The Bible According to the Department of War
Over the summer, a conservative legal group sparked a controversy about Bibles in the chapel at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. Judicial Watch, which started in the 1990s as an anti-Clinton group, has a record of pushing election denialism and other conspiracies in their legal advocacy against Democratic politicians. In July, they announced the filing of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to uncover an allegedly sinister Biden-era change regarding Bibles at the academy that educates commissioned officers in the U.S. Army.
But, no, the Bibles had not been removed. They had just been put in the chapel without the West Point crest on the cover.
“It appears the Biden administration and its leftist accomplices were determined to sever all connections between West Point and traditional values,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton as the group announced their filing. “They removed the West Point crest from Bibles in the West Point Chapel. It’s a wonder they didn’t remove the Bibles.”
He was so close to figuring it out. If only he sat with that last line a bit longer. Fitton has so bought into the claims that Joe Biden and other Democrats are anti-faith that he, with no sense of irony, noted they didn’t live up to his caricature. But then he didn’t wonder if there might be a faithful reason (as opposed to an anti-faith motive) to remove a military symbol from the cover of Bibles.
Convinced this move was anti-Christian, Judicial Watch sought all emails and documents about the decision-making process that apparently led to the simpler covers in December 2024. Gone was the crest that features an American eagle sitting above a knight’s helmet and the West Point motto, “Duty, Honor, Country.”
Judicial Watch learned about the crestless Bibles from a group of West Point graduates who were organizing against Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion content in curriculum. According to Judicial Watch, the military crest had been printed on the Bibles in the academy’s chapel since 1984. They didn’t clarify if West Point was completely godless without Bibles before then or just had “woke” Bibles without the crest.
Fitton didn’t have to wait long for his prayer of a more militaristic Bible to be answered. Just three days after announcing the lawsuit, the controversy, well, crested as Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll (a friend of Vice President J.D. Vance and who was named for the position earlier this year by President Donald Trump) announced he would restore the West Point symbol to the chapel Bibles.
“Since the founding of West Point and before, generations of cadets, officers, and soldiers have drawn strength and inspiration from God’s word,” Driscoll told Fox News. “The decision to remove the Academy’s historic crest from the Bibles in the Cadet Chapel is yet another example of the previous administration pushing far-left politics into our military institutions.”
Fitton quickly praised the move: “The U.S. Army and West Point can’t go wrong in honoring God.” Though, again, the Bible never left the chapel, it just got a cleaner cover. The remark raises the question, though, of whether he thinks a Bible without a military crest on it dishonors God. More recent moves by the U.S. Department of Defense War also raise questions about whether they’re actually honoring the Bible or instead just branding it to claim authority over it. So this issue of A Public Witness looks at four recent promotional videos created by the DoW that co-opt Bible verses to glorify the U.S. military.
War on the Bible
In July, while Fitton was working to get a makeover for the West Point Bibles, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security created two promotional videos using Bible verses along with footage of DHS agents with militarized equipment while hunting for undocumented immigrants. DHS later also released a video using the song “Lord, Make Us Instruments of Your Peace,” as if sending masked men into the streets to kidnap people is how one helps bring godly peace.
Apparently inspired by the genre of videos marrying Bible verses with footage of people running around with guns, the Department of War has created four such promotional videos in August and September — the first three of which they released on Sundays.
In a video posted on Aug. 10 with the caption “We Are One Nation Under God,” the scene opens with clips of military planes and helicopters as words start appearing on screen: “‘I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed.’ Psalm 18:37.” As the words appear on screen and stay, other shots include a soldier pointing a gun while silhouetted in dust, soldiers jumping off a craft as if running into battle, soldiers running through a building and firing multiple shots, a missile firing, and more shots of fighter jets and helicopters.
The verse used comes from a psalm attributed to David after “the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” But despite the DoW’s attempt at a literal reading, the psalm includes quite a bit of poetic language and even artistic exaggeration — unless you think smoke came out of God’s nostrils while burning coals blazed in God’s mouth and God shot lightning bolts at people. It’s also interesting that this verse is tied to David being rescued from Saul since David refused to actually take up arms against Saul.
Two weeks later, the DoW released a video on Aug. 14 with a verse even less plausibly tied to the U.S. military. This time they went for the 23rd Psalm (seriously, I’m not making this up). On the screen appeared the text: “‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil; for YOU are with me.’ Psalm 23:4.” Once again, this was accompanied by military footage, like a fighter jet flying through the sky, paratroopers embarking on a mission, a soldier firing a gun, multiple blasts from cannons, and a couple of night-vision clips.
That’s a wild mashup. Rather than trusting in military weapons, the psalmist instead made clear that he was trusting in God. Additionally, the psalmist praised God for leading him away from the danger to instead lie down in green pastures and beside still waters. The peaceful imagery is why we often read this psalm at funerals, not because we’re picturing grandma now up there flying a fighter jet and shooting missiles at people!
Another two weeks later, the DoW moved out of the Book of Psalms for a Sept. 7 video following the same structure. This one also used a familiar verse: “‘Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’ Joshua 1:9.” In the footage, we see soldiers crawling on the ground and rappelling from a helicopter, along with shots of a fleet of ships and a fighter jet.
Disturbingly, the Joshua passage has been used to justify genocides before. But it seems like quite a stretch to suggest former weekend talk show host Pete Hegseth is a Joshua-like leader. It hardly shouts “strong and of good courage” when you build a makeup studio in the Pentagon!
On Sept. 20, Hegseth posted another video produced by the DoW, which he captioned “A prayer for Charlie, our warriors, and our nation.” The next day, Hegseth spoke at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service. What was this prayer? The Lord’s Prayer. The video features Hegseth saying the prayer, with the opening shot showing him standing outside and saying the prayer to a group of uniformed soldiers. While Hegseth’s audio continues, the scenes on the screen switch to another montage of military footage.
Hallowed be thy name [missiles shooting into the sky]. Thy kingdom come [fleet of naval vessels], thy will be done [close up of a fighter jet in the air] on earth [tank rolling by] as it is in heaven [paratroopers launching from plane]. … For thine is the kingdom [close up of a soldier aiming a gun] and the power [aerial shot of fighter jets and helicopters on a runway] and the glory [a waving American flag] forever and ever [Trump, Vance, and Hegseth saluting], amen [DoW logo and name].
Not only did Hegseth apparently miss other key teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (like about “blessed are the peacemakers” and loving our enemies), but he must have skipped Jesus’s remarks introducing that prayer: “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.”
An Anti-Imperial Gospel
In our country, with the separation of church and state, Bible verses should not be applied as commands the government must follow. So that’s a key problem with the Bible verse videos as they attempt to justify the U.S. military industrial complex based on sectarian beliefs.
But it’s also problematic for the U.S. military to co-opt Scripture, especially since they’re doing so by weaponizing the texts. As I told the Religion News Service earlier this month after the first three DoW Bible verse videos, they are misusing the Bible with the mashups.
“Those verses were not about the United States military,” RNS quoted me saying. “They weren’t really even about any imperial military force, and quite the opposite. These were passages about marginalized people, people under attack. It’s a very dangerous conflation of scriptural ideals with the U.S. military.”
“Christian Nationalism is itself selectively literal,” I added in the piece. “The irony about this Christian Nationalism is that they’re justifying themselves with the Bible, but they’re only able to do it because they’re being very selective on what verses they choose.”
Those pushing Christian Nationalism — including Hegseth and the leaders in the denomination he’s a part of — want to say they’re just following the Bible and trying to apply that to the government. But beyond taking verses out of context, they also shy away from some clear teachings of Jesus. Like “love your enemies,” “turn the other cheek,” and “all who use the sword will die by the sword.” If we decided to apply those verses literally in government, we’d need to shut down the Department of War. Which would save more money than DOGE ever did!
The violence being done against Scripture by the current administration is deeply troubling, and we must speak out against it. We must not allow our holy texts to be treated like just another bomb the military can drop on people.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
I'm wondering how this insightful sharing can influence the one's who created these video's and the population who believes in them. What's more, I'm wondering how this article can be presented to them in such a way as it would lead them to feeling the shame that it deserves.
Say it clearly:
The crest of West Point should not be printed on the Bibles in the academy's chapel, since so many versions are readily and inexpensively available. Because it communicates that the Bible is somehow authorized by the United States military. Which authorization Christians should neither seek nor welcome.