I am no one’s idea of a devout Roman Catholic. Still, I was raised in that tradition and respect its values (even if I fall short of them).
Which brings us to “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth. Our national military leader is a follower of radical pastor Doug Wilson, an evangelical Christian nationalist. Wilson wants to impose a uniquely evangelical version of Christianity on these United States.
In advance of Good Friday, Hegseth’s Pentagon sent out the following memo:
“Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel.”
This is the problem with a national religion. It is not that the government should be aggressively atheist, but that the government should be denominationally neutral. For if we are going to impose God on the populace from Washington D.C., the next question becomes “whose version of God?”
This is why, as Anwar Sadat asserted (shortly before he was murdered by Islamic extremists): “no religion in politics, and no politics in religion.”
-ET