Military reporter Jasper Craven exposes how the U.S. military has weaponized religion and hyper-masculinity to manufacture brutal obedience — and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is its poster child. In his explosive new book, God Forgives, Brothers Don’t, Craven reveals a chilling curriculum dating back to America's founding that frames violence as a "hardwired male instinct" while churning out loyalty through abusive programs like junior ROTC. From Valley Forge hazing to today's "end times" Iran war rhetoric, he argues the military isn't fixing "lost boys" — it's systematically breaking them to follow orders without question.
Craven's new book examines how the U.S. military uses religion to foster greater brutality and blind loyalty by using words like "crusade" and Hegseth's frequent Bible quotes.
Craven spoke with The New Republic's Lorraine Cademartori for a Tuesday report discussing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as the "perfect embodiment" of using religion in military training to create a stronger commitment to following orders without question.
The change in rhetoric to describe the Iran war as part of some "end times" conflict to try to convince Americans that the war is somehow necessary.
"The American public and the American military at this point is very wary of conflict.… At this point, the stakes must be ratcheted up to motivate the mission," said Craven. "When it becomes this existential, I think Hegseth and his deputies hope that it will animate the men fighting below them."
Cademartori commented that the book says “since America’s founding, military brass have painstakingly developed and refined a military curriculum that breeds loyalty, teaches obedience and constructs violence, all the while convincing the public that conflict is a hardwired male instinct."
The Founding Fathers had their own problems with this, she noted, citing "reticence toward the idea of even forming a military academy, or establishing a quasi-professional fighting force."
Craven recalled the British monarchy being "at times abusive" in its occupations around the world.
"The rebellion itself was a rejection of such tactics and such power," he said. "At the same time, this paradox forms in which the only way out of occupation is amassing of military power by the colonists. This tension has really marked America profoundly in the centuries since.… The Founding Fathers were generally really focused on ensuring that the soldier was never elevated above the citizen."
In the years since, the military has crafted programs to reach out to young people, which is what Craven said inspired the book to begin with.
In the early 1900s, "people like John Dewey were making the argument that the best way to create peace is to establish, among children, the possibility, and to show them how it can be done, and they will be the great agents in changing this violent mindset of humanity. I think the military understood that, too, and that’s exactly why they fight to control boys at such an early age."
He noted there are currently 5,200 junior ROTC and 18+ ROTC programs in the U.S.
"Seeing the raw, mutant, violent strains of masculinity that were leading to terrible abuse at Valley Forge made me want to write a book that could forcefully push back against this enduring idea that the military is this perfect catchall system for lost boys," said Craven. "Really, it just creates more dysfunction."
"To inculcate loyalty, to motivate violence, you need to use pretty harsh tools, and I’ve lost count of the times military school leaders have, in the face of severe hazing scandals, or cheating scandals, or administrative corruption allegations, pledged to end hazing, to reform these programs, to impose accountability — to fully embody the very pure ideals that these places claim to live up to — but it’s never happened, and I don’t think that’s an accident," Cravel said.
These kinds of conditions are "vital" to getting men to "secure validation," he said. "I think that is what’s most effective at forcing men to engage in really risky, violent, traumatic behavior."
