周三，战争部长皮特·海格塞斯宣布在五角大楼内部成立一个新机构：宗教事务办公室。海格塞斯向在弗吉尼亚州匡蒂科集结的部队承诺，该办公室将“直接向最高层汇报。没有工作人员的筛选，没有官僚主义的稀释，直通部长办公室。”随军牧师将“终于在最高层拥有一个代言人”。不仅如此，“政策和资源将服务于使命，而不是窒息使命。”
On Wednesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the creation of a new entity within the Pentagon: the Office of Religious Affairs. The office, Hegseth promised the assembled troops in Quantico, Virginia, would “report straight to the top. No staff filters, no bureaucratic dilution, a direct line to the secretary.”Chaplains would “finally have an advocate at the highest levels.”What’s more, “policy and resources will serve the mission, not smother the mission.”
海格塞斯在战争部任职的一个标志性特点，是他那充满力量的基督教虔诚。今年早些时候，他带头倡导了一项将祈祷仪式引入五角大楼的计划。在伊朗战争爆发后不久的3月份，在这样的一次活动中，海格塞斯为“对那些不配享有怜悯的人施以压倒性的暴力行动”而祈祷。海格塞斯自身的信仰与此息息相关：他是一个名为“改革宗福音派教会共融”（CREC）的保守派宗派的成员，该宗派明确主张基督徒将其信仰的影响力施加于政府。
A hallmark of Hegseth’s tenure at the Department of War has been his muscular Christian religiosity. Earlier this year, he spearheaded an initiative to bring prayer services to the Pentagon. Shortly after the start of the Iran War, during one such event in March, Hegseth prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”Hegseth’s own faith is relevant here: He is a member of a conservative denomination called the Communion of Reformed Evangelicals Churches (CREC) that explicitly advocates for Christians to exert their faith’s influence over the government.
正如我在2月份关于五角大楼祈祷仪式的报道中所述，当时的特邀发言人是道格·威尔逊，他是总部位于爱达荷州莫斯科市、且创立了CREC的牧师。威尔逊一直公开支持基督教民族主义，他所描述的愿景是“由一个通过正式、公开、公民对耶稣基督的主权以及使徒信条的基本真理的承认而结合在一起的国家网络”，并且他曾将他在爱达荷州的势力范围——包括一座教堂、一所学校、一所学院和一个出版社——比作基督教民族主义“工作原型”。
As I reported At a February Pentagon prayer service, the featured speaker was Doug Wilson, the Moscow, Idaho, pastor who founded CREC. Wilson, who has described his vision of “a network of nations bound together by a formal, public, civic acknowledgement of the lordship of Jesus Christ and the fundamental truth of the Apostles’ Creed,” has long argued in favor of Christian nationalism, and he has likened his fiefdom in Idaho—which includes a church, school, college, and publishing house—to a “working prototype” of what Christian nationalism could look like.
新的宗教事务办公室并非明确以基督教为导向；昨天发布的一份备忘录明确指出：“本备忘录中的任何内容均不得被解释为强迫宗教参与，或削弱任何军人、文职雇员或任何信仰或无信仰家庭成员的宗教自由行使权利。”然而今年早些时候，五角大楼发布了一份新的31个宗教名单，这些宗教获得美国战争部正式认可，是从此前已获接受的200个宗教中挑选出来的。在新名单上，31个团体中有22个是基督教团体。无神论者、异教徒和人文主义者原本都在原名单上，如今却消失了。
The new Office of Religious Affairs isn’t explicitly Christian; a memo published yesterday specifies that “Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to compel religious participation or to diminish the free exercise rights of any Service member, civilian employee, or family member of any faith or no faith.”Yet earlier this year, the Pentagon released a new list of 31 religions officially recognized by the US Department of War, drawn from the 200 that had previously been accepted. On the new list, 22 of the 31 groups were Christian. Atheists, pagans, and humanists, all on the original list, had vanished.
关于宗教事务办公室究竟会做什么，细节尚未公布，但昨天的备忘录提供了一些线索。除了将随军牧师直接置于这个新办公室的控制之下，并监督那些决定谁可以成为随军牧师的团体外，该办公室还将“资助并监督研究、技术和分析工具，以支持和评估精神健康、精神准备和精神韧性”。它没有定义这些术语，但赫格塞思的过往记录很能说明问题。
Details about what exactly the Office of Religious Affairs will do have not yet been released, but yesterday’s memo offers a few clues. In addition to moving chaplains directly under the control of the new office and overseeing the groups that decide who can become a chaplain, the office also will “sponsor and oversee research, technology, and analytical tools to support and assess spiritual fitness, spiritual readiness, and spiritual resilience.”It doesn’t define those terms, but Hegseth’s track record speaks volumes. As I
正如我几个月前写道：在2024年出版的书中，赫格塞思写道，《日内瓦公约》不公平，因为美国和欧洲是唯一遵守它们的一方。相反，他宣称，“美国应该按自己的规则作战。”美国士兵应该“尽可能具有压倒性的致命性”。赫格塞思还哀叹，一支国防力量被进步主义这种“他妈的可怕”的疾病所感染，而这种疾病“不把跨性别-女同性恋黑人女性推上一切岗位就不会罢休！”
a few months back: In his 2024 book, , Hegseth writes that the Geneva Conventions are unfair because the United States and Europe are the only ones that follow them. Instead, “America should fight by its own rules,” he declares. The nation’s soldiers should be “the most overwhelmingly lethal as they can be.”Hegseth also bemoans a defense force infected, he writes, with the “fucking scary” disease of progressivism, which “will not stop until trans-lesbian Black females run everything!”
他警告说：“不久之后，一场真正的冲突就会爆发，血气方刚的美国男人将不得不去拯救他们那些精英娇贵的屁股。”7月，赫格塞思发起了一项倡议，筛查军队中的低睾酮问题，并向被查出睾酮不足者提供激素替代疗法。
He warns, “Sometime soon, a real conflict will break out, and red-blooded American men will have to save their elite candy asses.”In July, Hegseth an initiative to screen troops for low testosterone and offer hormone replacement therapy to those found deficient.
赫格塞斯长期以来也一直被他所认为的世俗文化与基督教文化之间的“精神之战”所困扰：在赫格塞斯成为战争部长前不久播出的一期播客节目中（由道格·威尔逊的Canon Press制作），他痛斥无神的美国，哀叹自由派“利用爱国主义将我们与永恒真理、与《圣经》割裂开来”。他还赞扬古典基督教学校提供了“一种全面的世界观，让他们为即将到来的战斗做好准备，因为我们身处一场精神之战，否则我们就是把孩子送去当炮灰。”
Hegseth has also long been preoccupied by what he sees as a “spiritual battle” between secular and Christian culture: On an episode of the podcast [produced by Doug Wilson’s Canon Press] that aired shortly before Hegseth became Secretary of War, he railed against Godless America, lamenting that liberals “used patriotism to untether us from timeless truth, from the Bible.”He also praised classical Christian schools for providing “a comprehensive worldview that prepares them for the battle to come, because we’re in a spiritual battle, and otherwise we’d be sending our kids in as fodder.”
战争部关于新办公室的备忘录中列出的资助优先事项包括“为军人家庭提供基于信仰的家庭教育支持”、基于信仰的自杀预防倡议，以及“从基于信仰的非联邦实体采购服务”。正如我所写的，赫格塞斯自己的书也呼应了这些主题：赫格塞斯2022年合著的大部头著作，本质上是对这一隐喻的书本式延伸。“用Nerf枪去冲锋‘制高点’——左派的教育死星——是不够的，”他写道。
Among the funding priorities listed in the Department of War memo about the new office are “faith-based homeschool support for military families,” faith-based suicide-reduction initiatives, and “contracted services from faith-based non-Federal entities.”As I wrote, Hegseth’s own book echoes those themes: Hegseth’s 2022 co-authored tome, , is essentially a book-length extension of that metaphor. “Charging the ‘commanding heights’—the leftists’ educational Death Star—with Nerf guns will not suffice,” he writes.
“我们不要殉道者，我们要胜利者。”古典基督教教育是我们唯一的希望，能够“给我们的孩子和孙辈至少一个拯救美国和基督教世界的战斗机会”，赫格塞斯总结道。他呼吁父母们“加入叛乱！”他相信，以这种方式接受教育的孩子或许有机会保卫他们的国家——因为觉醒派已经惨败。
“We don’t want martyrs, we want victors.”Classical Christian education is our only hope to “give our kids and grandkids at least a fighting chance to save America and Christendom,” Hegseth concludes. He exhorts parents to “join the insurgency!”Children educated in this way, he believes, might stand a chance at defending their nation—because the wokes have failed miserably.
尤其值得注意的是，威尔逊的Canon Press发布了颇受欢迎的在家教育课程。该网站称：“教育就是战争。”“Canon课程旨在帮助你逐门学科地培养出忠诚而具有危险性的基督教孩子。”
Notably, Wilson’s Canon Press publishes popular homeschool curricula“Education is warfare,” the website says. “Canon curriculum is designed to help you raise faithful, dangerous Christian kids, one subject at a time.”
这份新备忘录承诺，该办公室将在90天内提交一份“全面基线报告，涵盖所有未获资金及资金不足的宗教事务需求”。与此同时，赫格塞思雄心勃勃。他 在演讲中表示：“我们正在把精神健康提升到与身体健康同等重要的地位。”“可以说，我们部门正在披戴上帝的全副武装。”
The new memo promises that within 90 days, the office will deliver “a comprehensive baseline report of all unfunded and underfunded religious affairs requirements.”In the meantime, Hegseth has lofty ambitions. “We’re placing spiritual health at the same level as physical health,” he said in his speech. “Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God.”