Hegseth Creates Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs Reporting Directly to Him
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is creating an Office of Religious Affairs (ORA) at the Pentagon that will report directly to him, the Associated Press reports, in the latest of his faith-related reforms. Announcing the move in a speech to chaplains at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, on Wednesday, Hegseth said the office will offer “first-class religious support,” adding: “Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual.”
A Pentagon statement said the new office will advocate for military chaplains and religious support “at the highest level of the Department,” while pledging that it will not “compel religious participation, favor one faith, or diminish the rights of personnel of any faith or lack thereof.” The office's leader has not yet been named. A Pentagon memo says the religious affairs director will coordinate spiritual resources, including faith-based homeschool support for military families and department-wide suicide-reduction efforts. Hegseth has also ordered chaplains to stop wearing rank insignia on their uniforms and be identified by religious insignia instead, and has cut the number of religious affiliations the department officially recognizes from more than 200 to 31.
Criticism arrived quickly. Rachel Laser, head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State — which has sued the Pentagon over its worship services — said the Pentagon “owes it to the nation's service members to defend religious freedom” and that Hegseth's move violates that promise by elevating Christianity's role in shaping U.S. military policy. Other federal agencies have had religious or faith-based offices since the George W. Bush administration, continued in different forms under Obama and Biden, and President Trump has established a White House Faith Office.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: U.S. Department of Defense（公共领域，DVIDS）
