Military commanders tell troops Iran war is God's plan for Armageddon

Operation Epic Fury launched on Feb. 28, 2026. Within hours — before dawn on March 1 — the Military Religious Freedom Foundation began receiving complaints from active-duty service members describing commanders who used official military briefings to tell troops the Iran war was ordained by God. By March 3, the MRFF had logged more than 200 complaints from personnel at more than 40 units spread across at least 30 military installations in every branch of the armed forces: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Space Force. Military Religious Freedom Foundation Military.com

The most detailed complaint, published verbatim by journalist Jonathan Larsen, came from a noncommissioned officer writing on behalf of themselves and 15 fellow service members. The NCO described their commander opening a combat readiness briefing — an official military formation — by telling troops not to fear what was happening because the war was 'all part of God's divine plan.' The commander cited the Book of Revelation and referenced the second coming of Jesus Christ. The NCO wrote that the commander 'had a big grin on his face' while delivering the message. HuffPost Snopes

The same commander went further, telling troops that 'President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.' The NCO's letter described the impact on the unit: the message had 'destroyed morale and unit cohesion' and was 'in violation of the oaths we swore to support the Constitution.' The NCO said they feared retaliation but felt they had no choice but to report the conduct. HuffPost

MRFF founder Mikey Weinstein said the volume and distribution of complaints — across all five branches, in installations from the continental United States to the Gulf — was unprecedented in the organization's 21-year history. He described the pattern as systematic rather than isolated: multiple independent accounts from installations with no connection to each other described commanders making nearly identical statements. Some service members reported being invited to Bible studies at their commanders' homes, where the Iran war was discussed as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Military Religious Freedom Foundation Middle East Eye

The institutional context for the complaints was the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Since his confirmation in January 2025, Hegseth had presided over mandatory monthly prayer meetings throughout the Pentagon, launched a weekly White House Bible study led by pastor Ralph Drollinger, and delivered a speech at the Fellowship Foundation's prayer breakfast on Feb. 5 in which he falsely claimed the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Hegseth's tattoos include 'Deus Vult' — Latin for 'God wills it' — a phrase associated with the medieval Crusades. Al Jazeera Cornell University

Drollinger's Capitol Ministries teaches that God commands the United States to support Israel and that America has a providential role in Middle East events. His curriculum, which is distributed to legislators and senior officials who attend his Bible studies, explicitly frames the Israeli-Arab conflict in eschatological terms — the belief that the conflict is part of a divinely ordained timeline leading to the end of the world. Hegseth's attendance at Drollinger's sessions provided the theological framework that then appeared in commanders' briefings to troops. Cornell University Al Jazeera

Department of Defense regulations explicitly prohibit commanders from using their rank and authority to promote personal religious beliefs or require participation in religious activities. DoD Instruction 1300.17 protects service members' free exercise of religion while barring superiors from imposing their own religious views in official settings. Section 1583 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code reinforces these protections. Violations can be prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice as conduct unbecoming an officer or violations of service members' constitutional rights. Military.com Snopes

Military law expert and former Army officer Daniel Mann told HuffPost that the climate Hegseth created at the senior Pentagon level produced what he called a 'permission environment' — subordinate commanders reading institutional signals and concluding they had tacit approval to impose their religious views in ways that would previously have triggered immediate UCMJ proceedings. Mann said the risk of retaliation facing service members who object to religious coercion is significant, and that the public's willingness to broadcast support for those who speak up can reduce that risk. HuffPost

Separately from the religious coercion complaints, Hegseth's statement to reporters that there were 'no rules of engagement' for the Iran operation drew criticism from military legal professionals and international law scholars. Rules of engagement are the orders that tell commanders what force they can use and what targets they can strike, and they are the primary operational mechanism through which military forces implement civilian protection requirements under the Geneva Conventions. NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman reported the 'no rules of engagement' comment 'outraged some military professionals.' The statement preceded the confirmed strike on the Minab girls' school, which killed at least 168 people. Military.com

The complaint volume surge — more than 200 in 72 hours — sharply exceeded the MRFF's prior high-water mark, which occurred after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack. Weinstein drew a direct line between senior leadership conduct and the speed of the escalation: when the Secretary of Defense models religious language as a framework for war, commanders at every level receive a signal about what speech is expected and rewarded. The complaints represented service members from junior enlisted ranks through senior NCOs, spanning every branch and multiple geographic commands. Military Religious Freedom Foundation Middle East Eye