Hegseth’s Christian rhetoric drawing renewed scrutinyBy Tiffany Stanley / AP, WASHINGTONSince becoming the US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth has found no shortage of ways to bring his strand of conservative evangelicalism into the Pentagon. Now the defense secretary’s Christian rhetoric has taken on new meaning after the US and Israel went to war with Iran, an Islamic theocracy. “Prophetically, we’re right on cue,” Christian Zionist pastor John Hagee, head of Christians United for Israel, said of the Iran war. Hegseth has not said the Iran war is part of Christian prophecy. “The intrusion of Christian nationalist policy, not just Christian nationalist rhetoric ... that is what’s troubling,” said Youssef Chouhoud, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University.

Source: Taipei Times March 24, 2026 17:59 UTC