NOTE: This piece was originally published at our newsletter A Public Witness.
An influential Southern Baptist pastor stood Wednesday (Aug. 19) in the headquarters of the world’s largest military and, with no sense of irony, preached a message of hope for Pentagon leaders by pointing to multiple biblical passages where God miraculously delivered people by defeating a large imperial military. The service also featured a prayer to the “God of angel armies” for strengthening the members of the U.S. military, as well as the preacher declaring that God will “fight their battles.”
Mark Dever, the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., and a spiritual advisor to Pete Hegseth, became only the second preacher to return to the Pentagon to offer another sermon as part of Hegseth’s monthly Christian worship services. Hegseth’s pastor, Brooks Potteiger has preached three times. Dever previously preached during the August 2025 service. Hegseth noted in his introduction that he had attended Dever’s church several times last year (but then switched to a new church launched by Doug Wilson’s Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches). Eight of the 16 Pentagon services have featured a Southern Baptist preacher.
Dever, who also leads a ministry he cofounded (9Marks) to promote what he believes are the biblical marks of a church, spoke during Wednesday’s service as if the U.S. military members are all Christians and can be compared to the Hebrew people in the Old Testament. He started by saying he wanted to help explain “why on earth God lets things get so bad.” To do so, he pointed to two biblical stories where God’s people found themselves on the verge of being destroyed by a large imperial army.
Screengrab as Mark Dever preaches at the Pentagon on Aug. 19, 2026.
Dever first turned to Exodus 14, where Moses led the Hebrew people out of bondage in Egypt. Pharaoh changed his mind about letting them go and therefore sent his army of more than 600 chariots to kill them. Finding themselves stuck between the army and the Red Sea, Dever explained, the situation seemed hopeless. But he quickly added that God led them to that point on purpose before parting the Red Sea for the Hebrew people and then killing everyone in Pharoah’s military.
For his second story, Dever turned to Isaiah 37 where “a huge Assyrian army” had surrounded an “absolutely hopeless” Jerusalem. He then noted how King Hezekiah responded by praying to God for deliverance since his own military could not defeat the “gigantic army.”
“Exactly like the Israelites at the shore of the Red Sea, here you have the Israelites in Jerusalem surrounded and without any earthly hope,” Dever said. “Why would a sovereign and good God let that happen? To show them once again that he alone was a sufficient hope for them, that he would fight their battles.”
“As Christians, we may not be in as dramatic a situation as the people in Jerusalem or the people with the Egyptian army behind them — although sometimes you may be in situations like that,” Dever added. “Why does God, if he’s a good God, let his children get in situations like that? Oh, he has a very specific reason. It’s to show you how much he does love you and exactly what he is able to do as he takes care of all the apparently irrefutable problems. The things that could never be solved, he solves them and he delivers you in a way you wouldn’t have expected.”
As Dever spiritualized and personalized the message to those sitting in the Pentagon, he did so at a time when Hegseth is seeking an unprecedented military budget of $1.5 trillion that surpasses even what the U.S. spent, adjusted for inflation, during World War II. Even if that 44% increase is not approved by Congress, the United States already spends more annually on its military than the next six nations combined. Meanwhile, Hegseth’s Pentagon has killed more than 200 people — including fishermen and perhaps human trafficking victims — in boats off the coasts of South America. And the United States is nearing the six-month mark in its war against Iran, with violence even occurring in the famed Red Sea. Yet, Dever stood in the Pentagon to bless all of that while reading stories of large imperial armies being destroyed by God.
‘God of Angel Armies’
Before Dever preached, a uniformed military member opened the worship service with a prayer full of biblical war imagery. Praising “the God of angel armies, strong and mighty in battle,” the prayer borrowed from multiple psalms. Later, the prayer drew from Ephesians 6: “Make us spiritual warriors who take up the armor that you have provided and stand firm in truth, righteousness, salvation, and faith, with the sword of your spirit always at the ready. Make us strong and courageous, for we stand not in our own strength, but in the strength of your might.”
Hegseth, who likes to call himself “secretary of war,” also spoke and prayed before introducing Dever. He said that they were gathered at the service to not just “pray for our nation” but also to “ask God’s blessing on the endeavors that we undertake” in the Pentagon.
Hegseth read from James 4:4-8 — in his English Standard Version Bible that is stamped on its cover with Crusader symbols that match his controversial tattoos. The passage urges Jesus’s followers to follow God and therefore be enemies of the world. Hegseth tried to apply the passage by urging those in the Pentagon who are “involved in the day-to-day grind of fighting the world’s battles” to also follow God as they do it.
“We ultimately need to remember that there’s a spiritual battle deeper than all of it that we need to be prepared to be engaged in and fortified for. And drawing near to God means he in that process will draw near to you as well,” he added. “I urge and challenge you, just like I challenge myself each day, to dive into the word and seek his wisdom, the truth that comes page after page.”
Screengrab as Pete Hegseth speaks at the Pentagon on Aug. 19, 2026.
“Lord God, give us the wisdom to see what is right through your word and through the truth, and the courage to see it through, no matter what. That it is not the appeal of the world, it’s not the affirmation of the world that matters, but instead that we seek your truth and serve you, understanding that it is the blood of Christ that redeems all of us equally at the foot of the cross,” Hegseth prayed. “We thank you to live in such a country where we can gather once a month and praise your holy name, worship you, and once again recommit our jobs and our responsibility to your purpose.”
After the sermon, Dever led those gathered in saying the Lord’s Prayer and then in singing “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” and the “Doxology.”
Ongoing Litigation
While Hegseth holds monthly worship services in the Pentagon, litigation over the events continues in federal court. But in court filings so far, the Department of Defense has been evasive and insisting they do not know things that they clearly do — including facts reported by A Public Witness.
In March, Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where I serve as vice chair of the national board of trustees) filed Freedom of Information Act suits against the Department of Defense and Department of Labor after the agencies have failed to turn over records sought by AU about the services, including the planning and costs of the services, communications to employees and contractors about the services, transcripts or recordings of services, and any complaints from employees in response to the services. Although the monthly services at Labor stopped after the ouster of Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer in May, the litigation continues over the organizing and hosting of the five services before then.
The two lawsuits note that AU filed its FOIA request with both agencies on Dec. 19 in order to learn more about the services. As AU explains in its Defense Department suit, “The requested records will improve public understanding of the Secretary’s Christian Prayer & Worship Services and whether the government is upholding its obligations to remain neutral about religious matters and to respect the religious freedom of its employees, the members of the U.S. military, and its contractors.”
Screengrab as Mark Dever leads congregational singing at the Pentagon on Aug. 19, 2026.
In a response filed in May, the DoD acknowledged a few things from AU’s lawsuit but mostly claimed to not know whether the assertions in the suit were true or not. The standard line used by the attorneys was that “defendant lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations.” In fact, they insisted 17 times that they “lack knowledge or information.” But in several cases, that’s simply not true.
For instance, AU correctly mentioned in its suit that “on May 21, 2025, DoD began hosting ‘the Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer & Worship Service’ (hereafter, the ‘Secretary’s Christian Prayer & Worship Service’), which is an event that has since occurred on a monthly basis.” The DoD responded, “Defendant admits that the Department of Defense began hosting the prayer and worship services on or about May 21, 2025. Defendant lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the remaining allegations in paragraph 3 regarding the subsequent frequency of such events.” The DoD is claiming they do not know if Hegseth’s services have been held monthly, even though they themselves held those services monthly. If they have somehow lost the records, they could find out that the services have been held monthly simply by visiting our “Government Worship Watch” page!
Other points in the lawsuit the DoD claimed to lack knowledge or information about included that “DoD has possession, custody, or control of the records requested by Americans United.” This is, of course, the whole point of the lawsuit, so they apparently don’t want to admit they’re hiding things. DoD also claimed they had no idea if people received an email invite to the first service, even though a copy of the invite has already been made public. Additionally, they claimed to not know if Brooks Potteiger preached at the first service or that Hegseth prayed during it, even though those are simple statements of fact that one can literally watch on an online recording of the service. And there are several other basic facts that can be proven publicly that DoD claims to not have knowledge or information about.
While DoD attorneys remain unaware (or dishonest), you can learn more about the official services at the Pentagon and other federal agencies on our “Government Worship Watch” page.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
