Before you share that story about how troops were told the Iran War is for "Armageddon," read this

The narrative is dramatic. The sourcing is thin. And skepticism matters, especially on something this serious.

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There’s a story that’s gone extremely viral over the past 24 hours—to the point where people well outside my atheist/politics circles are sharing it—but it’s raising all kinds of red flags on my end.

Pete Hegseth (screenshot via X/Twitter)

I figured I would explain why I have so many questions about it.

What’s the story?

On Monday, independent journalist Jonathan Larsen posted about how a “combat-unit commander” told a handful of officers that the war on Iran was part of a religious crusade and that Donald Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”

How did Larsen come to know this?

The entire thing was based on a single source: Mikey Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

Larsen wrote:

From Saturday morning through Monday night, more than 110 similar complaints about commanders in every branch of the military had been logged by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF).

The complaints came from more than 40 different units spread across at least 30 military installations, the MRFF told me Monday night.

The MRFF is keeping the complainants anonymous to prevent retribution by the Defense Department. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to my request for comment.

How viral did the story go?

Based only on how many subreddits it was posted on, and how many upvotes it received in those communities, very. It’s been shared roughly 2,000 times on Substack alone as of this writing. It’s gone viral on various social media accounts. It’s also been written about at the New Republic as well as The Guardian. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has already amplified this story to their base.

Why should we question elements of the story?

Here’s where things get muddy. I don’t have any reason to doubt Weinstein. I don’t think he’s making any of this up. I’ve covered him before and I appreciate that he’s fighting for church/state separation. Whatever personal beefs I have with him—like how he brags about being repeatedly nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, even though literally anyone can be nominated and that alone doesn’t mean anything—are irrelevant here.

Here’s my concern: If a commander in the military was arguing that this war was part of a religious crusade, why did no other media organization report this story? It’s not like they haven’t published similarly damning stories about religion in the military. How did no other reporters know about this? Why did all these soldiers (or whatever their positions are) not take their complaints to a credible military reporter, but rather decided to share it with a relatively obscure organization?

There were “110 similar complaints… in every branch of the military,” spread out over 40 units, we’re told, but MRFF is the only outlet to hear about this one? Really? (By the way, on MRFF’s own website, the numbers suddenly jump to “over 200 calls from more than 50 military installations.”) All these calls, all to one organization, and none apparently to any reporters who actually have the power to create change and have the contacts within the military to get more information.

Also, none of the reports list the name of the actual commander who made the comments, arguably the most important aspect of this story and the one person whose name shouldn’t remain anonymous.

But at least the theological concerns make sense, right?

Not quite.

Look: Pete Hegseth is very much a Christian Nationalist. His pastor Doug Wilson is very much a Christian Nationalist. Both of them are into power and patriarchy. They love using the name of Jesus to make alpha-male arguments for why America is superior to everyone else and why Christianity should effectively be the default religion for the country.

However, they rarely, if ever, make the same theological argument that this commander made.

I wrote a bit more about the End Times argument here. It’s definitely something that powerful Christians are saying. But Hegseth simply isn’t one of those guys who believes Israel needs to rule over the Middle East in order to satisfy biblical prophecies and bring about the Second Coming of Christ. Among the people who believe that nonsense, conquering Iran isn’t usually part of the narrative. Even though it all sounds very plausible under a “Christians believe a lot of weird fucking shit” umbrella, the theology this commander is supposedly spreading isn’t the theology that Hegseth follows.

They may as well be talking about two different religions.

Maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe that just means different officers are using this opportunity to spread their own personal beliefs knowing that Hegseth isn’t going to punish them for it. But since we don’t know who the commander is, it’s hard to say how high up these End Times beliefs go.

What’s up with the email sent to MRFF?

We never get to see the original email complaining about what happened because Weinstein insists he has to protect the officer. I understand anonymity, but that means there’s no way for anyone, even a journalist, to verify important elements of the story with anyone who was actually there. No one gets to speak with the soldier in question, much less the commander who supposedly said the awful thing. We’re just supposed to take Weinstein’s word for it.

But Weinstein did published his own version of the email, which I’m reprinting below in full (bolding in the body of the text is my own):

From: (Active Duty Military NCO and MRFF Client’s email address withheld)
Subject: Unit combat readiness briefing and Armageddon
Date: March 2, 2026 at 1:02:53 PM MST
To: Information Weinstein <mikey@militaryreligiousfreedom.org>

Mr. Weinstein thank you for taking my calls and the calls of some of my colleagues as to what happened earlier this morning with our combat unit.

Please protect my identity and the identities of those I’m speaking for as we discussed.

Our unit is not currently in the combat zone AOR regarding the Iranian attacks but we are in a “Ready-Support” function where we could be deployed there at any moment to join and augment the combat operations as participants.

I am a (NCO rank withheld) in our unit. This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be “afraid” as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now. He urged us to tell our troops that this was “all part of God’s divine plan” and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. He said that “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth”. He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy. Our commander would probably be described as a “Christian First” supporter. He has been this way for a very long time and makes it clear that he desires all of us under him to become just like him as a Christian. But what he did this morning was so toxic and over the line that it shocked many of us in attendance at the ops readiness briefing. Besides myself I am reaching out to MRFF on behalf of 15 fellow troops. I know you asked me about the religious views of our group who has requested help from the MRFF. I can only tell you that I am Christian and at least 10 of the others are also Christians. One of the others is Jewish and one is Muslim. I don’t know the religious or non-religious status for the other three at this time.

I and my fellow troops know that it is completely wrong to have to suffer through what our commander said today. It’s not just the separation of church and state as we discussed Mr. Weinstein. It’s the fact that our commander feels as though he is fully supported and justified by the entire (combat unit’s name withheld) chain of command to inflict his Armageddon views of our attack on Iran on those of us beneath him in the chain of command.

I hope by sending this email to you that this will help expose these wrong actions which destroy morale and unit cohesion and are in violation of the oaths we swore to support the constitution.

That’s an almost perfectly written letter. It points out that the writer represents several other people who run the gamut demographically. The person effusively thanks MRFF for everything, always. And the last paragraph basically echoes the exact arguments made by church/state separation advocates.

That also sounds a lot like this letter from a soldier that MRFF posted last month regarding “Christian-only prayer services”:

I am the spokesperson for 32 members of several units under these commanders. All 32 of us consider ourselves to be new clients of the MRFF. Although I personally am an agnostic, I was raised Protestant. Of the remaining 31 troops reaching out here 25 are either Protestants or Catholics. The others are Jewish Muslim and Buddhist with two describing themselves as being “secular”.

…

Mr. Weinstein took us through our protest options although it seems as though each one carries a high certainty of reprisal. The fear of speaking out and facing such reprisal is extremely worrisome to our group of 32 and our families too. However, without going into specifics, Mr. Weinstein provided an avenue of protest pursuant to UCMJ Article 138. We are collectively intending to pursue this if we are unable to stop these Christian-only prayer services as described above. None of us were even aware of the Article 138 avenue until Mr. Weinstein explained it all to us. Mr. Weinstein is helping us with the drafting and other matters connected to the Article 138 complaint if we have to do it. Without this guidance, action and advice from MRFF we would have no idea how to fight back. Thank you so much to the MRFF!

(Active Duty Military Officer’s name, rank, MOS/AFSC/SFSC, assigned unit, and installation all withheld)

Or this email about a “Commander's New Testament Costume Party” from 2024:

I am an active duty service member (junior enlisted) writing on behalf of 26 other active duty service members (me included, both enlisted and officer ranks) in great thanks to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. For helping us stop our Commander from ruining Halloween for ourselves and our families. Seventeen of us, like me, are Christians by the way. Others are from other religions and some no religion.

…

Please do not reveal any of our names to the public because we know our Commander and those in our chain who agree with him would try to tune us up good for going to the MRFF for help and for the MRFF getting us the Big W here.

We so appreciate what the MRFF does for all of us in our country’s armed services because there is just no way we can do it ourselves without facing very bad consequences from our superiors.

(Active Duty Junior Enlisted Member’s name, rank, MOS/AFSC, unit, and installation all withheld)

Or this email from 2023 about how officers needed to pray to prevent a government shutdown:

… For the record: of the 26 MRFF clients here 19 are either Catholic like me or Protestant. The others are Muslim, Atheist, Jewish and Buddhist.

Without the immediate intervention of the MRFF working with our base MRFF Rep. we never would have been able to get the win here!

Thanks MRFF for everything!

Or this email also from 2023 from a concerned Marine:

So I am officially asking for the immediate support of the MRFF here on behalf of myself and 21 other U.S. Marines in my unit to stop (name and rank withheld) from constantly beating us down to convert to his own Christian beliefs. Of this number asking for MRFF’s help 14 Marines are either Roman Catholic or Protestant.

Our commander’s name (two levels up from this senior NCO as you requested) is (name and rank of USMC Commander withheld) and his phone number is (USMC Commander’s phone number withheld).

Thank you Mr. Weinstein for all the MRFF does to help our military members like me and my fellow Marines here.

V/R

(Name, Rank, MOS, USMC unit and installation all withheld)

I could play this game forever, because every email published by MRFF sounds virtually identical. It’s always one person representing tons of other people who totally exist, all of whom have a variety of religious backgrounds, and only MRFF can help them.

Does everyone in the military have the exact same writing style? That would be unusual, to say the least. There’s nothing wrong with redacting personal information, but every email publicized by MRFF reads more like an internal fundraising email that’s been written by the same person—there’s rarely any personal touch and the grammar is always nearly perfect. That’s not an accusation, just an observation. It could easily be corrected if MRFF just released the original emails as written (with sensible redactions wherever necessary).

Given that so much of what MRFF does is based on these whistleblower complaints, they should be posting the originals with the sensitive parts blackened. If they’re actively editing the emails, then they need to admit that.

Why does this matter?

MRFF is not a huge organization but it takes in a lot of donations on the backs of stories like these. Their most recent Form 990, from 2024, reveals that they took in over $750,000 that year. Weinstein is the only paid employee, earning about half of what the organization took in—hardly chump change. With that kind of money, though, there should be even more responsibility in making sure the stories that are shared are detailed and verified and thorough enough to undergo scrutiny.

Right now, if Hegseth denies any of this happened, there’s no way to counter him. There’s no proof. There’s no name of a commander. There are no officers anyone can get in touch with. If the story is actively challenged—imagine some MAGA person arguing that liberals are making things up to make the other side look bad—it could be a disaster for people who care about church/state separation.

That’s why concerns like the one I’m raising here need to be taken seriously.

What Weinstein said to me

I raised many of these concerns with Weinstein this afternoon. When I asked for the original copy of the email, Weinstein sent me… the edited version I shared above. When I told him that wasn’t the original—that was the one he manipulated—he just insisted he’s never going to share the actual original email because he takes anonymity seriously. That’s also why he wasn’t going to share the name of the commander who made the claims, because that would apparently out his client(s).

Why didn’t anyone involved contact a real reporter? Why did they contact him instead? He insisted it was because MRFF had brand recognition at this point. People trusted them... even though there’s no way to verify any of the stories he was sharing, and even though there are ways to be an anonymous whistleblower in the military, and even though there are plenty of credible reporters who take these types of issues seriously.

Weinstein also admitted that he saw his role as amplifying the concerns of his clients, while taking everything at face value. He wasn’t in the business of confirming stories like this one himself. But amplifying anything that serves the narrative, while depriving actual journalists of the ability to do that leg work by refusing to share relevant details, is ripe for manipulation by bad actors.

For what it’s worth, Weinstein told me he only received one call from the officer about this particular commander. That one officer said he represented 15 other troops. The “hundreds” of other calls MRFF highlighted were also about religion, but not about this particular incident.

That just puts a fine point on my fear here. There are so many problems with our military right now, and a hell of a lot of those problems involve Christian Nationalism. If a seemingly damning story ever took off, only to be debunked, it would upend a lot of crucial work done by people who take these concerns seriously.

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