Military outraged and 'scrambling' to deal with Trump's new religion rules

Members of the military attend a meeting convened by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Quantico, Virginia, September 30, 2025. REUTERS Kevin Lamarque

President Donald Trump's Pentagon has pushed new religious rules on its forces to supposedly promote "spiritual readiness," but according to MS NOW, the move is being met with "outrage and pushback" and is leaving troops "scrambling" to comply under a new deadline.

The report, published Wednesday morning, outlined the internal fallout within the U.S. military from changes recently implemented by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Sources who spoke to MS NOW accused the secretary of trying to more overtly push Christianity onto members of the armed forces, "drastically" curtailing religious choice in the process.

"Pete Hegseth’s crusade to infuse the U.S. military with Christianity is provoking outrage and pushback," the report explained. "The secretary of defense says he is creating a new Pentagon office to 'elevate spiritual readiness' throughout the armed forces. But not everyone feels included at a time when religious choice in the military is dwindling under Hegseth’s personal brand of Christian nationalism. Personnel are scrambling on deadline to fulfill a requirement to choose their religion from a new, drastically reduced menu of options."

The new office created under Hegseth was dubbed the "Office of Religious Affairs." Around the same time as its introduction, the Pentagon also slashed the number of officially recognized religious affiliations by 85 percent, with a May memo obtained by MS NOW showing the DOD "dropping 180 faiths from the military’s recognized religions list, reducing the number from 211 to 31." Only nine of the remaining faith options are not Christian in some way, and troops only have till Friday to make their selection via a new form.

"Our commitment to the spiritual readiness and religious freedom of every Airman and Guardian remains steadfast,” Richard Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs, said in a Sept. 25 statement to members of th Air Force and Space Force, further claiming that the new designation list would ensure that the chaplain corps would have the “accurate demographic data they need to provide tailored resources and support to our Service members, while continuing to respect their individual convictions.”

"But at least six current and former members of the military, including chaplains, who were interviewed by MS NOW do not buy this explanation," MS NOW noted.

"The push is to a Christian identity,” one anonymous former military chaplain, who now helps vet future chaplains and describes themselves as a devout Christian, told the outlet. “This nation was not founded as a Christian nation, [but Hegseth] wants to see society go toward a national Christian identity.”

"I think that’s a flagrant violation of law and policy,” a civilian who has worked at the Pentagon for a decade added while talking to MS NOW. “It creates the ‘if you’re not with me, you’re against me’ kind of thing... Christian nationalism is in, and everybody else is out, and it is palpable in that building."

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