WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth scrapped the 2025 U.S. Army Spiritual Fitness Guide and announced reforms to the military chaplain corps. He hosts monthly Christian worship services for Department of Defense employees.

The Department of Defense promotional videos have displayed Bible verses alongside military footage. In speeches and interviews, Hegseth often argues the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and that troops should embrace God.

"Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle," he recited from Psalm 144. In a December video message, he said that chaplains' religious focus has been minimized "in an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism."

As head of the armed forces, Hegseth has overseen changes that include banning transgender troops, curtailing diversity initiatives, and reviewing women in combat roles. He wants to reform the military chaplain corps.

"The U.S. military reflects the full diversity of this country — people of every faith step forward to serve. That diversity is a strength worth protecting," said Rabbi Laurence Bazer, a retired U.S. Army colonel and chaplain. Bazer said it risks making service members feel like outsiders when the language of military leadership draws exclusively from one faith tradition.

Doug Wilson identifies as a Christian nationalist and preached at the Pentagon in February at Hegseth's invitation. Wilson is pastor of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which preaches a patriarchal form of Christianity where women cannot serve in leadership and its pastors argue that homosexuality should be criminalized.

Hegseth has tattoos of the Jerusalem Cross and "Deus Vult." The Crusades were medieval wars that pitted Christians against Muslims.

In his 2020 book American Crusade, Hegseth wrote "Thank a crusader." He reposted a video last year in which a CREC pastor opposed women's right to vote. Both Wilson and Hegseth have questioned Muslim immigration to the United States.