War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Wednesday a new Office of Religious Affairs during a speech to troops at Marine Corps Base Quantico, providing a channel for chaplains to directly communicate with top officials at the Department of War.
Hegseth spoke about the new religious office as part of a broader reform project at the Pentagon, which includes a greater focus on integrating autonomous warfare and technology into the military.
“Starting today, and for secretaries of war after me, the Office of Religious Affairs will report straight to the top,” Hegseth told the troops arrayed before him. “No staff filters, no bureaucratic dilution, a direct line to the secretary. This is not going to be a paper-pushing shop.”
The war secretary justified the greater attention to the Chaplain Corps by pointing to service members’ widespread religiosity.
“Less than 5% of our force identifies as nonreligious,” Hegseth said. “Ninety-five percent of our force recognizes an Almighty God. Accordingly, our department therefore has a sacred duty: first-class religious support wherever we send our warriors.”
Hegseth had previously said that 82% of troops identified as religious, when he slashed the number of recognized faith codes in March 2026 from over 200 codes to 31 recognized faiths.
“It is part of our efforts to return the Chaplain Corps to its core mission of serving the spiritual needs of our warfighters, 82% of whom identify as religious,” the war secretary then said. “The previous system had ballooned to well over 200 faith codes. It was impractical and unusable, and many codes were never used at all. An overwhelming majority of the military population used only six of the codes.”
When the recognized list of faiths was released to the public, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was not marked as “Christian.” After criticism from Sens. John Curtis (R-UT) and Mike Lee (R-UT), the Pentagon walked back the reclassification and included the faith under the “Christian” umbrella.
Hegseth also ousted Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s chief of chaplains, in April 2026, on the same day he removed the Army chief of staff, Gen. Randy George. Green had begun his time in the position in 2023, with his expected term to last four years, until 2027.
References to the Bible were scattered among the war secretary’s comments as he announced the new office on Wednesday.
HEGSETH TO ANNOUNCE FURTHER REDUCTION IN SENIOR LEADERSHIP POSITIONS
“As Psalms 33:12 extols us, ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,’” Hegseth said. “Two hundred fifty years ago, we rejected an earthly king, an ocean away, appealing instead to a heavenly king above.”
“Each of us committed to the nation with the sentiment of the sixth chapter of the book of Isaiah,” the war secretary said. “Lord, here I am. Send me. Send me to fight the redcoats. Send me to fight the communists. Send me to fight the Islamists. Send me.”
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
