Hegseth and Huckabee Misuse the Bible

Hegseth and Huckabee Misuse the Bible We cannot Christianize America by militarizing its historic faith. On August 30, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the Jewish American Summit that he believed he was “chosen by Hashem”—i.e., by God—to serve in Jerusalem. He called his appointment “an Isaiah moment,” quoting Isaiah 6:8: “Here am I, send me.” He described his diplomatic post as “something engineered in heaven.” A few weeks later, on September 18, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went to Texas A&M University to launch the Pentagon’s “Send Me Tour.” In a speech the next day, he cited the same verse from Isaiah to frame American military service as a divine calling. Huckabee and Hegseth are using biblical language to place the authority of God behind their use of government power. Both powerful political appointees are claiming God personally commissioned them. That should alarm all of us—and especially Christians. This is a blatant misuse of the text. Before Isaiah says, “Send me,” he cries, “Woe is me.” He comes to God in his brokenness and confronts his own personal shortcomings and his nation’s corruption. Only after he confesses and receives forgiveness is Isaiah sent out. Moreover, Isaiah is sent to call his own people to repent, not abroad to represent his government, and certainly not to destroy his nation’s enemies. So if Huckabee and Hegseth are looking for an Isaiah moment, they should start by considering whether they have anything to clean up in themselves and their own country. Representing the United States as an ambassador or cabinet member is an honorable calling. But neither job comes with a divine endorsement or special entitlement to God’s favor or chosenness. What troubles me in Huckabee’s and Hegseth’s words, or when I hear the same kind of thing from any politician, is the attempt to frame their policies as a mandate from heaven and thereby not open to dispute. You can debate a cabinet secretary, but you cannot argue with God. I write with a deep brokenness in my spirit. I love the United States. This country gave me a new home and a future as a Christian Palestinian-American immigrant who came here from Bethlehem. I also care deeply about the suffering unfolding in the Middle East, which is affecting millions of Americans as well. The catastrophic situation in the Middle East is the result not only of disastrous policies, but also of American officials who have enlisted Scripture to justify territory expansion and military power. Huckabee has been talking about Palestinians and the Holy Land in this way for years. In 2008, he said, “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” His reasoning was that Palestinian identity had been used as a political tool against Israel. Earlier this year, the influential commentator Tucker Carlson pressed him on his interpretation of the biblical promise of land stretching from the Nile toward the Euphrates. “It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee replied. Like Huckabee, I revere Scripture and believe that God keeps his promises. But turning an ancient covenant promise into a claim about the borders and sovereignty of a modern secular state is theological malpractice. Huckabee is telling the world that his diplomatic strategy is not bound by U.S. policy, international law, or the grim reality of millions of people living under Israeli occupation. Hegseth’s “Send Me Tour” carries a similarly dangerous payload, but his words of choice focus less on land and more on force. When President Donald Trump renamed the Department of Defense as the Department of War, Hegseth promised “maximum lethality, not tepid legality.” Later, addressing America’s senior military leadership, he complained about “stupid rules of engagement” and promised to “untie the hands of our warfighters” to “intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country.” Subscribe Today Get daily emails in your inbox His callousness would get even worse. At a Pentagon press briefing this March, Hegseth said, “No quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” Weeks later, at a Christian worship service inside the Pentagon, he prayed for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” I wonder how the Christian servicemembers in that room heard those words. What does it do to a soldier’s conscience when his civilian leadership speaks of war in the language of divine sanction and concludes his message in Jesus’ name? Hegseth’s prayer for “no mercy” directly contradicts the words of Jesus. A doctrine of “no mercy for our enemies” shares nothing with “blessed are the merciful” or the command to love one’s enemies. Granted, governments have a duty to defend their people, and Christians should have the opportunity to enter military service. But Christian leaders in public offices cannot legitimately invoke God as an escape from moral restraint. Scripture must never become a shield for policies that violate U.S. and international law and cannot stand up to moral scrutiny. As a boy in Bethlehem, I learned the story of Isaiah as a call to humility, justice, and repentance. Today, people in power are misappropriating that text to validate shockingly inhumane policies. America’s good standing in the world has never rested on the dangerous illusion that our leaders are infallibly executing God’s agenda, and certainly not on how merciless we can become. It rests on honoring God and respecting all human life. We cannot Christianize America by militarizing its historic faith. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah was sent by God to speak truth to power, not to become its press secretary.