1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

I am writing as your constituent to document a clear pattern of Department of Defense leadership violating the Establishment Clause by deploying religious scripture as official state messaging. We need real congressional accountability—not just another inquiry. The United States is not, and has never been, a Christian nation. Our foundational governing documents and early statecraft established an explicitly secular republic—from the Constitution’s No Religious Test Clause and First Amendment, to President John Adams’s 1797 Treaty of Tripoli unanimously declaring that the U.S. government is "not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion," to Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 Danbury Baptists letter affirming a "wall of separation between Church & State." When government officials attempt to revise this history to claim a divine mandate, they are not honoring American heritage; they are rejecting it in favor of fringe, sectarian revisionism. This month, the Department of Defense released a recruitment campaign titled "Send Me," using the return of four slain Air Force members as a promotional backdrop. The slogan directly references Isaiah 6:8 ("Here am I; send me") - a verse describing an individual’s private spiritual response to their deity, not an individual signing up to fight a foreign war for a nation. This is a transparent attempt to weaponize fringe religious ideology and manufacture a divine mandate for state military operations. It is not just inappropriate—deploying sectarian religious text in a military advertisement is a direct constitutional violation. And this is not an isolated incident. It fits a documented pattern of leadership abusing official authority to impose sectarian religious observance on military personnel from this administration's Department of Defense: - In April, Secretary Hegseth hosted an official Pentagon worship service, using military authority to pressure service members into state-sanctioned religious observance. During the service, he delivered a prayer drawn largely from a Pulp Fiction movie monologue rather than actual scripture, using it to frame the war in Iran as a holy crusade. - In March, Hegseth quoted Old Testament scripture in official remarks discussing the progress of that same war—cynically framing state-directed military operations as a holy war to give government violence a divine mandate. - In June, he invoked Isaiah 6:8 again while addressing troops stationed in France—using a mandatory, captive military formation to promote sectarian theology to subordinates who cannot object or walk away. - And this isn't limited to the Pentagon, either. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security deployed the same scripture to frame federal immigration enforcement as a religious mandate. This is not an objection to religion, it is an objection to doctrine from a single religion being used as messaging from the United States government. Ed Stetzer, professor and dean at Wheaton College—one of the country's most respected evangelical institutions—has publicly called this kind of scripture-as-state-messaging practice "inappropriate at best and blasphemous at worst." Religious leaders across the spectrum, not just secular Americans, have reason to object when the state co-opts religious writings to sell a war. The First Amendment's Establishment Clause exists precisely to prevent the government from adopting, endorsing, or deploying any religious framework as an arm of state power. Official recruitment materials, public remarks, and worship services conducted under government authority are government speech, not private religious expression. They are bound by constitutional limits regardless of which administration or faith is involved. I am demanding that you take the following concrete actions: 1. Hold formal committee hearings and issue subpoenas compelling Secretary Hegseth and Department of Defense communications staff to testify about who approved the "Send Me" campaign, and to produce any internal legal review of its constitutionality. 2. Introduce legislation explicitly prohibiting federal agencies from using religious texts, religious symbolism, or faith-based messaging in official recruitment materials, public communications, or ceremonies conducted under government authority. 3. Attach an appropriations rider barring Department of Defense funds from being used to produce or promote materials that invoke a specific religious text or tradition. 4. Direct the House Judiciary Committee to formally assess whether this pattern of conduct rises to the level of an impeachment inquiry, forcing every member to go on record regarding this misuse of executive authority. This will not be the last time I write to you on this matter. I intend to track future instances closely, as this administration has given every indication that it will continue to use religious text from a single religion for state propaganda. I will be back with the next example when it happens, and I expect Congress to do more than simply watch it unfold alongside me.