for an investigation of the allegations I revealed Monday, as well as the erosion of church-state safeguards within the military.
The letter was led by Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), ranking member on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), a practicing Catholic, joined 26 other members of Congress in signing the letter. It calls on the Pentagon inspector general, a Trump appointee with little relevant experience, to investigate whether briefings and other communications about the religious dimensions of the U.S. war on Iran violated Defense Department policies.
The 30 signatories also asked whether servicemembers who voiced concerns publicly or privately about the religious language experienced retaliation or were made to fear it.
In the past, the Pentagon has been generally responsive to my inquiries — more under Trump, in fact, than in past administrations. Last summer, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell commented on, and appeared to confirm, my reporting that Hegseth was sponsoring a right-wing White House Bible study.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to my request this morning for comment about the claims of Weinstein’s source.
This time, Weinstein said, “They’re trying to figure out how to couch it,” referring to what his Pentagon source told him. It was suggested that the Pentagon is circling around a response of admitting the communications and defending them.
The Pentagon’s press shop already seems to be leaning in that direction.
USA Today, for instance, said in a new video today that its inquiries about my initial “Armageddon” reporting yielded only a DOD referral to a December 16, 2025, Hegseth video.
In it, Hegseth talked about “putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as mental and physical health.” He called that a “first step toward creating a supportive environment for our warriors and their souls.”
Even the concept of the soul is a religious construct inconsistent with basic physics, and scientists have found no evidence that souls exist. There is, however, evidence that elevating one view of spirituality does not support soldiers and others in the military; it’s detrimental to morale and unit cohesion.
The Hegseth video’s larger context may complicate any Pentagon defense of holy-war briefings as mere expression of individual personal belief. Hegseth sat in front of a Christmas tree to announce that he was weakening ecumenical guidelines for military chaplains.
According to the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), one quarter of the military isn’t religious. But Hegseth has used his office to indulge his own personal religious predilections. And he’s sought to remake the Pentagon as friendly territory for others to do the same.
Last year, Hegseth initiated monthly prayer sessions which are only as optional as anything started by the Defense secretary can be. His featured speakers have shared his personal beliefs rather than ecumenical or even diverse religious positions.
Last month, Hegseth spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, which honored El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele. As Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister and author, pointed out, Hegseth used the occasion to push his personal and false mix of religion and history:
“America was founded as a Christian nation. It remains a Christian nation in our DNA, if we can keep it. And as public officials, we have a sacred duty 250 years on to glorify him,” Hegseth said as he pointed upward. “That’s precisely why we instituted a monthly prayer service at the Pentagon, an act of what we see it as, spiritual readiness.”
“We talk a lot about ‘peace through strength,’” he added. “But we also need to remember that we derive our strength through faith and through truth and through the word of God.”
In his video, Hegseth claimed that “chaplains are intended to be the spiritual and moral backbone of our nation’s forces.
But the FFRF pushed back, quoting FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line:
“Chaplains exist to ensure the free exercise rights of all service members, not to serve as instruments of religious conformity … Any attempt to transform the chaplaincy into a mechanism for privileging particular religious doctrines or encouraging service members to believe in a particular religion would violate service members’ constitutional rights and undermine the very purpose of the corps.”
In a statement Huffman gave me on Tuesday, he said of the “Armageddon” briefings:
“This is a moment for every journalist, every lawmaker, and every American to break the taboo of calling out and confronting the dangerous threat of Christian nationalism before this madness causes unthinkable damage to our country and the world.”
The Congressional Freethought Caucus, Huffman pointed out, is larger than the House Freedom Caucus. And yet, secular causes and issues receive a fraction of the media attention that far-right ones do.
Even though the number of non-religious people in the U.S. is growing.
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You were the first one to break this story. I'm grateful.
Great job on getting this news out, Jonathan! Your work is SO important and appreciated!