REVOLUTION: Divinely appointed, the one pastor said!

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2025

"Revolution in the air:" When it happened, back in May, it got very little play.

The New York Times did a news report, but little discussion followed. The news report involved Pete Hegseth, a former co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend who was now working from a platform almost as  high.

An unusual event had occurred, the Times report said. Was a possible source of revolutionary fervor possibly lurking here?

Pete Hegseth Leads Christian Prayer Service in the Pentagon

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a Christian prayer service in the Pentagon’s auditorium on Wednesday morning, during working hours, in which President Trump was praised as a divinely appointed leader.

The event, billed as the “Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service,” was standing room only and ran for about 30 minutes, with Brooks Potteiger, the pastor of Mr. Hegseth’s church in Tennessee, as the main speaker.

Mr. Hegseth said he intended that the prayer service become a monthly event. 

It is unclear whether the Defense Department has hosted similar religious events outside of the Pentagon’s chapel, which was added after the 9/11 attack, but the service is part of an increasing infusion of overt Christian evangelization in official government events during Mr. Trump’s second term.

For us, the report was surprising, but also not surprising. We were surprised that the report, which never appeared in print editions, produced so little discussion.

What was more surprising here—the fact that this (Christian) prayer service had occurred in the Pentagon at all, or the fact that President Trump had been "praised as a divinely appointed leader?"

Also, who had characterized the president that way? Later in the news report, reporter John Ismay seemed to finger Hegseth's Tennessee pastor:

Mr. Potteiger’s church, the Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Goodlettsville, Tenn., is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches—the governing documents of which say that church leadership roles are reserved for men, that homosexuality is “unbiblical” and that women should not participate in combat. Mr. Hegseth said in a podcast appearance before his nomination to lead the Pentagon that women have no place in military combat units, but appeared to soften that stance during his confirmation hearing in January.

In his sermon, the pastor said, “We pray for our leaders who you have sovereignly appointed—for President Trump, thank you for the way that you have used him to bring stability and moral clarity to our land. And we pray that you would continue to protect him, bless him, give him great wisdom.”

He added: “We pray that you would surround him with faithful counselors who fear your name and love your precepts.”

Apparently, Ismay had Pastor Potteiger in mind. That said, in the quoted statement, Potteiger seemed to say that other leaders had also been "sovereignly appointed," possibly including Hegseth himself.  

The pastor also seemed to say that President Trump had been gifted with moral clarity and great wisdom as part of this sovereign appointment.

The idea that leaders have been divinely appointed has a long history in the western world. For the record, we know of no reason to think that Potteiger isn't a good and decent person—a good and decent person with some very ancient ideas about the best way to organize human society.

We ourselves don't share those ideas. In the course of Ismay's report, it sounded like Hegseth does.

In Chapter 9 of Moby-Dick, Melville recounts Father Mapple's famous sermon about Jonah and the whale. In his New York Times report, Ismay quoted some of Secretary Hegseth's remarks during that day's prayer session:

“This is precisely where I need to be, and I think exactly where we need to be as a nation, at this moment,” Mr. Hegseth, standing at a lectern bearing the seal of the Defense Department, said in his opening remarks: “in prayer, on bended knee recognizing the providence of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.” He added, “Knowing that there’s an author in heaven overseeing all of this, who’s underwritten all of it, for us, on the cross, gives me the strength to proceed.”

The defense secretary said that attendance at the prayer service was voluntary, but encouraged the uniformed military personnel and civilian employees there to tell their co-workers about it.

“King Jesus, we come humbly before you, seeking your face, seeking your grace, in humble obedience to your law and to your word,” Mr. Hegseth prayed after asking attendees to bow their heads. “We come as sinners saved only by that grace, seeking your providence in our lives and in our nation. Lord God, we ask for the wisdom to see what is right and in each and every day, in each and every circumstance, the courage to do what is right in obedience to your will. It is in the name of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray. And all God’s people say amen.”

The assembled worshipers, including at least one general, repeated “Amen.”

There's nothing "wrong" with being a person of religious faith and belief. Billions of people around the globe take part in some such faith and belief.

Also, there's nothing "wrong" with being a person of doctrinal faith and belief. That said:

Within existing American norms, it is unusual to see a public official like Hegseth creating some such doctrinal prayer service as a monthly event.

This unusual event produced little discussion at the time it occurred. Ismay's report came and went. People who read the Times in print never saw his report at all.

We thought the report was very surprising, as was the attendant silence. That said, given how way leads on to way, we ourselves never got around to citing that news report.

Last Thursday, CNN aired a report about Secretary Hegseth's other pastor—his pastor in Idaho. CNN's interview with that pastor has also generated little discussion, although Mediaite posted this report:

Hegseth Promotes His Pastor’s CNN Spot–and His Call for ‘Christian Domination’

President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth openly touted his alignment with self-described Christian nationalist Doug Wilson, sharing a new interview that the pastor did with CNN.

[...]

“My views on a number of things have become steadily more mainstream and have done that without me moving at all,” Wilson told the network.

Those views, he told CNN, include a belief in patriarchal society and in repealing the 19th Amendment, which grants women the right to vote. He believes in criminalizing homosexuality and, ultimately, replacing secular democracy with a government ruled by “Christ the King.”

For the transcript of CNN's  report, you can just click here.

Last Saturday, in our own report, we cited the CNN interview with Wilson, the Idaho pastor. As Mediaite noted, Hegseth himself posted a link to CNN's interview, appending this reaction:

All of Christ for All of Life.

There's nothing automatically "wrong" with being a devoted Christian of some particular type. In his initial book, Stride Toward Freedom, Dr. King wrote, again and again, about his commitment to what he called "the love ethic of Jesus."

That said, certain types of religious belief can create a type of fervor. To our  eye and to our ear, revolution is currently in the air as those of us in Blue America continue to slumber and snore.

Some of the current revolutionary zeal may come from a type of religious belief. Some of  the current revolutionary zeal seems to have different origins.

The Revolution of the Saints, Michael Walzer said—A Study in the Origins of Radical Politics.

Walzer's book was in the air during our undergraduate days. If memory serves, we may have had mutual friends, or then again possibly not.

That was a different revolution.  Even as we Blues slumber and snore, is a new revolution confronting us Blues today?

Tomorrow: Pastor Wilson

For extra credit only: We'll let the poet say it:

I lived with them on Montague Street
In a basement down the stairs
There was music in the cafés at night
And revolution in the air

For the full backdrop, click here.