Hegseth wrote <\/a>on X Friday that the Pentagon will \u201cnever cave\u201d to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation after the nonprofit intervened to stop the religious greetings. The nonprofit\u2019s president, Mikey Weinstein, had a five-word response to the Pentagon chief in an interview with The Independent: \u201cTell it to the judge.\u201d<\/p>\n The Military Religious Freedom Foundation announced Thursday that it put an end to a \u201cweeks-long blitz\u201d of religious greetings from guards at the front gate of Kirtland.<\/p>\n The press release<\/a> included two emails that a member of the Air Force wrote to the nonprofit\u2019s president, Mikey Weinstein. The initial email sent Wednesday morning read, in part, \u201cI\u2019m writing because something is happening at the front gate of my base that is absolutely unacceptable, and frankly I\u2019m stunned it\u2019s been allowed to continue. <\/p>\n \u201cFor multiple days over the last couple of weeks, the guards have been greeting me with \u2018God bless you\u2019 every single morning as I come through. Not once, not twice… repeatedly, consistently, as if it\u2019s an officially sanctioned script.\u201d<\/p>\n The unnamed Air Force member said they want this \u201cblatant violation of the separation of church and state\u201d stopped. <\/p>\n While the Air Force member who wrote the email disclosed that they are not Christian, the nonprofit said they were one of 34 people who wanted the religious greetings stopped and that 24 complaints came from Christians. <\/p>\n The Military Religious Freedom Foundation also shared the \u201cthank you\u201d email that the Air Force member sent Wednesday afternoon, by which time the nonprofit said the issue was resolved. <\/p>\n \u201cI have gone through the same gate a couple times without hearing the religious greeting. After dealing with it repeatedly for weeks, seeing that change happen within hours is honestly incredible,\u201d the email read. <\/p>\n The nonprofit says it has helped nearly 100,000 individuals, including active-duty troops and veterans, with issues of religious freedom in the military \u2014 95 percent of whom are Christians. <\/p>\n But the issue of religious greetings at Kirtland is far from over with Hegseth now interjecting. <\/p>\n \u201cThe MRFF is a radical anti-Christian, pro-atheist group that attacks any\/all faith inside the @DeptofWar,\u201d Hegseth, who is a Christian, said in his Friday X post. <\/p>\n \u201cWe will never cave to them. The @usairforce will confront this. God bless our Airmen.\u201d<\/p>\n The Independent has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.<\/p>\n Hegseth has been known to insert his religious beliefs into the military, whether it\u2019s through monthly Christian worship services <\/a>at the Pentagon or quoting scripture at a press briefing<\/a> in March, telling reporters, \u201cBlessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cJust tell it to the judge, little Petey,\u201d Weinstein told The Independent in response to Hegseth\u2019s X post. <\/p>\n Weinstein called Hegseth a \u201cChristian nationalist\u201d whose \u201cfavorite thing to do is to defecate all over the U.S. Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n The nonprofit pointed to a clause in Air Force Instruction, which states, \u201cLeaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for free exercise of religion and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion. <\/p>\n \u201cThey must ensure their words and actions do not discriminate against any individual or group because of their faith, belief, or absence of belief, or extend preferential treatment for the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Weinstein has threatened legal action against the federal government if the religious greetings continue, and against Hegseth himself, claiming libel over his X post calling the nonprofit \u201canti-Christian\u201d and \u201cpro-atheist.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cHegseth is spewing complete and total lies, and it’s reckless disregard of the truth. And why is that important? Because I’m a public figure. For public figures in America to win a libel suit, you can’t just show regular defamation. You have to show reckless disregard,\u201d Weinstein said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[120],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-216834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pete-hegseth","tag-pete-hegseth"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117221610536372477","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Defense](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2293221834.jpg\")
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has promised to protect military members who deliver religious greetings at New Mexico\u2019s Kirtland Air Force Base (Win McNamee\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/150326-F-WV904-066.jpg\")
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation announced Thursday that it put an end to a ‘weeks-long blitz’ of religious greetings from guards at the front gate of Kirtland (Todd Berenger via Kirtland Air Force Base)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2292655649.jpg\")
The nonprofit\u2019s president, Mikey Weinstein, has threatened legal action against the federal government if the religious greetings continue (Kent Nishimura\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n