Hegseth Compares Downed Pilot's Rescue to Jesus's Resurrection, Claims God Backs Iran War

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth turned an Easter Sunday military rescue into a religious parable on Monday, comparing a downed U.S. airman's survival to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Speaking alongside President Trump, Hegseth laid out the timeline: the F-15E was shot down on Good Friday, the airman hid "in a cave, a crevice" on Saturday, then was rescued at sunrise on Easter -- "a pilot reborn, all home and accounted for."

"God is good," Hegseth concluded, after noting that the airman's first words to rescuers were the same phrase.

Trump went further, asserting that God supports the Israeli-U.S. war against Iran -- a conflict that has killed thousands, including many civilians. "Because God is good, and God wants to see people taken care of," Trump said. "God doesn't like what's happening."

The president then added, unprompted: "Everyone says I enjoy it. I don't enjoy this. I don't like seeing people get killed."

A Pattern of Holy War Rhetoric

This is not the first time Hegseth has invoked Christian theology to frame U.S. military action. Earlier in the Iran conflict, he asked Americans to pray for victory "in the name of Jesus Christ." The defense secretary, who sports a "Deus vult" ("God wills it") tattoo on his bicep -- a Crusades-era battle cry -- has long romanticized medieval Christian warfare against Muslims.

In his 2020 book "American Crusade," Hegseth describes the Crusades as "bloody" and "full of unspeakable tragedy," but argues they were justified because they saved Christian Europe from Islam. Now, as he directs a relentless bombing campaign against Iran, a majority-Shiite Muslim nation, that same ideology is shaping public messaging from the Pentagon.

Religious Leaders Push Back

Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, has sharply rejected the administration's framing. In a recent homily, he said the Christian mission had been "distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ." The pope has repeatedly called for an end to the war and criticized the use of Christianity to justify violence.

Other Christian leaders have echoed the concern, warning that Hegseth's rhetoric reflects a strand of conservative American Christianity that conflates nationalism with religious virtue. Many Trump supporters describe themselves as combatants in a holy war to establish the U.S. as a fundamentally Christian nation -- a vision at odds with the country's secular, pluralist founding principles.

Why This Matters

When the secretary of defense compares military operations to biblical miracles, he is not just offering comfort to a rescued airman's family. He is signaling that U.S. foreign policy has divine sanction -- a dangerous claim that insulates decision-makers from accountability and casts critics as enemies of God.

This rhetoric also serves a domestic political purpose. By framing the Iran war as a Christian crusade, the administration appeals to its evangelical base while marginalizing dissent as secular or un-American. It is a tactic with deep roots in American history -- and one that has repeatedly been used to justify violence, from Manifest Destiny to the War on Terror.

The airman's rescue is genuinely good news. But wrapping it in Resurrection imagery while thousands die in a war of choice is not an act of faith. It is an act of propaganda.