Trump and Hegseth’s outrageous warmongering is damaging our witness to the Muslim world

The language was, at first, familiar - the cadence and vocabulary of Christian prayer. And yet, for countless believers, what followed felt deeply jarring. 

It was three weeks ago when, during a worship service at the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth asked God to pour out “overwhelming violence” on Iran.

The US Defence Secretary then went further, praying that American bullets would be guided straight into the bodies of their targets, to “break the teeth of the ungodly” and “rain violence and death on the enemy.” All “in bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ”.

For many Christians, that prayer crossed a red line - one the administration had already been edging dangerously close to. Hegseth not only seemed to revel in violence and death, but spoke as though it was also what God desired - as if the war itself was divinely sanctioned. 

God and genocide

Wishing violent death on your enemies, eagerly anticipating a bloodbath, bears no resemblance to the gospel message - nor to the Jesus that millions of Christians around the world recognise. But in the days and weeks since America and Israel launched their assault on Iran, that same rhetoric has only intensified.

And far from pushing back against it, Christian leaders close to those in power seem to have emboldened it. Following the reported bombing of a primary school in which at least 110 children were killed, pastor Brooks Potteiger, Hegseth’s closest spiritual advisor, suggested that the atrocity could be justified in the name of Christianity. Citing a passage in which the Israelites are told to “destroy every living thing” in certain cities, she said: “If God would order a genocide in Deuteronomy 20, what makes you think he wouldn’t cause a girl’s school to be attacked?”

Trump’s warmongering could set back the efforts of those trying to bring the gospel to the Muslim world by generations

Another prominent pastor, Andrew Sedra, joined a White House lunch for Christian leaders during Holy Week. Soon after the hostilities began, he said: “God is using President Trump in a prophetic moment of time to execute judgement on evil and wicked civilisations.” 

At the same event, Franklin Graham - son of the late evangelist Billy Graham - delivered his own prayer echoing the book of Esther. To vocal agreement from the room, he declared that God had “raised up President Trump for such a time as this”, before praying that the Father would grant Trump victory over the “Islamic lunatics”.

This message, which is being presented as evangelical Christianity from within the corridors of the world’s most powerful state, is a grotesque distortion of the New Testament. It is damaging to the global witness of the Church - a faith rooted in forgiveness, mercy and love. For many Muslim converts to Christianity, it is this message - the radical call to forgiveness and peace in the Sermon on the Mount - that first drew them to the faith.

But the way the biggest global stage is being used to sanctify and glorify violence in the name of Jesus is likely to leave a lasting stain on how Christianity is understood around the world - long after this administration and the MAGA movement have gone. Trump’s warmongering could set back the efforts of those trying to bring the gospel to the Muslim world by generations.

Generation upon generation

We know from history that the damage Christians do to their public witness can last for centuries. The Crusades - when Christian armies waged “holy war” in the Middle East, leaving hundreds of thousands dead - ended nearly 1,000 years ago. But that legacy still shapes how Christianity is perceived in much of the Muslim world today.

For many young Muslims growing up in the Middle East and North Africa, the faith of Jesus is not first encountered through the Gospels, but through a long memory of conquest, power and violence carried out under a Christian banner.

Muslims who were drawn to the Christian faith may now begin to question what that faith truly represents

Those watching Hegseth’s prayer will not have missed the symbols stamped on the Bible he was holding: the Jerusalem Cross and the words Deus Vult - “God wills” - the rallying cry of the Crusades, invoked by Christian armies as they marched to war in the belief they were carrying out God’s will.

As Muslims around the world watch and listen to what ‘Christian’ America says and does, the most natural conclusion is that this is not a religion of peace and forgiveness, but one bound up with power, violence and domination.

Meanwhile, Muslims who were drawn to Christianity because it teaches turning the other cheek, loving one’s enemies and extending radical forgiveness, may now begin to question what that faith truly represents. And who would blame them, when a school full of girls is buried beneath rubble, and a Christian leader suggests it is what God intended.

Personal impact

One of my best friends is a Muslim, one of the gentlest and most generous people I know. A few months ago, I took him and his wife to church. Until then they had little understanding of what Christianity was about, but were struck by seeing people who were clearly passionate and moved by a living faith.

He had grown up in Morocco and was aware of the Christian-led wars in the 15th and 16th centuries, when armies from Portugal and Spain attacked coastal cities and killed thousands. But that, he told me, was something older generations spoke about - younger Muslims no longer saw Christianity as a violent religion. In fact, many were increasingly drawn to its message.

Last week, I asked him if the prayers prayed by Pete Hegseth and Franklin Graham had changed the way he viewed Christianity. “It does,” he replied. “It makes me think that Christians are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They talk of peace and forgiveness, but all they want to do is kill and destroy.”