Seth Leibsohn: Let Them Pray

Monday, April 6, 2026

The Washington Post, and others, are upset that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is hosting monthly worship services at the Pentagon.  Unconstitutional, they say … Upending of norms … Breaking cohesion.

Are they kidding us? 

First, I want my soldiers—especially in a time of war—being reverent and prayerful.  Second, just how timid and weak are these Pentagon employees that they have to go off the record and run to the Washington Post to complain about this?

One employee said, “If troops are trained to believe that ‘God is on our side,’ what precludes us from doing anything we want to win?”  I don’t know—ask Lincoln, or Franklin Roosevelt, who led the largest public prayer in history on the cusp of D-Day.  Ask Dwight Eisenhower who issued a prayer to the soldiers in World War II.  Or, maybe, know that a great deal of just-war theory comes from famous religious leaders of yore.

Journalists today just have no sense of history or context.  Even the Unknown Soldier was known only to God.

I’m Seth Leibsohn.

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