Jonathan Morris, a former priest and current Fox News commentator, and Washington Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams led the service in Pete Hegseth’s absence.
The government service also featured a sermon about hope from Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner, who is a former NFL football player and Southern Baptist pastor.
While the organizing and hosting of monthly government worship services has been paused at DoL, such services continue at the Pentagon — and this trend has now spread to the Small Business Administration.
Join us as we celebrate five years of our ‘A Public Witness’ newsletter and highlight the best from the 115 pieces we’ve published over the past 12 months exploring the intersection of faith, culture, and politics.
The story about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reading a prayer based on a scene in a Quentin Tarantino film really did go viral in the U.S. and elsewhere. And it all started with our newsletter A Public Witness.
Pete Hegseth, who likes to call himself ‘secretary of war,’ read a prayer during the latest government worship service that echoes a scene written by Quentin Tarantino calling for ‘great vengeance and furious anger.’
Editor-in-Chie Brian Kaylor reflects on a recent violent prayer by Pete Hegseth during a Christian worship service at the Pentagon and Mark Twain’s satirical work “The War Prayer.”
Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration today as part of their investigation into government worship services.