An investigative panel in 2005 said some academy officials used their positions to promote *their* understanding of #Christianity & didn’t accommodate the religious needs of non-Christians.

President George W. Bush & Donald Rumsfeld, in the years after 9/11, spoke often about de-emphasizing any #religious differences between #US #troops & their enemies.

#law #Trump #Hegseth #Republicans #Constitution #FreedomOfReligion #Evangelism #military #war #NationalSecurity #geopolitics #USpol

Experts say in the 1990s, 20 years after the draft ended, the #military shifted to pull disproportionately from #conservative-leaning areas of the country. Then the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001, pushed ideas of #religious #war into the fore. The Air Force Academy in the 1990s & early 2000s faced investigations & #litigation over allegations that #religious #intolerance & #proselytizing were rampant.

#law #Trump #Hegseth #Constitution #FreedomOfReligion #Evangelism #NationalSecurity #USpol

“I don’t approve of cramming your #religious faith down people’s throats, & when the top of the chain couches these operations in this hyper- #Christian tone, it flies in the face of the #FreedomOfReligion that the #Constitution enshrines & that our men & women in uniform sign up to defend.”

#law #Trump #Hegseth #Republicans #Constitution #Evangelism #NewApostolicReformation #NAR #military #war #NationalSecurity #geopolitics #USpol

And in recent weeks, the #war with
#Muslim-majority #Iran has only made Hegseth’s approach more stark.
On Wednesday at the #Pentagon, #Hegseth prayed for #US #troops to inflict “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy…We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty & powerful name of Jesus Christ.” Later that day, his department announced #military #chaplains would no longer wear their rank on their uniform & instead would wear #religious insignia.

#Trump #law

#US #military leaders have long understood the power & perils of invoking faith — especially in #wartime.
Facing the Germans in WWII, Gen. George Patton ordered a chaplain to write an #interfaith prayer for #troops to say on the battlefield.
It took just a week in September 2001 for #Defense Sec #DonaldRumsfeld to change the name of the campaign against terrorism from Operation Infinite Justice to Operation Enduring Freedom — a switch meant to clarify that the US was not in a #religious #war.