Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia criticized Pete Hegseth for misusing Isaiah 6:8 in speeches and offered a rebuttal about the actual teachings of the prophet. Hegseth’s conscription of the verse for military recruitment has also sparked rebukes from rightwing figures like former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Warnock, who has multiple graduate degrees from Union Theological Seminary, is the longtime senior pastor of the famed Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where both Martin Luther King Sr. and Martin Luther King Jr. served. He’s also the author of a new book, The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America, which is his effort to interpret and apply the Book of Isaiah.
“Pete Hegseth is busy twisting the scriptures yet again,” Warnock said in a video he posted to social media on Oct. 1. “This is something that our so-called ‘secretary of war,’ as he likes to describe himself, seems to have a knack for. He enjoys twisting the Scripture, twisting the meaning of the faith.”
Noting that he has spent a lot of time thinking, preaching, and writing about Isaiah, Warnock insisted that Hegseth is misusing the verse where the prophet Isaiah said to God, “Send me.” The verse describes the call of the prophet Isaiah by God to go and deliver God’s message. As Warnock explained, “When Isaiah answers that call, it is not a call to go into battle. It is not a call to fight an external enemy.” But beyond just misusing that one verse, Warnock added that Hegseth is missing the larger message of that biblical book.
“Pete Hegseth needs to know that, actually, Isaiah is answering the call to confront abusive power in his own context — words that are particularly apt in a moment like this. Isaiah challenges corruption. Isaiah challenges government that marginalizes the poor, the widows, and the orphans,” Warnock explained. “Isaiah challenges the powers that be within his own context. Pete Hegseth should read the first chapter of the Book of Isaiah, where the prophet says, ‘Your princes’ — which means those who are in power — ‘Your princes are companions with thieves.’”
“So as the prophet deals with public corruption, as he deals with those who would crush the poor, there’s a valuable lesson in that for the so-called ‘secretary of war,’” Warnock added. “I don’t think he hears it because he’s focused on wrapping up power in sacred clothes. Faith, when it is authentic, stands on the margins, stands with the weak, recognizes that all of us are children of the living God. It calls us into a new covenant with God and with each other. I’m standing with Isaiah. I’m standing in that grand prophetic tradition, which we need so badly during this moral moment in America. Where do you stand?”
Warnock’s video critique came on the day after Hegseth invoked the verse during a highly partisan speech to members of the military at U.S. Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. In that speech, Hegseth also quoted Psalm 33, Ephesians 6, and Psalm 118 to justify his effort to unconstitutionally push his sectarian faith. But it’s the Isaiah verse that’s become by far his most used (and misused) biblical reference this year.
As first noted by A Public Witness, Hegseth started regularly quoting Isaiah 6:8 in May. He used it back then during his commencement remarks at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and while in France for the 82nd anniversary of “D-Day” in World War II. Since then, it’s become a regular part of his remarks, including at a 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon, remarks at Texas A&M, last week’s speech that Warnock responded to, and remarks at the U.S. Air Force Academy two days after Warnock’s video.
The Pentagon has followed Hegseth’s lead by repeatedly posting the verse on social media with images of soldiers and the phrase “send me” — including again over the weekend after Warnock’s critique. His two visits to Texas A&M and the Air Force Academy have even been billed as part of a “Send Me Tour” (by which he really means “send you to fight a dumb, illegal war started by me”).
Hegseth isn’t alone in this administration in co-opting Isaiah 6:8 to justify the use of militaristic force. Last year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security created a propaganda video featuring the verse superimposed on scenes of heavily armed agents hunting for immigrants. And Gregory Bovino, then the commander-at-large for the U.S. Border Patrol, posted a video with the verse to justify himself and those under his command.
‘Proud Christian Nationalist’ Criticizes Hegseth
Former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, was one of the most Trumpian MAGA politicians in Congress. She frequently made headlines for uncivil antics, absurd conspiracy theories, bigotry, and Christian Nationalism. In pushing the latter, she even sold t-shirts declaring, “Proud Christian Nationalist.” But like Warnock, Greene thinks Hegseth has gone too far.
On Elon Musk’s X platform, Greene recently denounced Hegseth’s use of Isaiah 6:8 as “manipulation.” She particularly criticized Hegseth for using the Bible to justify a foreign war.
“This is using God’s name in vain. This is not what we voted for,” Greene wrote on Sept. 25. “We voted to defend America. We did not vote to send our young men and women to fight in foreign wars while the Trump administration invokes God’s name to advance man’s agenda.”
Greene isn’t alone on the right in pushing back against Hegseth. Pastor and commentator Joel Webbon also recently criticized Hegseth’s use of the verse, saying he “twists Scripture” into “war propaganda.” Like Greene, Webbon is outspoken in his desire for White Christian Nationalism (and often uses racist and antisemitic rhetoric), but he is also opposed to the U.S. war in Iran.
“The prophet has become a warfighter, the divine commission has become a deployment order, and obedience to God has become obedience to whichever collection of AIPAC lobbyists and intelligence officials has selected this season’s enemy,” Webbon wrote on X. “Hegseth does not drag Washington before the judgment seat of Christ. He drags Christ before the judgment seat of Washington about and assigns him the task of blessing whatever Washington wants to bomb. Christ being King has nothing to do with this.”
While Greene and Webbon lack the theological training and insights of Warnock and other pastors and theologians who have criticized the Pentagon’s use of Isaiah 6:8, their attacks on Hegseth could be more politically undermining since their audiences are much more likely to be part of the Trumpian MAGA movement.
It’s surprising to see Greene and Webbon on the same side of a biblical debate as Warnock. But politics, and apparently theology, can make strange bedfellows. The breadth of the criticism highlights how far Hegseth’s use of the verse strays from faithful biblical interpretation. Thus, it must be challenged. As Warnock put it: “I’m standing with Isaiah. … Where do you stand?”
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
