The Chaplain Corps has become too soft and emotional, lacking the “faith and virtue” inherent to its establishment by George Washington 250 years ago, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said late Tuesday on X in announcing an overhaul of the organization to make it “great again.””In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism” in what Hegseth termed “recent decades,” chaplains were remade into “therapists instead of ministers” while “self-help and self-care” reigned in a system defined by “new age” concepts, he said.
One glaring example of this is the Army’s spiritual fitness guide, which refers to feelings and “playfulness, whatever that is,” 11 times and nine times respectively, in contrast to God just once, Hegseth said.
This is “unacceptable and unserious, so we’re tossing it,” he said. “Our chaplains are chaplains, not emotional support officers, and we’re going to treat them as such.”
The bigger overhaul may be “what qualifies as a faith or belief recognized in the military,” last updated by the Department of Defense in 2017, Stars and Stripes reported.
Hegseth promised more reforms “in the days and weeks ahead,” including “a top-down cultural shift putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as mental and physical health” and a new list of “religious affiliation codes.”
The announcement drew applause from famed evangelist Billy Graham’s son Franklin, president of Samaritan’s Purse, and the First Liberty Institute, among others.
“For too long, woke activists have been able to reduce religious freedom within the military with very little resistance, including limiting the freedom of our military chaplains,” First Liberty Senior Counsel Chris Motz said, thanking Hegseth and President Trump for “ensuring that every chaplain in our military is able to fulfill their mission to be the spiritual light for our brave warriors.”
