Overview
- New reports say Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is casting the U.S. campaign against Iran as a holy struggle with divine backing.
- He described the rescue of a downed American airman as a literal “resurrection” and called the recovered pilot “reborn.”
- In a Pentagon prayer, he used violent lines from the Psalms, asking God to “break the teeth of the ungodly” and sweep enemies away like chaff.
- Pope Leo XIV rejected using Christianity to justify the war, and Cardinal Robert McElroy said the conflict does not meet just war standards.
- Religion News Service highlights a surge of public religious signaling, citing Easter messages from federal agencies and RFK Jr. posing with a rosary.