Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to headline a faith rally on the National Mall in Washington DC this weekend, organized by a private foundation in partnership with the White House. The event, Rededicate 250, billed as the faith-based component of America's semiquincentennial, features speakers that experts have characterized as Christian nationalist or extremist.
Controversial Lineup
The lineup includes a Detroit pastor who has called the Democratic platform "demonic" and launched his own memecoin after praying at Trump's second inauguration; a rabbi who has defended the use of torture and authored an essay titled "The Virtue of Hate"; and a Christian author and radio host who said in 2020 he would die to keep Joe Biden out of the White House and was later named in a defamation suit over 2020 election fraud claims. Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and House Speaker Mike Johnson are also scheduled to appear. Notably, the lineup includes no Muslims, no representatives of historically Black churches, no Indigenous faith leaders, and no mainline Protestants.
Hegseth's Background
Hegseth's own writings foreground anti-Muslim rhetoric and envisage a US military "taking sides" in a coming American civil war. His 2020 book American Crusade depicts Islam as a historic enemy of the West, calls for an "American crusade" against "domestic enemies," and idolizes medieval crusaders. He has "deus vult," the Latin slogan of Pope Urban II at the launch of the First Crusade, tattooed on his arm. Hegseth is a member of Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, a congregation of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), and regularly worships at the CREC's Christ Kirk DC plant on Pennsylvania Avenue. CREC founder Douglas Wilson told the Guardian in April 2026 he was a Christian nationalist and that Hegseth's worldview is broadly the same. CREC pastors who rotate through the Christ Kirk DC pulpit have publicly called for restricting the vote to heads of households, overturning Obergefell v Hodges, restoring state sodomy laws, outlawing mosques, and applying biblical law through the courts.
Pentagon Prayer Services
Hegseth has hosted a monthly Christian prayer service at the Pentagon since May 2025. The 17 February 2026 service was presided over by Wilson personally, just 11 days before US forces joined Israel in the first attacks on Iran. At a 25 March 2026 service, Hegseth prayed that God would "break the teeth" of US enemies.
Organization Under Investigation
Rededicate 250 is one of a string of events organized by Freedom 250, a private nonprofit launched by the White House in December 2025 as a partner to the bipartisan US semiquincentennial commission Congress established in 2016. Freedom 250 is now under congressional investigation over the redirection of federal funds and the sale of access to Trump. Matthew D Taylor, author of several books on Christian nationalism, including the upcoming Defying Tyrants, said the Rededicate 250 lineup "are some of the most active Christian nationalist leaders that you can find in the country."
Christian Zionist Influence
Many planned speakers are members of or advisers to Trump's religious liberty commission, established on 1 May 2025 by executive order. Of the 13 commissioners, 12 are Christians and one is Jewish. The religious leaders advisory board added in mid-May 2025 comprises seven Christian leaders and four Orthodox rabbis, with no Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, or Buddhist representation. In February 2026, a multifaith coalition led by the Interfaith Alliance sued the administration, arguing that the commission's overwhelming Christian skew breaches the Federal Advisory Committee Act's requirement of balanced membership. Taylor noted that both the commission and the Rededicate 250 stage are dominated by faith leaders vociferous in their support for Israel, revealing a tension within the Christian right between Christian Zionist factions and rising anti-Semitic far-right elements. "When I look at that list, I don't see the anti-Semitic faction really represented at all. I think it signals that this is pretty closely aligned more with the kind of old religious right establishment and this new guard of independent charismatic leaders. It's a Christian Zionist version of Christian nationalism," Taylor said.
Rabbi Defends Torture
The only non-Christian speaker is Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, a writer, podcast host, senior rabbi of Manhattan's Congregation Shearith Israel, director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University, and a commissioner on Trump's religious liberty commission. Soloveichik has argued that hatred of enemies is a religious duty. In his 2003 essay "The Virtue of Hate," he wrote: "There is, in fact, no minimizing the difference between Judaism and Christianity on whether hate can be virtuous... God, Jesus argues, loves the wicked, and so must we. In disagreeing, Judaism does not deny the importance of imitating God; Jews hate the wicked because they believe that God despises the wicked as well." In a lecture titled "Torture: Is It Always Immoral?" he argued that "terrorists do not have a right not to be tortured. Indeed, they deserve to be tormented for what they have done." He cited Israel's 1994 torture of a Palestinian driver as a positive precedent and attacked Pope John Paul II's classification of torture as an intrinsic evil.
Pastor Calls Democratic Platform Demonic
Lorenzo Sewell, senior pastor of 180 Church in Detroit, told Fox News that "we do not believe that every Democrat is a demon, but we do believe that the Democratic platform is demonic." He stood by this claim in a telephone conversation with the Guardian, saying: "You can't honor God and be a Democrat. It's impossible." Sewell spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, opened the Michigan House of Representatives with an invocation, and delivered a benediction at Trump's second inauguration. Hours after his inauguration prayer, he launched a memecoin bearing his name, which spiked and then collapsed roughly 93% from a peak market value of about $4.5 million. He told the Guardian the memecoin was not premeditated and that he made $30,000, which went to his church and foster care programs. In March 2025, he testified to the Michigan House election integrity committee alleging "systemic voter fraud" in Detroit, and he is considering a 2026 run for the US Senate.
Author Willing to Die for Trump
Eric Metaxas, an author and Salem Media radio host, was master of ceremonies of the 12 December 2020 Jericho March on the National Mall, a "Stop the Steal" prayer rally three weeks before the storming of the US Capitol. On a 9 December 2020 podcast, he said of efforts to overturn the election: "What's right is right... We need to fight to the death, to the last drop of blood, because it's worth it." Nine days earlier, he told Trump live on air: "I'd be happy to die in this fight." In August 2020, he punched an anti-Trump protester biking past him on a Washington street.
