Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled Friday that he would challenge a nonprofit’s attempt to halt religious greetings by military personnel at the front gates of a New Mexico Air Force base.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for the separation of church and state within the military, said in a press release Thursday that it received 34 complaints — 24 of which were sent by practicing Christians — regarding guards saying “Have a blessed day” or “God bless you” to people arriving at the base’s gates.
Hegseth called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation a “radical anti-Christian, pro-atheist group that attacks any/all faith” inside the Defense Department in a Friday X post.
“We will never cave to them. The Air Force will confront this,” Hegseth wrote.
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The foundation said the greetings ran afoul of the Air Force’s “Balance of Free Exercise of Religion and Establishment Clause.” The branch’s rulebook states that leaders at all levels must ensure “their words and actions” do not discriminate against any individual because of “their faith, belief, or absence of belief, or extend preferential treatment for the same.”
“It is exhausting, infuriating, and frankly alienating to be reminded every morning that some people on this base feel entitled to inject their religion into official interactions,” read one complaint sent to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. “I shouldn’t have to brace myself at the gate wondering what religious phrase I’m going to be hit with today.”
The religious greetings stopped once the foundation’s founder and president, Mikey Weinstein, contacted the base’s leadership, according to the press release.
The Kirtland Air Force Base did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it will continue to permit religious greetings at its gates.
Secularism in the military has been dramatically upended under Hegseth, who has sought to enjoin the department and the conservative evangelical movement. Hegseth has hosted monthly evangelical worship services at the Pentagon, attacked the press using biblical references and framed military operations in religious contexts.
Weinstein told NOTUS in an interview that his organization was ready to legally challenge Hegseth in court over the greetings. He also denied that the foundation was anti-Christian, saying that Christians make up 95% of the organization’s more than 100,000 members, which include veterans, active-duty service members and civilian personnel.
Weinstein said Hegseth’s claims to “never cave” are a “blatant example of fundamentalist Christian nationalism” that is “completely immoral. It is unconstitutional. It is hateful. It is prejudiced, and it is bigoted.”
“If the gate guards wearing the uniform of the U.S. Air Force happen to say, ‘Allah bless you this day,’ there would be blood in the streets,” Weinstein said, “which is why in America we don’t judge the value or honorable service of someone in the military by whether or not they adhere to a particular radicalized version of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We don’t show any favoritism whatsoever.”
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