Christian nationalism has been on full display, culminating with the murder of Charlie Kirk last year. Religious freedom groups are now receiving complaints that the Christian Nationalist ruling class has told soldiers that the war with Iran is “all part of God’s divine plan.”
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Psyop Continues: Christian Nationalism on the Rise
Freedom of religion and freedom from religion are both important if we expect to have a free society. People cannot and should not be expected to live under religious seclusion, especially if they aren’t harming anyone else.
However, U.S. military commanders have been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical “end times” to justify involvement in the Iran war to troops, according to complaints made to a watchdog group.
According to a report by The Guardian, over 200 troops from all branches of the military have logged complaints about the religious rhetoric being used to justify a war.
One complainant, identified as a noncommissioned officer (NCO) in a unit that could be deployed “at any moment to join” operations against Iran, told The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) in a complaint viewed by the Guardian that their commander had “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ”.
“He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth’”, the NCO added.
Psyop Continues: Christian Nationalism on the Rise
Independent journalist Johnathan Larsen first reported on this issue after the MRFF gave him access to the complaints.
“Anytime Israel or the US is involved in the Middle East, we get this stuff about Christian nationalists who’ve taken over our government, and certainly our US military,” Mikey Weinstein, MRFF’s president, who is an air force veteran, told the Guardian. “Military members are not really able to stand up for themselves, because your military superior is not your shift manager at Starbucks,” he added.
These reports show a disturbing rise in religious extremism within the highest ranks of the U.S. ruling class and war mongers. Fortunately, information and scientific reasoning are becoming more commonplace in the U.S.
Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary (secretary of war), is well-known for his embrace of Christian nationalism. He previously endorsed the doctrine of “sphere sovereignty”, a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR). The philosophy calls for capital punishment for homosexuality and strictly patriarchal families and churches. It is also inherently misogynistic and carries with it punishment for believing the “wrong” parts of Christianity.
Religion in many high-income countries, including the U.S., is undergoing a rapid decline as people have access to information at their fingertips and can research not only the history of their religion but also understand that it’s no longer necessary to explain things that Bronze Age goat herders could not. Long-term trends show a consistent move toward secularization.