Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at Quantico and said six words from Psalm 33:12: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord."
MSNBC's Jonathan Lemire heard those words and attacked Secretary Hegseth on Morning Joe for using "explicitly Christian rhetoric."
The Psalms are from the Hebrew Bible. They are Jewish scripture. They predate Christianity by centuries.
Lemire made the claim with full confidence: "Yet again, another moment where Secretary Hegseth uses explicitly Christian rhetoric." The confidence was impressive. The ignorance was more impressive. Psalm 33 is part of the Book of Psalms — Tehillim in Hebrew — written by King David, foundational to Jewish liturgy, and recited in synagogues every week. Christians inherited the Psalms through the Old Testament. Calling them "explicitly Christian" is like calling pizza "explicitly American."
Hegseth's Quantico address wasn't a sermon. He was laying out his vision for a reformed military. He announced that 10% of generals and admirals have been fired and outlined a 20% total reduction in general officer slots. He told the assembled troops: "No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors." He added: "The ideological clowns are out, the patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top."
That's the speech Lemire chose to attack — and he led with the religion angle. He got the religion wrong.
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Lemire also called Hegseth's remarks "juvenile and offensive." That's an opinion, and he's paid to have them. But "explicitly Christian" isn't an opinion. It's a factual claim. And it's wrong. Lemire saw a Bible verse, assumed it was Christian because a conservative said it, and broadcast that assumption to a national audience without spending ten seconds on Google.
"Diversity is not our strength, unity is our strength," Hegseth said during the same speech. He was talking about the Pentagon. He could have been talking about Morning Joe's research department.
The Psalms are 3,000 years old. Lemire called one "explicitly Christian" on national television. Nobody in the studio corrected him.