The Pentagon is creating an Office of Religious Affairs to strengthen religious support across the military after what War Secretary Pete Hegseth described as an era dominated by political correctness and weakened religious community.

The office, known as ORA, will report directly to Hegseth and is intended to provide service members with “first-class religious support.” Hegseth announced the initiative Wednesday during his State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.

The audience included junior officers and enlisted leaders. Hegseth presented spiritual readiness as a vital part of military service rather than an administrative concern to be buried beneath layers of bureaucracy.

“Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armor of God because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual,” Hegseth said on Wednesday. “God is good. Evil is not. And America’s military must understand the difference.”

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Hegseth introduced ORA alongside other initiatives, including the Autonomous Warfare Command. He said those efforts would remain incomplete without faith, which he called the “most essential part of our republic.”

According to Hegseth, less than 5% of the joint force identifies as nonreligious, while the other 95% recognizes an “Almighty God.” The Pentagon has not issued an official report on the military’s religious makeup since 2019.

That 2019 report found that 70% of active duty personnel were Christian, 2% were atheist or agnostic, and 24% were listed as unclassified or unknown. Those figures provide the most recent official composition cited in the announcement.

Image Credit: DoW

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Hegseth argued that the force had previously emphasized “political correctness and secular humanism” instead of prioritizing faith. He also said “secular careerists” and lawyers wielding red tape had been dictating the spiritual lives of service members instead of military chaplains.

“The people who actually practice faith and religion, our chaplains, were buried echelons deep, waiting for permission,” Hegseth said. “We asked chaplains to serve and sacrifice, and then sidelined them with paperwork and process. And that ends now.”

Military chaplains will remain the War Department’s primary providers of religious support, according to a Pentagon release. The new office will serve as their advocate within the department and at its highest levels.

Under a Sept. 30 memorandum, ORA will report directly to the War Secretary effective immediately. Its director, who has not yet been named, will become the principal adviser to the secretary and deputy secretary on religious affairs throughout the department.

The office will work to ensure that the Pentagon and military departments receive sufficient funding and resources for religious affairs. That mission includes chaplain led programs, faith based initiatives, research, and analytical tools designed to support and assess spiritual fitness and readiness.

ORA will also align and issue religious affairs policies for the secretary. It will represent him in related engagements with Congress, religious endorsing organizations, and external government departments.

Image Credit: DoW

The Armed Forces Chaplains Board and its executive director will be placed under the office’s authority for chaplain advisement. That realignment gives the new organization a direct role in how religious support is structured within the military.

“This is not going to be a paper-pushing shop,” Hegseth said. “It’s going to have real teeth. It’ll protect budgets, demand infrastructure and strengthen religious support. The experts, our chaplains, will finally have an advocate at the highest levels.”

Within 60 days of the memorandum’s date, ORA is expected to submit an initial baseline budget for fiscal year 2027 funding, including permanent staffing requirements. Within 90 days, the director of Administration and Management will help incorporate the office into the Pentagon’s organizational framework.

That 90 day process will also identify the initial allocation of senior executive service, civilian, and military positions needed to establish the office. Military department secretaries must submit reports identifying unfunded and underfunded religious affairs requirements within the same period.

The announcement follows the Pentagon’s reduction of officially recognized faith affiliations from more than 200 to 31. That change drew criticism because most of the recognized affiliations are Christian denominations and prompted calls for the department to revise classifications that grouped those denominations beneath a single subheading.

Image Credit: DoW

Hegseth has also directed an overhaul of the Chaplain Corps as part of what he called a “top-down cultural shift.” He later required military chaplains to replace rank insignia with symbols representing their faith.

Military services recently began requiring personnel to update Religious Affiliation Codes in their records. The Department of the Air Force said the requirement exists only to improve chaplains’ understanding of the force’s religious composition.

Hegseth has faced criticism from advocacy groups over monthly Christian prayer services at the Pentagon and religious rhetoric during public appearances. Those groups raised concerns about linking Christianity with politics and the military.

“Our national motto is, after all, ‘In God We Trust,’” Hegseth said Wednesday. “Today, we reaffirm that trust. We’re placing spiritual health at the same level as physical health.”

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