Unsurprisingly, things have really gone to hell at the Pentagon since Donald Trump purported to change the name of the Department of Defense to the “Department of War” and installed Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth as “Secretary of War.”
The 2010s were a time of increasing religious rights within the U.S. Armed Forces. For practitioners of Ásatrú and Heathenry – modern iterations of Norse and Germanic polytheist religions – advances in recognition came at a slow but steady pace and at a scale that repeatedly made the national news.
Charlemagne Destroys the Irminsul by Hermann Wislicenus (1880) [Public Domain]
Now, these advances are being offhandedly rolled back by Hegseth as he forwards a vision of the military, the nation, and the world based on extremist Christian nationalist ideology that overtly seeks to take away not just Heathen rights, but the rights of everyone who doesn’t fit his own personal definition of the proper sort of Christian.
Heathens in the Military: A Half-Decade of Progress
For a five-year period in the middle of the 2010s, there was an amazing amount of progress in the U.S. military regarding equal rights for Heathen service members. What follows is a brief outline of the major changes that occurred. For detailed information, documents, and interviews with the dedicated active duty and veteran members of the Armed Forces who made all of this possible through their indefatigable efforts, follow the hyperlinks in each paragraph.
Thirteen years ago, back in 2013, the Veterans Administration added Thor’s hammer to its list of “Available Emblems of Belief for Placement on Government Headstones and Markers.” For the first time, Heathen veterans buried in a VA National Cemetery could have the most common symbol of their religion mark their resting place.
Public Radio International reported the news in what seems to have been their first story on Ásatrú, but they did so in a way that mixed in Wicca and comic books and didn’t actually include any Heathen perspectives. In response, I ran a letter-writing campaign across my multiple Norse mythology social media accounts that quickly led to an apology and a follow-up feature on the air.
The following year, in 2014, the Air Force became the first branch of the U.S. Armed Forces to include Ásatrú and Heathenry as options in its religious preference list. Such inclusion had multiple benefits for Heathens, including providing more accurate representation in demographic reports, aiding in connection with other practitioners via the office of chaplains, and having personal wishes respected regarding last rites and burial.
Another year later, in 2015, the U.S. Army followed the Air Force and added Ásatrú and Heathenry as options in its own religious preference list. This positive development after six years of requests was quickly undermined when the new preference codes were not added to the Army computer system, inquiries were met with administrative backtracking from previous statements, and the approval was amended to “under active consideration.”
When it became clear that Army Heathens were not being heard, I published a “call to action” at The Norse Mythology Blog and promoted it on social media. It asked people to contact the Armed Forces Chaplains Board, Army Human Resources Command, Army Public Affairs Officer, and/or Chief of Army Chaplains with a polite request to expedite the addition.
The next year, in 2016, I joined a small group of Heathens to write the Heathen Resource Guide for Chaplains at the request of the U.S. Department of Defense and make it easily available at The Norse Mythology Blog. We were told that the guide would be disseminated to chaplains for their own education and to help them better assist Heathen soldiers. In the decade since, I have been contacted by many chaplains for advice but seen no evidence that the D.O.D. ever provided them with the guide.
Finally, in 2017, the Department of Defense issued a memorandum on “Faith and Belief Codes for Reporting Personnel Data of Service Members.” It approximately doubled the number of religious preferences recognized throughout the U.S. Military Services. The new additions included Ásatrú and Heathenry, which meant that Heathens finally had full religious rights and freedoms such as time off for attending worship and permission to keep faith items and books.
Although it seemed like a frustratingly slow process at the time, and although advances were sometimes followed by setbacks, there was a lot of progress made across just five years. At the decade neared its conclusion, there was a feeling that outspoken but polite persistence had led to real positive change regarding religious freedom for this relatively small minority faith.
A decade later, changes are quickly moving in quite a different direction.
The Hubris of Pete Hegseth
Just this week, on March 25, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced via a Twitter/X video post that the War Department will be deleting the majority of the religious preference codes that were added after so many years of effort. The total number will be reduced from “well over 200” to only 31.
Somehow, Hegseth keeps a straight face while insisting that erasing the stated religious affiliation of members of the Armed Forces will give military chaplains “clear, usable information, so they can minister to service members in a way that aligns with that service member’s faith background and religious practice.” How in the world does erasing their religious traditions provide better service?
As we’ve seen throughout this second Trump administration, the momentary whims of one selfish man can easily override years of work by many people of positive intent. A single social media post wipes out in an instant all the progress made over a half-decade. The fact that this can repeatedly happen is one of the greatest flaws in the system left to us by the Founding Fathers.
Back in October of last year, during a speech in Quantico, Hegseth was already targeting Heathens as unwelcome.
If you want a beard, you can join Special Forces. If not, then shave. We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans. But unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refuse to call BS and enforce standards or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards.
Hegseth’s dismissive attitude is reflected within the chaplain ranks.
Last month, I received several emails from an active-duty chaplain serving in Texas regarding a Heathen soldier. The chaplain repeatedly insisted on calling the religion “Norse Paganism,” even when I politely told him the more proper terms are Ásatru and Heathenry.
The chaplain told me that he would only use the term “Norse Paganism,” because chaplains “are not deeply familiar with the faith tradition.” He insisted on this nonsensical position, despite the fact that “Norse Paganism” is not in the current code list, but Ásatrú and Heathenry are. The mind boggles.
This particular chaplain also was completely unaware of the existence of the Heathen Resource Guide for Chaplains and was, in fact, not at all interested in learning anything at all about the tradition. I’ve had similar interactions with multiple chaplains over the years.
So, the chaplain system is already fundamentally broken in its willingness and ability to understand and serve members of minority religions. Over the years, I have heard multiple complaints regarding chaplain attitudes toward Heathens. Hegseth’s erasure of the religions from the official records of service members can in no way improve this situation.
In the same video post, the Secretary of War also announced that chaplains will now remove markers of military rank from their own uniforms and replace them with “their religious insignia.” The chaplains are, he states, “first and foremost, called and ordained by God.” Instead of earned military rank, “they will be seen among the highest ranks, because of their divine calling.”
Somehow, having a crucifix sewn onto the chaplain’s uniform is supposed to make a member of a non-Christian faith more comfortable speaking to the chaplain about their own faith. One bucket of nonsense after another.
Hegseth has also instituted regular Christian worship services at the Pentagon, which exclusively feature evangelical preachers. In February, he invited his own personal faith leader to speak. Pastor Douglas Wilson’s retrograde goals for a theocratic United States include repealing women’s right to vote and making homosexuality a crime. So much for progress.
As all this is happening, U.S. military commanders have been telling their troops that the war against Iran is “all part of God’s divine plan,” will usher in Armageddon, and will lead to the return of Jesus Christ to the planet. Donald Trump, they tell the soldiers, “has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran” and bring the about the end times of Biblical prophecy.
Hegseth himself has publicly called for an “American Crusade” led by Christians against Islam, and his prominent tattoos include a version of the crucifix used by Crusaders and the phrase Deus vult (“God wills it”), a Crusader rallying cry dating back to the First Crusade in 1096.
During a Christian service at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Hegseth read a strikingly brutal prayer.
Almighty God who trains our hands for war and trains our fingers for battle… behold now the wicked who rise against your justice and the peace of the righteous. Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans, and break the teeth of the ungodly. By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish…
Pour out your wrath upon those who plot vain things and blow them away like chaff before the wind. Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence… and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy…
We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, king over all kings.
Back in 2015, a BBC Radio presenter insisted while interviewing me that today’s Ásatrú is a religion based on fantasy and violence. I’m here to tell you that Hegseth’s extremist Crusader theology makes us look more like peaceful disciples of Christ than anyone in his own bloodthirsty subset of Christianity. What a bizarre little muppet he is.
Light, Hope, and Peace
Service members have not quietly accepted all of this. At the beginning of March, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation reported receiving “over 200 calls from more than 50 military installations across all the services since Saturday reporting similar disturbing pronouncements from their Christian zealot commanders.” Complaints had come in from “more than 40 different units.”
The American Humanist Association had already denounced Hegseth’s “attacks on religious pluralism” back in December of last year. A year before that, the organization known as American Atheists called Hegseth “one of the most extreme figures ever nominated.”
Last week, Pope Leo XIV made remarks in Rome that seemed to directly address Hegseth’s violent rhetoric. “God can not be enlisted by darkness,” he stated. “Rather, he always comes to bring light, hope and peace to humanity, and it is peace that must be sought by those who call upon him.” Deus vult, indeed.
Meanwhile, in Ásatrú theology, we have our own gods that stand against the darkness and “bring light, hope, and peace.”
Norse mythology features Baldr, the bright and beautiful god who is wise, merciful, and speaks beautifully. His hall is called Breiðablik (“far-shining”), and he is beloved by all things living and unliving (except for the jealous Loki). Baldr, more than any other deity in Norse myth, embodies the light that dispels the darkness.
Tales of Thor show him to be beloved by the hardworking common people, to whom he gives hope as he brings rain for their crops and protects them against the forces of darkness that threaten human habitation in a sometimes-threatening natural world.
The Icelandic sagas tell us that toasts were raised at blót (sacrificial ritual) to Njörd and Frey for peace and prosperity, rounding out the “light, hope, and peace” triad invoked by the pope.
Again, we seem downright huggable in contrast to Hegseth and his ultraviolent desire to “break the teeth of the ungodly.” Notably, there is nothing in the historical record to even suggest that Heathens ever sought to convert members of other faiths or to attack them for holding different beliefs.
But the historical record does detail the violent incursion of Christianity into the old Heathen homelands. From Charlemagne’s religio-cultural war on the Saxons to St. Olaf’s brutal conversion of Norway, the love of Christ was sometimes spread by the sword.
Here in the United States of the 2020s, we’re once again facing rising Christian nationalism. Last August, Hegseth reposted a video of his favorite faith leader Doug Wilson declaring, “I would like to see this nation being a Christian nation, and I would like this world to be a Christian world.” They’re not shy about stating their goals, and they don’t care what you or I think of them.
Doing the Good Work
Like the service members, the American Humanist Association, American Atheists, and the pope, we need to stand up and be counted. If we’re going to thrill to tales of the old-time Heathens like Radbod of Frisia (who rejected conversion upon being told his ancestors wouldn’t be waiting for him in the Christian heaven), we have to make our voices heard.
Sure, voting is nice, but the only national political candidates I definitively know have spoken about Heathen issues have been Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and Green Party vice-presidential candidate Angela Walker during my interviews with them. If you’re not going to vote Green (and electoral history strongly suggests that you are not), whom do you trust to fight for your rights?
Of course, this is much bigger than just Heathen rights. These Christofascists have openly stated they’re coming after the most basic rights and freedoms of women and members of the LGBTQ+ communities. There is only one group whose rights they even pretend to respect: their own.
We can’t just sit around and hope for the best, and our current elected representatives are woefully inadequate for the challenges of our times. Yes, I’m looking at you, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.
We still have options. We can run for office ourselves. We can join larger interfaith organizations that have the numbers and money and influence to make a difference in the public narrative. We can support independent media by sharing it and – most importantly – by donating to it. We can join public protests, sign petitions, call our representatives, and speak at town hall meetings.
Even if we don’t have the time or energy or ability to do any of these things, we can support those who do. We can back up the service members speaking out. We can donate to organizations that fight against on this gross nonsense. We can thank clergy of any and all faiths who speak truth to power. We can stand with teachers and students who are punished for standing up for themselves and their neighbors.
I conclude nearly all of my columns with suggestions for positive actions that might make a difference in resisting the rising tides of oppression in his nation. I – and, I think, my editors – would love to hear what you’re out there doing. (Editor’s note: We would!)
Suggestions only matter if someone acts on them, and I truly hope that some of you are out there doing the good work.
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