Robert F Kennedy Jr began his tenure as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in February 2025 with a message that framed America’s health crisis as a “spiritual malaise” rooted in moral decline. In his first address to HHS employees, he argued that “spiritual and physical maladies thrive on one another” and that the solution “must begin with a spiritual question” of personal responsibility and vigilance against dark forces that keep Americans “sedated” and “compliant”.
Weeks later, the White House moved to cut 20,500 jobs across the agency tasked with protecting public health. In March, as the US faced its worst measles resurgence in 34 years, Kennedy again warned of “malevolent forces” that must be met with “spiritual warfare”, waged through the “sacred ritual” of eating dinner together as a family. He has promoted pseudoscientific remedies such as vitamin A for measles, peptides for longevity, and raw milk, while sowing doubt about vaccine safety.
Kennedy’s language, though initially appearing benign, signals the influence of Christian nationalism on public health policy, according to Savannah Tate, a former insider and daughter of megachurch pastor Benny Tate. Tate, now a psychologist, says terms like “spiritual warfare” are central to a movement that seeks to place Christian authority over institutions, culture, and government. Christian nationalists argue that American law should reflect a singular Christian vision, eroding the separation of church and state.
Other Trump administration figures openly embrace Christian nationalist ideas. Russell Vought, director of the office of operations and budget, helped author Project 2025, a blueprint for Christian nationalist governance. Trump described his second term as “a war from within” against “anti-Christian bias”, while JD Vance called Christianity “America’s creed”. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth belongs to a Christian nationalist church, and House Speaker Mike Johnson supports rolling back civil rights for women and LGBTQ+ people.
The effect of this rhetoric on public health is corrosive, eroding shared epistemological reality. Kennedy’s invocation of spiritual forces, combined with staffing cuts and promotion of unproven remedies, reflects a broader pattern of religious language moving into the highest levels of government, reshaping the public health agency from within.
