NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth greeted the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters on Thursday (Feb. 19) by quoting from a famed Christian hymn, often sung on Palm Sunday: “All glory, laud and honor to you, Redeemer King. To whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.”
“No matter what we have accomplished, what levels of success we may have reached, what joys or what trials are in our lives, it is to God alone that the glory belongs,” Hegseth told convention attendees, most of whom are evangelical Christians, in a ballroom at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville.
Hegseth, who was greeted with cheers and music from an Army band, was a headliner of a patriotic celebration at the Christian communications convention, anticipating the 250th anniversary of America’s founding later this year. After an opening prayer from a pastor who thanked God for protecting the country from “pandemics and plan-demics” — a reference to conspiracy theories about COVID-19 — and asked God to protect the United States from communists and foreign invaders, Hegseth took to the stage.
“My fellow Americans, patriots, brothers and sisters in Christ, I bring greetings from a fighter for the people of faith, President Donald J. Trump,” Hegseth said.
The defense secretary then launched into listing Trump’s accomplishments in office and his dedication to conservative Christian causes, like providing funding for religious charter schools, restricting abortion and gender-affirming care, and fighting anti-Christian bias.
Trump addressed the NRB in 2024 while on the campaign trail, appealing to attendees to help him save America and promising to serve their interests. “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before,” he said in 2024.
In an address that lasted just under a half hour, Hegseth repeatedly tied the founding of the U.S. to the Christian faith and the Christian Bible and attacked what he called “the Godless left.” He said that the country was based on a “sacred covenant” with God and pointed to references to God in the Declaration of Independence and from early American leaders.
“As you know, there’s a direct throughline from the Old and New Testament Christian gospels to the development of Western civilization and the United States of America,” he said.
Hegseth said he’d brought an emphasis on faith back to the Pentagon, including through a monthly prayer service. Among the speakers at those services has been Brooks Potteiger, who was the pastor at the church Hegseth attended in Tennessee, and Douglas Wilson, a pastor known for founding Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and defending slavery, arguing that women should not be able to vote, and promoting Christian nationalism.
“We do it because I need it more than anybody else, a time where we pause during a very busy day to give thanks, praise and glory to God in the name of Jesus Christ,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth also said he had helped strengthen the military Chaplain Corps and had eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change programs. He also said the military is stronger spiritually since he took office.
The secretary urged the pastors and religious broadcasters in attendance to be bold and to speak about politics and social issues, knowing that God is on their side. He also promoted the Trump administration’s immigration policies. “Protecting our borders from criminals who steal from us, assault our loved ones and poison our citizens, is not political. It’s biblical,” he said. “Protecting our culture and our religion from godless ideologies and pagan religions, not political. It’s biblical.”
He ended by telling attendees that “Christ is king.”
Vince Haley, director of the White House’s Domestic Policy Council, who also spoke at the event, told attendees about plans for faith events celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary, including a prayer event on May 17, aimed at rededicating the U.S. to God.
Other speakers included David Barton, a popular Christian nationalist author whose book on Thomas Jefferson was retracted by its publisher after historians pointed out its factual errors, as well as Seth Dillon, CEO of the Babylon Bee, a Christian satire site.
Barton and his son, Tim, warned attendees that Americans were forgetting the role religion played in national history. They encouraged attendees to come to D.C. and other patriotic sites to recall that history — but told them to ignore tour guides because “they don’t know what they are talking about.” (The Bartons conduct patriotic tours of their own.)
“The reason we are on shaky ground right now is because we have secularized our nation more than at any point in our history,” Tim Barton said.
Dillon told the story of the Bee’s battle with Twitter — the website was suspended from the social media platform in 2022 after a joke about transgender Biden administration official Rachel Levine was deemed as hateful content. That led to an unexpected friendship with billionaire Elon Musk, who, after he bought Twitter, now known as X, the same year, let the Babylon Bee back on the platform.
“We have to stop caring what freedom might cost us,” Dillon said. “If you aren’t willing to pay a price for freedom, you don’t value it.”