AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

As the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran rages on, U.S. military commanders have reportedly been invoking extremist Christian rhetoric about biblical end times, selling the conflict to American troops as a holy war. The watchdog Military Religious Freedom Foundation says it’s been inundated with more than 200 complaints from members across all branches of the U.S. military regarding these comments. One combat unit commander reportedly said the war is “part of God’s divine plan” and that, quote, “President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,” unquote.

For more, we go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we’re joined by Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. In this last five minutes we have, Mikey, if you can talk about the complaints you’ve received? And who are these commanders who are saying this is a holy war?

MIKEY WEINSTEIN: Yes, Amy. So, you know, our foundation, our main purpose is to protect the wall separating church and state in the technologically most lethal organization ever created by our species, which is the U.S. military. As soon as the war began last Saturday, a week ago this past Saturday, we started getting inundated by calls from members of the military indicating that supervisors and commanders across the branches, both in the CONUS, which is the continental United States, and internationally, were invoking the fact that this was great news. They were gleeful. They were joyful. They were euphoric, because this was a signal that, pursuant to the Christian eschatological aspects of the end times in the Book of Revelation, that we were — yeah, all of this was serving as, if you will, an accelerant or lubricant to bring their version of weaponized Jesus back, which I will also make it clear includes a metric of a 200-mile-long river, four-and-a-half-feet deep, Amy, filled with nothing but the human blood of those that their version of Jesus has slaughtered at the battle of Armageddon. So, we were getting 15, 20, 25 calls a day the first several days we were out there.

We finally broke this story with journalist Jonathan Larsen, and then it went viral. And so, what we’re reporting now is that we have over 200, you know, complaints, and that we have — you know, from 50 different installations. But it’s terrifying when you try to put, you know, a theological perspective from Christian extremism with what’s happening right now, particularly having listened to your whole show today. I’m reminded of the second inaugural speech by Abraham Lincoln when he chastised both sides in the Civil War for trying to say that God was on their side, which exacerbated the violence, the bloodshed, the injuries and the death.

AMY GOODMAN: Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth invited the controversial Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to lead the Pentagon’s prayer service. Wilson has opposed Muslims holding public office and does not believe women should be allowed to vote. Can you talk about Hegseth’s tenure as head of the Defense — what Trump calls the War — Department, and what concerns you most about his conflation of church and state?

MIKEY WEINSTEIN: I was warned by your producers not to cuss, so I will refer to Hegseth as a piece of feces, as opposed to the regular word. He’s viewed by senior leadership as a bully and a poser. He is nothing but a Christian nationalist lackey.

You forgot to mention, or I’ll mention, that Doug Wilson also believes that the Civil War was justified biblically, and, of course, that a lot of slave owners, he reminds everybody, had a really nice relationship with their slaves, the same way they did with their living room furniture. He believes that the Jews killed Jesus, Muslims have no right to participate in government, and if you’re LGBTQIA+, you probably don’t have a right to live.

The bottom line is, Hegseth has created a template that the only approved member of the U.S. military is to be straight, white, Christian nationalist and male. So why is anybody surprised that with that template going down in a hierarchical organization, tribal, adversarial, communal and ritualistic like the U.S. military, that you have subordinate commanders, all of whom are trying to get promoted, that are following the exact same thing?

We saw this happen before when the Israeli Defense Forces moved into Gaza and started attacking the Palestinians. We had — in a much smaller way, we had commanders saying, “Well, this is also sparking the battle of Armageddon.” But whenever you attach an extremist aspect of any religious faith to that machinery, Amy, of the faith responsible for war, we do not end up with little creeks, streams, ponds or lakes, Amy; we end up with one thing: oceans and oceans of blood, like the color of my shirt.

AMY GOODMAN: We have 20 seconds. What risks do service members face for reporting religious comments made by U.S. commanders?

MIKEY WEINSTEIN: If they do that officially, they become essentially what we call a tarantula on a wedding cake. Amy, you and I have been to lots of weddings. Tarantulas on wedding cakes, that doesn’t bode well for the tarantula or the wedding cake.

AMY GOODMAN: Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of Military Religious Freedom Foundation, speaking to us from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

That does it for our show. Democracy Now! produced with Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, María Taracena. I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now!