I posted something on Facebook a few days ago that really hit a nerve.
Most of my posts go largely unnoticed. This one got 2,200 reactions. Nearly 600 shares. A post about Netanyahu, Trump, and why criticizing Israel’s government is not the same as hating Jewish people. Why criticizing our government isn’t anti-American.
And then the responses came.
My Jewish friends pushed back. They were concerned I’d stir up anti-semitism, make the world less safe for Jews. The trolls arrived. Ugly memes I won’t repeat. Someone claiming the Talmud teaches Jewish people to defraud non-Jews. Then another person informed me that Islam is a “Satanic death cult.”
I’ve been sitting with all of it. And I think I know why the post resonated.
We are exhausted.
We Are Tired of Being Told to Be Quiet
We are tired of governments killing in our names and calling it patriotism.
We are tired of religious leaders blessing wars and calling it faith.
We are tired of being told that if we speak out — if we dare to say this is wrong — we are bad Americans, bad Christians, bad Jews, anti-semites, traitors.
Even Jewish people who criticize Israel are being ostracized by their own communities.
This is not an abstraction. I work with grieving people. I have a client right now whose grief is not about death — it’s about exile. She has been cut off from friends and family because she speaks out against what is happening in Gaza. She lost her community for telling the truth as she sees it.
That is its own kind of death.
And it is happening everywhere. The message is consistent: Stay in line. Don’t make waves. Don’t embarrass us. Silence is loyalty.
I reject that.
What a True Patriot Actually Does
There’s a version of patriotism that says: my country, right or wrong.
I don’t believe in that version.
A true patriot doesn’t blindly follow his country. A true patriot wants to make his country right — even when that means standing against the government. Especially then.
The same is true of faith.
A true person of faith doesn’t follow religious leaders into violence without question. A true person of faith goes back to the source — the actual teachings, the actual words — and asks: Is this what we believe? Is this who we are? This is the journey I took for several years before I left Christianity.
And sometimes the answer is no.
Sometimes the leaders are wrong. Sometimes the nation is wrong. Sometimes the institution built in the name of God has wandered so far from God that the most faithful thing you can do is say so out loud. Sometimes, you even have to leave.
When Prayer Becomes a Weapon
This week, Pete Hegseth stood at the Pentagon pulpit — at a mandatory Christian worship service that civilian employees and uniformed military personnel were expected to attend — and prayed.
It wasn’t a prayer most of us would recognize.
He read from the Psalms: “I pursued my enemies and overtook them. I did not turn back till they were consumed. I thrust them through so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet.” Military Times (https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/03/26/hegseth-prays-for-overwhelming-violence-during-pentagon-christian-service/)
He then recited what he said was the chaplain’s prayer from the mission that captured Venezuela’s former president.
“Behold now the wicked who rise against your justice and the peace of the righteous. Snap the rod of the oppressor, frustrate the wicked plans, and break the teeth of the ungodly. By the blast of your anger, let the evil perish.” The Hill (https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5802042-defense-secretary-pentagon-prayer/)
And then this:
“Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.” Military Times (https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/03/26/hegseth-prays-for-overwhelming-violence-during-pentagon-christian-service/)
He closed by asking God to “let justice be executed swiftly and without remorse, that evil may be driven back, and wicked souls delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them.” Military Times (https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2026/03/26/hegseth-prays-for-overwhelming-violence-during-pentagon-christian-service/)
This is the Secretary of Defense. Using the Pentagon as a church. Praying for death and damnation in the name of Jesus Christ.
And I’m supposed to stay quiet about that?
I’m supposed to nod along because criticizing it might mean I’m not a good Christian? Not a good American?
No.
As an aside, the people who cherry-pick verses from the Quran or the Talmud to condemn those religions as violent are so self-unaware that they forget these verses are in their Bibles and have been to justify all sorts of atrocities.
This Is Why I Left
I gr...
