COMMENT: A nation under God’s watchful eye, or under the watchful eye of a man who thinks he is God

When the Secretary of War Prays Instead of Planning

And then we need to talk about Pete Hegseth separately. Because his case is emblematic of the drift we’re seeing. Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of Defense—that is, the man who controls the world’s largest military budget, commands two million active-duty military personnel, and has his finger on the nuclear codes—is a member of an ultra-conservative evangelical church. This is not a biographical detail. It is an operational fact.

And what he did on Sunday was use his official position to publicly promote his religious vision of America. Vicky Moon, 37, quoted in the Radio-Canada article, says she appreciates the fact that Hegseth is “reorganizing our military to refocus it on Christ.” You read that right. An American citizen, in 2026, is publicly praising the Secretary of Defense for reorganizing the federal military around Jesus Christ. And no one in Washington seems to find this problematic.

A Precedent That Should Send Shivers Down Your Spine

Yet this phenomenon is not new in history. When a secular state begins to entrust its military apparatus to leaders driven by absolutist religious convictions, we know what follows. We saw it in Iran after 1979, where the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution infiltrated every level of the armed forces. We saw it in Israel, where the growing influence of ultra-Orthodox rabbis in combat units is causing problems with operational doctrine. We saw it in Putin’s Russia, where the Russian Orthodox Church literally blesses missiles before they are launched at Ukraine.

And now we’re seeing it in America. With a Secretary of Defense who speaks of “spiritual warfare” instead of NATO doctrine. Who calls for ceaseless prayer instead of reforming the Pentagon’s supply chain, which is buckling under production delays. Who places Jesus above the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And this is no caricature. That’s exactly what he did, publicly, on Sunday, on the National Mall, using the symbolic resources of his office.

A general prays in private—that is his freedom. A minister of war prays in public on behalf of the state—that is a threat to the Republic.

The Founding Fathers Were Not Who We’re Told They Were

We must now debunk the historical lie upon which this entire spectacle is based. The idea that the United States was founded as a “Christian nation” is a later political rewriting of history, fabricated primarily starting in the 1950s in the context of the Cold War to distinguish America from the atheist Soviet Union. It was during those years that “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance, in 1954. It was during those years that “In God We Trust” appeared on U.S. currency, in 1957. It wasn’t the Founding Fathers who did this. It was 20th-century politicians.

The true Founding Fathers were, for the most part, deists—that is, men who believed in an impersonal “Great Clockmaker” but who deeply distrusted organized churches. Thomas Jefferson literally cut up his own Bible to remove all the miracles and keep only the moral teachings of Jesus as a human philosopher. Benjamin Franklin did not believe in the divinity of Christ. James Madison considered the separation of church and state to be the very condition of authentic religious freedom. And George Washington—whose name Pete Hegseth dares to invoke on Sundays—wrote in 1790 in his famous letter to the Newport synagogue that the United States would grant “no sanction to sectarianism, no assistance to persecution.”

The Misuse of History for the Sake of Power

So when Mike Johnson, on Fox News on Sunday, accuses critics of Christian nationalism of having “coined this pejorative term to silence Christian voices,” he is lying. Deliberately. The term “Christian nationalism” has been used by scholars since the 1990s to describe a specific, identifiable, and measurable political phenomenon: the fusion of a religious identity with a national identity in order to claim a moral monopoly on the definition of what it means to be American.

And this monopoly, once established, serves exactly the purpose Sam Perry describes: to “justify certain positions, particularly anti-immigration ones.” That is, to provide theological cover for ICE’s massive raids, the accelerated deportations of Latino families, travel bans targeting Muslim-majority countries, the elimination of refugee aid programs, and soon—let’s be honest about where this is headed—restrictions on the rights of religious, sexual, and ethnic minorities right here on American soil.

History does not lie to itself. But nations do. And that is always the prelude to serious trouble.

The Lesson of Civic Secularism

And I’d like to conclude by turning our attention inward. Because what’s happening in Washington isn’t just an American issue. It’s a test case for what liberal democracies can become when they stop protecting the separation of church and state. Since the Quiet Revolution, Quebec has made the opposite choice. We removed the Catholic Church from schools, hospitals, and social services. We adopted Bill 21 on state secularism—controversial, to be sure, but driven by the conviction that public officials in positions of authority must not display their religious affiliation while performing their duties.

And look at what becomes of a country that does not make this choice. Look at Trump’s America in 2026, where the Secretary of Defense publicly preaches his faith, where the president reads the Bible in the Oval Office, where the Speaker of the House of Representatives invokes God to bless anti-immigration policies. We have avoided that kind of drift in Quebec. And every time we’re called “closed-minded” or “intolerant” for sticking to this line, we should point to Washington in 2026 and ask: Is that really the model you want?

A Warning to European Democracies

The same question applies to France, where republican secularism is constantly under attack by movements seeking to reintroduce religion into the public sphere. For Giorgia Meloni’s Italy, which flirts with a rhetoric of national Catholic identity. For Poland and Hungary, where the Catholic Church has become an instrument of political power. For Russia, as we’ve already noted, where Cyril of Moscow blesses weapons.

Trump’s America, in May 2026, offers us a full-scale demonstration of what happens when civic safeguards are allowed to crumble. We get prayer marathons on the National Mall featuring sitting cabinet members. We end up with a commander-in-chief who conflates the Bible with foreign policy. We end up with a 37-year-old woman who praises the fact that the U.S. military is “refocused on Christ.” We end up, slowly, through osmosis, habit, and resignation, with the Republic slipping into a theocracy.

Secularism is not a philosophical whim. It is the wall that prevents the beliefs of some from becoming the law for others.

What This Event Reveals About America in 2026

Beyond the religious spectacle, beyond the stained-glass windows and patriotic hymns, what we must see in the May 17, 2026, gathering is a nation that prays because it can no longer look itself in the eye. A nation whose economy is faltering under the weight of its own president’s tariffs. A nation where inflation is soaring while incomes stagnate. A nation whose military fleet takes fifteen years to build a single aircraft carrier. A nation whose diplomacy has become a comedy skit on social media. A nation that, no longer knowing how to solve its material problems, takes refuge in supernatural invocation.

This is exactly the mechanism described by Karl Marx—who is usually quoted out of context—when he spoke of religion as “the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, the soul of a soulless age.” Trump’s America prays because it is suffering. And it prays all the more fervently because it refuses to face the real causes of its suffering, which are political, economic, and structural—not spiritual.

The Judgment That Is Coming

But here is the hard truth that Sunday’s prayers will not change. God will not lower gas prices. Jesus will not fix the supply chains ravaged by Trump’s tariffs. The Holy Spirit will not deliver the USS Doris Miller two years ahead of schedule. No amount of public prayer on the National Mall will change the arithmetic of the “rancid numbers” from the CBS/YouGov poll released that same day.

So Americans will continue to suffer financially, to pay more for groceries, to see their incomes stagnate. And some of those who raised their arms to the heavens on Sunday will eventually come back down to Earth and, in November 2026, vote against the men who sold them God instead of purchasing power. And it is in this brutal return to reality—in this clash between religious promises and the rent bill—that America’s political future will be decided. Not in the stained-glass windows. Not in the hymns. At the supermarket checkout counters.

On May 17, 2026, America fell to its knees. It remains to be seen whether it will have the courage, in November, to get back up.

Signed, Jacques Pj Provost