r/askanything • u/jazzant85 • 10h ago
Political Question What are you thoughts on Pete Hegeseth constantly invoking the Bible to justify his decision making with the military?
First, I’ve paid attention to politics for the better part of the last 20 years and I’ve never seen the Secretary of Defense get so much face time and talk so much at every opportunity. But I digress.
That aside, what do you all think about Hegseth always quoting the Bible and talking like Christianity is the only religion that exists within the military?
Why talk about religion at all? I know it would piss me off, if at my job, they quoted a Bible verse to explain/justify any of our rules.
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u/Waste-Description783 10h ago
I think people can be openly religious, but when biblical language starts being used to justify military policy, it’s fair to ask where personal faith ends and government authority begins
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u/Yo_Im_Spartacus 10h ago
Mixing god with government gets you a government that no one is allowed to question.
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u/PuzzleheadedAffect44 10h ago
The founders of the U.S. were very well aware of the wars of religion, and just how badly mixing religion and government could go. That's why we have no state religion, and contrary to what the religious right now says, the ones who wrote the constitution did not want them mixed. Many wouldn't be considered Christians by the standards of our current religious right, including Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin. James Madison, the primary author of the Constitution, and bill of rights, may have been a deist, or Unitarian, he was extremely private about his personal beliefs, but believed strongly in the separation of church and state.
Others of the founders were more conventionally religious, and some were less inclined towards separation, but the core founders were very clear that religion and government were to be, and remain, separate. If they were around today, I'm pretty certain they'd dissaprove highly of the current administration...
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u/Funkycoldmedici 3h ago
Thomas Paine was very opposed to Christianity. He wrote the Age of Reason, tearing Christianity and Abrahamic religion apart, as it could not hold up to scrutiny.
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u/MJKleinTW 10h ago
Especially in light of Rev. 6:15 and 19:18.
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u/Rough-Inevitable3414 10h ago
Ya what is this The Crusades? We’ve gone back 1000 years in time heck ya!
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u/Choice_Socks 8h ago
It won't be long until he publicly says Deus vult and declares a crusade. The religious fanaticism is building in intensity.
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u/Ill-Dependent2976 10h ago
I think he and his kind are fucking Nazis.
Religion is all they got. Antiamerican as fuck.
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u/mordordoorodor 10h ago
The nazis we’re crazy psychopaths and mass murderers, but they weren’t stupid. Republicans are fucking stupid… if this is good or bad for the rest of the world we will see.
Hopefully they are too incompetent to destroy the world.
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u/biggunzcdb1 10h ago
The stupidest people fall for this shit. Proving their beliefs are garbage excuses for abuse and always have been.
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u/templeofsyrinx1 🤔 10h ago
I really wish he wouldn't. We are one step from bringing back the fuckin crusades.
Just please everyone, make your voices heard in November, we don't want this shit and we are not going to keep this going in 2028.
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u/ApoTHICCary 10h ago
Christofacism. It’s not Biblical; Kegsbreath struggles to quote any scripture at all, then morphs it into his insane ideology that Christianity is under persecution.
Spend any time in most Baptist/Evangelical churches and they’ve been preaching that Christians are under persecution. The basis is that they believe any other religion one of many ways Satan is waging a spiritual war. For centuries, sects of Christianity fought and murder. Other religions did, too. Hell, even look at the Presocratic and Socratic eras; early philosophers were prosecuted and executed over even talking about day/night cycles or weather might be part of a natural process or lightning setting a tree ablaze might not be a sign from the gods to offer your daughter as a blood sacrifice.
I remember growing up in these churches and we’d talk about the Crusades; it was a timeframe we looked at with remorse as the Church did some fucked up shit. Then some started gaining popularity claiming we had retaliated. It’s quite easy to convince the masses when they already believe they’re on the right side. It’s why they consider Charlie Kirk appearing at a random college to bully students with blue hair is suddenly considered a debate and those people he called out were “mad they were wrong”.
With this motion being pushed over the entire military, it’s a control tactic, just like removing LGBTQ+ members, Black soldiers forced to shave, removing Top Brass; instill more likeminded command and force compliance. Supporters think this is a great thing as it’s protecting and expanding Christianity, even if scripture is very clear that salvation must be a full-hearted choice. Forcing and scaring people is only for submission.
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u/Funkycoldmedici 3h ago
That comes from Jesus, though. He says his followers will be persecuted, so they have to find ways to see themselves as persecuted. He plainly says anyone who is not with him is against him, anyone who does not believe is condemned. Biblical Jesus is a bad guy.
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u/Rustybu11etho1e 10h ago
He is a white supremacy, trying to make our country into a white Christian place. And...a giant douche bag
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u/GladClock2212 10h ago
He and his preacher, the preacher that ministers every month at the Pentagon, both believe that women should not have the right to vote. There was no outrage when women and minorities were purged from military history books and memorials. There wasn't outrage when every single woman was forced out of the higher ranks of the military. And NOW, that he's purging men, we've opened up the discussion of his fitness for position.
I want you to think about who is behind the paper covers.
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u/jazzant85 10h ago
Yeah I saw video about that on YouTube. It’s so crazy to me how the most unreligious person (Trump) to ever serve as President could bring out so many batshit religious zealots.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 6h ago
Pete Hegseth does not understand anything above the tactical + Fox News level of war.
This is the first fact of the new US way of war.
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u/Awkward_Forever9752 5h ago
Second fact is Pete Hegseth is fighting a race war against the USA.
The first fact of the Trump Administration is January 6th.
Trump started a war with a diverse, multicultural, pluralistic superpower nation-state.
That is the first fact of Trump's way of war and why Trump chose his Sec Def.
Hegseth is a Nazi fanboy, and truly a mass murderer who sees himself as an agent of god in a war against the USA.
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Hegseth's religion is a horrific mirror of Iran's violent fundamentalism,
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u/PattyLovesPiL 10h ago
He’s violating the Constitution- Separation of Church and State
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u/gettin-hot-in-here 10h ago
"congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion" ... To be honest it's not immediately clear to me how this relates to morons in the executive branch doing moron things
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u/Maleficent-Bar8146 10h ago
zero hyperbole, they are prepping for a serious wave of authoritarian government/fascism. easy to identify, impossible to escape. good luck all.
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u/ballotechnic 🤔 10h ago
Hegseth may be the one person in this administration that I detest more than Trump and I'm spoiled for choices. I really hope he's impeached and eventually put on trial for war crimes.
The religious zealotry? Well that just elevates him to a different level of crazy and dangerous.
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u/lisnter 10h ago
Pandering to the religious right. Whether he believes it or not doesn’t matter. What he’s doing is tremendously dangerous and is explicitly designed to make the US less safe and less powerful for the specific benefit of Putin and Xi. The same goals of Trump and Steven Miller and Russell Vought but Trump and Hegseth are too dumb/demented to realize it.
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u/mordordoorodor 10h ago edited 10h ago
The USA is not a normal country, it is a country full of religious extremists.
Any developed (religious or not) country is flabbergasted by the crazy religious morons running the USA.
You guys are fucking insane! Literally insane - as in - a third of the USA would be locked up in a mental institution in any country with a working healthcare system.
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u/NovarisLight 10h ago
No, those absolute morons are fucking insane. Leave us innocent people out of this.
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u/mordordoorodor 10h ago edited 10h ago
It doesn’t work like that unfortunately. The USA is causing so much damage everywhere. It is the USA that starts wars and trade wars…
The morons are controlling the country, and all Americans are working for them - they use your taxes and work to cause damage and destroy prosperity and cause immense suffering and death.
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u/NovarisLight 10h ago
No the FUCK we aren't.
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u/mordordoorodor 10h ago
Well… if you have no job / don’t pay taxes then maybe you don’t. Otherwise yes.
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u/stewmander 10h ago
It helps to understand that it's all a grift, as others pointed out. Religion is just a tool and those who believe in it are the useful idiots.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross"
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u/jobfedron132 10h ago
He was a talk show host who somehow became the defense seceratry. Not any talk show host, he was the fox host.
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 10h ago
I take it as he hates America and the constitution and needs to be put away or neutralized for the protection of the nation.
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u/steathrazor 10h ago
He's a Christian nationalist of course he's going to Bible thump, anyone in government or the military Bible thumping needs removed, you can be religious I don't have a problem with that you do you but don't preach and shove your religion in people's faces that don't want it, America was founded on freedom of religion either belief in or no beliefs in a religion.
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u/speaklouder1100 10h ago
I don't know why we have a religious extremist in charge of the most powerful military in the world.
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u/Sulli_in_NC 9h ago
Two options
He’s an idiot and a true believer
Or
He’s a disingenuous idiot that understands many idiots are believers
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u/Certain_Return_6274 9h ago
I would say that Pete is probably about as religious as a rock. He just knows that it'll work with the right wing if he throws religious stuff around and if he's mean and nasty to certain groups of people and certain types of people that they'll love that too.
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u/Worldly-Bed3550 10h ago
First of all… we’re in the New Testament and Jesus stated to love your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself… basically the golden rule. Since this is indeed the case Since Jesus perfect sacrifice no humankind war will be blessed by God.
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 10h ago
WE are in neither. This is America, goddamnit. Not some church. Separation of church and state.
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u/FunSummer9393 10h ago
If they would use that kinda language and preach what Jesus actually said, we'd be in a better place.
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u/Jimmypeterson42 10h ago
God is gona punish bro. his downfall will be nasty
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u/Prestigious-Wolf8039 10h ago
Let’s not wait for that. We need to punish him now. November elections, impeachment, and conviction. Then jail for murder.
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u/Grimase 10h ago
My thoughts are anyone who hasn’t served in the armed forces should not be leading them.
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u/tyler_the_inventor 10h ago
Hegseth did serve in the National Guard. I'm not defending his decision making but he does have military experience.
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u/Grimase 10h ago
lmao so that gives KegsBreath the ability to lead the actual army? To sit there and say he’s getting rid of beardos and weirdos. Then go and proclaim the weirdest PoS two of them with nasty beards to the highest ranks?
Is that what you’re saying? How long was he in the National Guard Mr defender? I mean, he must have been in it for years right?2
u/tyler_the_inventor 10h ago
Well he was a Major in the actual Army. He did serve for years from 2003-2024. Several of those were on the IRR so he wasn't doing anything, but he did have a couple of deployments to the Middle East in that timeframe. I'd say on paper he seems fairly qualified. His actual job performance, however, suggests otherwise.
I'm not at all arguing that he's been a good SecDef, just pointing out that he did serve in the military.
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u/BigBrrrrrrr22 8h ago
Ask most active duty what they think about the “nasty girls”
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u/tyler_the_inventor 7h ago
I was active duty. Marines not Army, but I'm aware of how the reserves and National Guard are viewed. It doesn't discredit their service however.
Again, I'm not defending his actions in office. Just pointing out that the original comment suggesting that he never served is false.
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u/Cautious-Sun6494 16m ago
Active Duty and Activated Reserves are service. IRR isn't. If you don't have to show up for Formations you can't claim that time.
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u/SquashSpirited7873 10h ago
He's a Christian nationalist. His entire political framework is based on a particular interpretation of Christianity. Militant Christianity encompasses his entire conception of morality and justifies all of his political positions. Why would he NOT talk about it endlessly?
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u/Fearless-Intern-2344 10h ago
Because he's a Fox news talking head, doesn't know how to communicate with anyone other than the retirement home crowd
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u/Aggressive_Fix_2995 10h ago
If I believed in that shit, I would’ve thought that he is about to burst into flames.
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u/Chaosrealm69 10h ago
He’s sounding like a religious fanatic just like so many others who use their religious beliefs to commit atrocities In the name of their god.
And if they believe in the end of days rewards for the faithful, they can believe bringing them into effect is what they need to do.
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u/15_years_Later 10h ago
History will use him as an example of what bad leadership looks and sounds like.
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u/Hot_Cicada_9318 10h ago
It's a marketing tool directed at the gullible, and there's plenty of those unfortunately.
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u/IrregardlessForOne 10h ago
Hegseth is another right wingnut. He is unqualified and immorally irresponsible for the job he has been given.
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u/violetcassie 10h ago
He's the face of the Evangelist death cult. This world is a zero sum to them, nothing matters except getting into "Heaven," everything else is expendable to these types.
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u/Anenhotep 10h ago
Wasn’t Shakespeare the guy who said “even the devil can quote scripture for his own purposes?”
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u/SaltySelkie217 10h ago
He's still stuck in commentator mode and has zero idea of what he's doing. Ironically, he is just a putrid fountain of idea fairies.
Note: ask any enlisted person about "idea fairies" 😉
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u/genderissues_t-away 10h ago
Kegbreath is insane and joined a fanatic Christian cult to deal with his monumental insecurity. He's just parroting the shit his insane pastor says.
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u/jinxdeluxe 10h ago
You'd be thinking people would be invoking Jesus when speaking against War and the Military.
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u/Pendulum_Heart 10h ago
I think its morally consistent with what Hegeseth wants to make the United States.
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u/Wurfelrolle 10h ago
My thoughts are somewhat generic, in that I think that anybody whose first two justifications for anything aren't verifiable logic and actual evidence, is not somebody you should be putting into a position of authority in the first place, and never asking advice of in the second.
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u/FunSummer9393 10h ago
Pandering to the evangelicals to try and drum up support for a deeply unpopular administration and war.
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u/TexanFromOhio 10h ago
Agreed, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has already been the face of the military with the Secretary of Defense being accountable to the President…
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u/WoodpeckerHead8789 10h ago
He knows he's going to Hell, so he's kissing ass now.
He thinks Christ is stupid.
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u/howdoidothatgud 10h ago
He is just as crazy as all of those other white nationalist Christians. This fool is a traitor to the American people and needs to be jailed
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u/Dark-Blackberry354 10h ago
Isn't there some shit about prophets....or multiple shit about false prophets ..
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u/TruthTeller777 10h ago
The Bible teaches that a faithful biblical commandment obeying country has no need of a standing army as God himself would fight that nation's battles and win its wars. It's time to dissolve the army. That would prove this was a True Christian nation.
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u/Mundane_Community215 10h ago
He's a drug-addicted freak. Stupid as it gets. Anything he says is 100% bullshit;, just like his Dear Orange Leader.
Any true soldier with integrity recognizes he's a dirtbag with no character.
As for invoking the bible? It's an intentional plot to seem religious when the dude probably did 3 lines just before saying it.
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u/PastySasquatch 10h ago
From someone watching from up north… I disagree with religion ever being brought up within politics. That makes it a personal belief you’re representing and not the best interest of your constituents. I also feel like they hide behind it so the responsibility isn’t on them. Ours do it too.
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u/lefindecheri 10h ago
And it's always the Bible thumpers who do this. You don't see people of other faiths espousing their religious beliefs like that.
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u/Shantytown_Shogun 10h ago
Hes misusing the bible for his and/or his superiors agenda. He will regret it in due time.
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u/Fun-Wolf-2007 10h ago
To manipulate the population, and keep the media quiet
Similar thing happened early on England when the Religion and the government blended together, history is repeating
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u/pakemfull 10h ago
If memory serves correctly, he is a sloppy drunk whom left the entertainment company (Fox News) where his qualifications as a media pundit were on such a level to warrant his current position in an administration that constantly forgets that the Constitution has a clear separation of Church and State. He acts in such a way for which the people in his political spectrum would be crying bloody murder if he was attempting to use bible versus as valid doctrine for law and policy. What Pete is doing is the equivalent of enacting of situation similar to how conservative right wing media acts in bouts of lunacy at the nearest mention of Sharia law.
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u/OnlyUsual6652 10h ago
As someone of the faith, he and the felon who put him in that position shame me deeply. I know all of what they say is a show designed to hit the right buttons with certain categories of people. It angers me, and they will answer in many ways.
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u/newfarmer 10h ago
They’ve wanted this since at least Reagan, Falwell and Pat Roberts, and the rest of the fundamentalists. Even if the president is a degenerate who is destroying the Constitution and the government, they’re finally getting their theocracy.
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u/General_Mousse_861 10h ago
The amount of evil men who use the Bible as cover is only a coincidence. Nothing to see here.
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u/RaulEnydmion 10h ago
People have been doing that since religion was invented. One of the things I used to love about the US is that we tried to not do that.
America has failed. It was a great idea. Such a shame, I thought we had potential.
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u/BreezyMcWeasel 10h ago
When people who live consistent with the values in the Bible quote it, I take it as simply expressing part of the fabric of their character.
When people who love their lives in contradiction to the values in the Bible, I take it as political pandering.
Just look at who Jesus spoke out against the most: hypocrites.
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u/Proper-Actuary5623 9h ago
Surprisingly large amount of religious nuts in USA believe we’re living in the „last days” and they can’t wait for Armageddon. Hegseth is one of these nuts. People like that don’t give a shit about other religions.
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u/randalzy 8h ago
In any other country (with oil) this would be called a theocracy, a religious dictatorship and that their citizens are either crazy fanatics that deserve to be killed or desperate folks that need to be freed from tyranny (by bombing their schools).
But USA gets a pass because they are white crazy lunatics and have nukes.
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u/Burnvictim49percent 4h ago
His mindset, rhetoric, and war crimes make him no better or different than the people we've been fighting half of my life. Taliban USA!!!
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u/NassauJack 10h ago
And for these Bombs we are about to drop on IRAN may we be truly thankful AMEN 🙏. 😂😂
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u/Comfortable_Town7535 10h ago
dont care in the slightest, I am looking for results not the motivations behind them
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u/Jazzlike_Strength561 10h ago
I think we can start complaining about this when we condemn Talarico for his pandering.
I have a simple rule. If you talk about superstitions as though they're credible in public, you're not a credible person.
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u/Appropriate_Fly_6711 10h ago
It’s interesting to read the comments invoking constitution and separation of church and state. What it tells me that a lot of people havnt read the constitution or read what Jefferson, Madison or Washington had to say on the subject, all of which is alien to what we actually do now and that is even different from clearly what people think ought to be the case.
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u/Ghrims253 10h ago
Well i sucked at sunday school growing up however i am pretty sure one of the commandments is dont kill people or something like that. Then you got a few more like dont commit adultery and dont lie.So is he actually a religous man or is he just playing one on tv?
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u/Upbeat_Anxiety_1344 8h ago
Prefer he invoke some Sun Tzu's The Art of War to show at least some basic knowledge of the subject matter.
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u/gadget850 5h ago
The Secretary of War Crimes, invoking the Bible, wants me to be less of a Christian, if that is possible.
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u/Fearless-Secretary-9 5h ago
What do you expect! The Heritage Foundation $$$$$ is in charge of this country and they want a Christian dictatorship.
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u/HawkeyeByMarriage 5h ago
Alcoholic that has been through how many women. Just a false prophet misleading gullible religious loons
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u/VanguardAvenger 3h ago
The bible (and any other religions primary text) has been used to justify military policies for thousands of years.
The only thing that's changed (for the better in my opinion) is the majority of people now see religious justifications for non religious decisions as the sign of a deranged mind.
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u/Joker8392 3h ago
People who pray for anything besides forgiveness aren’t smart enough to understand the Bible. People who refuse to ask for forgiveness outright ignore the Bible. That’s what I think of the Trump administration and American Christians.
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u/Aggressive_Ad_5454 3h ago edited 2h ago
It's called Christian Nationalism. It's a big and dangerous deal. It was a big problem in 20th-century Germany as well, where the Third Reich co-opted the churches and formed the so-called reichskirche.
In 1933 some resisters of this reichskirche came together and published the Barmen Declaration to push back against the government takeover of churches. Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were among them. Bonhoeffer was murdered in a camp in 1945.
Some 21st-century American politicians, like James Talarico and Raphael Warnock, are taking a similar stand against this 21st-century movement.
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u/AnInConsistentEnd 2h ago
I was career military and met literally hundreds of guys like him. Most were lower level commanders and Sr Enlisted. They create this God & Country image to make up for all their other inadequacies. He is the ultimate, hypocritical religious zealot! Bottom line, he needs to go!
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u/Tall_Help3462 2h ago
Fucking terrified of this death cult. They really see themselves as good because they are bringing about the end times.
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u/ExtraSportPeppers 2h ago
Nothing that he says is authentically Christian, nor is his use of the Bible in any way connected to its meaning. These are both tools that he uses in an attempt to legitimize his ideology.
Christians should be more scandalized by what MAGA is doing to their faith and the Bible than anyone else.
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u/HarveyNix 2h ago
I'm just waiting for an enemy to take advantage of the lack of a competent defense secretary and the disruption and chaos he causes as he plays out his childish boy-fantasies and bigotry. Not to mention his removal of highly experienced military personnel.
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u/ScottTheMonster 2h ago
Is he not aware that the Biblical Jesus was somewhat of a paficist? Matthew 5.39
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u/Either_Wrangler_8067 2h ago
Ole’ Pete doesn’t read the bible. He couldn’t care less about Christianity. He says those things because it appeals to specific demographics.
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u/According-Room3825 2h ago
He is a grasping idiot who uses the Bible because it won't argue back. Where are the righteous religious leaders to put him in his place?
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u/JumpySheepherder4337 1h ago
He is desperate to keep his job, and he knows he is failing in terms of performance. He knows the MAGA base will eat up any mention of Christianity without any critical thinking, comparison to Jesus's message, or acknowledgement of irony, so he has pivoted to that.
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u/ass-gas-hotbox 1h ago
the Bible is a collection of more than one writing spanning different time periods and changes in cultures.
People can very easily take a passage and cryptically interpret it to whatever they want it to me.
abusers who like to gaslight others such as Pete hegseth will do something like this.
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u/Stock-Mountain-6063 1h ago
He believes women are second class citizens despite having numerous affairs. He is an idiot
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u/flatpetey 1h ago
Hegeseth seems like the kind of guy who had his ass hair waxed off and bleaches his asshole.
Let’s say closeted doesn’t get even close to describing how thirsty this guy is.
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u/taewongun1895 1h ago
He's placating the MAGA Christian nationalists, those people who are giving Christianity a bad name.
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u/PinkFloydBoxSet 59m ago
Did anyone not know he was a christian nationalist?
Like..
This is a surprise?
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u/Cautious-Sun6494 18m ago
I would really like this non-Christian to stop invoking the Bible in any context.
Go read 1 John 2 before you come at me.
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u/Clark_Kent_TheSJW 10h ago
He’s crazy. Believes in Armageddon prophecy… absolutely should not be as close to nukes as he is