Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vows to protect military religious greetings at Kirtland AFB after nonprofit intervention

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has promised to protect military members who deliver religious greetings at New Mexico’s Kirtland Air Force Base.

Hegseth wrote on X Friday that the Pentagon will “never cave” to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation after the nonprofit intervened to stop the religious greetings. The nonprofit’s president, Mikey Weinstein, had a five-word response to the Pentagon chief in an interview with The Independent: “Tell it to the judge.”

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.

The press release included two emails that a member of the Air Force wrote to the nonprofit’s president, Mikey Weinstein. The initial email sent Wednesday morning read, in part, “I’m writing because something is happening at the front gate of my base that is absolutely unacceptable, and frankly I’m stunned it’s been allowed to continue.

“For multiple days over the last couple of weeks, the guards have been greeting me with ‘God bless you’ every single morning as I come through. Not once, not twice... repeatedly, consistently, as if it’s an officially sanctioned script.”

The unnamed Air Force member said they want this “blatant violation of the separation of church and state” stopped.

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.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation also shared the “thank you” email that the Air Force member sent Wednesday afternoon, by which time the nonprofit said the issue was resolved.

“I 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,” the email read.

The nonprofit says it has helped nearly 100,000 individuals, including active-duty troops and veterans, with issues of religious freedom in the military — 95 percent of whom are Christians.

But the issue of religious greetings at Kirtland is far from over with Hegseth now interjecting.

“The MRFF is a radical anti-Christian, pro-atheist group that attacks any/all faith inside the @DeptofWar,” Hegseth, who is a Christian, said in his Friday X post.

“We will never cave to them. The @usairforce will confront this. God bless our Airmen.”

The Independent has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.

Hegseth has been known to insert his religious beliefs into the military, whether it’s through monthly Christian worship services at the Pentagon or quoting scripture at a press briefing in March, telling reporters, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”

“Just tell it to the judge, little Petey,” Weinstein told The Independent in response to Hegseth’s X post.

Weinstein called Hegseth a “Christian nationalist” whose “favorite thing to do is to defecate all over the U.S. Constitution.”

The nonprofit pointed to a clause in Air Force Instruction, which states, “Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for free exercise of religion and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion.

“They 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.”

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 “anti-Christian” and “pro-atheist.”

“Hegseth 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,” Weinstein said.