Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has pledged to toss “New Age notions” in America’s Chaplain Corps and make the military body “great again.”   “In recent decades, its role has been degraded in an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism,” Hegseth said of the Chaplain Corps in video message released Tuesday night.   “Chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers,” Hegseth said, adding “faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care.”   Across all branches of the U.S. military, there are estimated to be 3,000 to 4,000 military chaplains.   The Chaplain Corps was established in 1775 at the request of George Washington, who at the time was serving as general of the Continental Army. Washington established the corps to meet the spiritual needs of the men.   “For about 200 years, the chaplain corps continued its role as the spiritual leader of our service members, serving our men and women in times of hardship and ministering to their souls, but sadly, as part of the ongoing war on warriors, in recent decades, its role has been degraded,” Hegseth said.   We are going to make the Chaplain Corps great again. pic.twitter.com/xbKZBdbiSR— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) December 17, 2025 The Secretary of War points to the U.S. Army Spiritual Fitness Guide as a critical example of the ways secularism has influenced the Chaplain Corps.   The 112-page document mentions “God” only once, does not mention “Jesus” or “virtue,” but does mention “feelings” 11 times and “spiritual” over 350 times.   “The guide relies on New Age notions, saying that the soldier’s spirit consists of consciousness, creativity and connection,” Hegseth said.   “The guide itself reports that around 82% of the military are religious, yet ironically, it alienates our war fighters of faith by pushing secular humanism. In short, it’s unacceptable and unserious, so we’re tossing it,” he continued.   Hegseth has signed a directive to eliminate the use of the Army Spiritual Fitness Guide. The secretary also announced that military is simplifying the U.S. Military’s Faith and Belief Coding System, which is used to track religions and spiritual preferences within the military.   The system currently has over 200 faith and belief codes, according to Hegseth, who added that the majority of the military uses only six of the codes, and 11 are not used at all.   A new system will be streamlined, Hegseth said, and moved “to a new list of religious affiliation codes so that our chaplains can actually use it to minister better to the flock.”   Tuesday announcement is the first of similar reforms to come, according to the secretary.   “There will be a top-down cultural shift putting spiritual well-being on the same footing as mental and physical health,” Hegseth said.   Being a chaplain in the U.S. military is a “high and sacred calling, but this only works if our shepherds are actually given the freedom to boldly guide and care for their flock,” he said.   “We are going to make the Chaplain Corps great again,” Hegseth pledged, adding, “Merry Christmas.”   The post Military Is Tossing ‘New Age Notions’ and Will Make Chaplain Corps ‘Great Again,’ Hegseth Announces appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is one step closer to having U.S. senators feel the burden of a government shutdown. Last week, the Senate Rules Committee unanimously advanced the senator’s resolution to withhold senators’ pay during a government shutdown.  Kennedy’s resolution would require that the paychecks of senators be withheld by the secretary of the Senate during the course of a shutdown to be released only when the period of the government shutdown ends. The legislation would take effect after the November 2026 general election. The bill comes after Americans endured the longest government shutdown in U.S. history this past year, which dragged on for more than 40 days. During that time, thousands of federal workers were furloughed, and essential federal personnel were forced to come to work with the anxiety of not knowing if they would be compensated on a regular schedule. The more than monthlong lapse in federal funding disrupted thousands of flights and led to the closure of national parks and the Smithsonian museums. The airline Delta alone expects to take a $200 million loss to its profits this year because of the government shutdown. By law, furloughed federal workers receive back pay following a government shutdown.  “If the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history taught us anything, it’s that senators don’t deserve a dime from the American taxpayer until they do their jobs. When federal workers, our troops, and border agents don’t get paid during a government shutdown, U.S. Senators shouldn’t be any different,” Kennedy said in a statement, adding, “This unanimous Rules Committee vote to withhold senators’ paychecks during shutdowns is a major win for common sense. Passing my resolution is the right thing to do—pure and simple—and the Senate ought to move it across the finish line quickly.” The Louisiana lawmaker has represented the Pelican State in the Senate since 2017. He was previously Louisiana’s state treasurer from 2000 to 2017, and the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue from 1996 to 1999.  This year Kennedy had also introduced two bills, the No Shutdown Paychecks to Politicians Act and the Withhold Member Pay During Shutdowns Act, designed to prevent lawmakers in both chambers of Congress from receiving compensation just like other employees of the federal government. Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., who chairs the House Administration Committee, introduced a House version of the Withhold Member Pay During Shutdowns Act that would have facilitated the withholding of member pay during a shutdown. “If service members, men and women of federal law enforcement, and other essential employees are working without pay during the Schumer shutdown, members of Congress should not be paid either,” Steil said in a statement at the time. Kennedy also said in a comment, “I don’t see missing paychecks or empty dinner plates as leverage or bargaining chips. My bills ensure Congress feels the same pain as the folks we’re failing to pay—our troops, air traffic controllers, and federal workers. If we can’t do our jobs and fund the government, we don’t deserve a paycheck—plain and simple.”  The post Kennedy’s Bill Withholding Senator Pay During Shutdown Advances appeared first on The Daily Signal.

What can Donald Trump do to stop morphing into Joe Biden? The two presidents could hardly be more different in most ways—but in the one that counts most with voters, Trump is in danger of resembling his predecessor. Americans rejected Biden and the Democrats last year because they were incensed at the lousy state of the economy. Right now, they’re not much happier with Trump’s economy. Inflation was the No. 1 concern on voters’ minds last year, and it’s still a top concern today. Trump’s team say they plan to tout “affordability” as a theme Republicans can win on in next November’s congressional midterms. If the election were held today, that pitch wouldn’t sell: An AP/NORC poll released last week found 67% of Americans view the president’s handling of the economy negatively. Yet Trump told Politico’s Dasha Burns in a Dec. 8 interview he’d give himself an “A-plus” grade on the economy—and when she questioned that, he raised it to “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.” The administration thinks Americans will come around to Trump’s perspective on the economy sooner rather than later, and well ahead of the midterms. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reassures his colleagues, and his boss, that come April 15—when Americans see just what the permanent tax cuts Trump shepherded through Congress this year mean for them personally—everyone will feel great. And Trump has a plan he thinks will guarantee a high-growth economy next year: getting the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates. He told The Wall Street Journal last week he wants “the lowest rate in the world”—indeed “1% and maybe lower than that.” Early next year, Trump is set to appoint a new Fed chairman. He says of one leading candidate, Kevin Warsh, “He thinks you have to lower interest rates” and “so does everybody else that I’ve talked to.” Lower rates mean easy credit, with businesses and individuals able to take out more loans to finance whatever improvements, new ventures or other spending they wish. That sounds great—it’s almost free money!—but it’s a recipe for inflation. The benefits Americans get from keeping more of the money they earn, thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, will be wiped out if inflation accelerates. A Harvard/Harris poll last week found 57% of voters think Trump is losing the fight against inflation, and while that’s an improvement over last month, when 60% said the same, it’s a warning the administration can hardly afford to ignore. If Trump gets inflation wrong, nothing he gets right will save the GOP next November—or in 2028. The good news for Trump is that his overall approval ratings, in the low 40s, are a little higher than Barack Obama’s or George W. Bush’s at this point in their second terms. The bad news is Obama and Bush both saw their side lose big in the next congressional elections, and neither man was succeeded in the White House by a member of his own party. Trump is betting big on artificial intelligence to drive the kind of economic boom Bill Clinton enjoyed thanks to the telecommunications and internet revolution. The administration wants to beat China in AI development no matter what, which is why Trump just issued an executive order limiting states’ ability to regulate the technology. But there’s another angle, too, as a report in Semafor notes: “A big car company might promise a $5 billion or $10 billion investment. The big AI companies can raise and spend orders of magnitude more” and “Trump is good at counting zeros.” The public, however, takes a darker view of AI, with fully 50% of Americans polled by Pew this fall saying they’re more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life—compared to only 10% who were more excited than concerned. Trump can’t bank on AI giving him that A-plus for the economy he thinks he deserves. What the administration can do, however, is boost other sectors as well by making slashing red tape and regulation a top priority in Year Two. Freeing up the economy is the healthy alternative to a Fed-driven credit binge. Interest-rate cuts are a drug that may produce instant euphoria, but the withdrawal symptoms are deadly—as debt-driven booms turn into devastating busts. Trump inherited a debilitated economy from a debilitated President Biden; voters will make some allowance for that. What they won’t do is give the Republican Party another chance if it makes inflation worse instead of better. Americans voted for Trump; if they wind up with Biden’s economy anyway, there’s going to be hell to pay at the ballot box. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump’s Inflation Trap appeared first on The Daily Signal.

America is waking up.  After years of being told that gender is fluid, that chromosomes are incidental, and that masculinity is toxic or obsolete, America is rediscovering a truth our culture worked hard to bury: The Y matters.  The crisis began the moment the “Y” was dismissed. Influential voices turned identity into a DIY project, erased the Y chromosome as a marker of manhood, blurred essential boundaries, and loosened every anchor that once helped boys grow. Time-tested anchors of family, faith, community, mentors, and clear expectations were discarded.  In the name of compassion, boys were told that male and female were interchangeable, that fathers were optional, and that masculinity was either threatening or foolish. We’re now living with the consequences: Boys are faltering, and a generation is stalling on the road to manhood.  What we’ve offered boys is not freedom, but confusion. Confusion is crippling. It produces faltering boys instead of faithful men. A nervous system without clarity is a nervous system in distress. That’s not ideology. That’s neuroscience.  The Data Is Sobering  Young men today are slower to finish school, launch careers, get married, or start families than any generation in modern history. Millions of boys grow up without fathers. Boys and men consume pornography at neurological overload levels, male suicide rates continue to climb, and a majority of young men say they feel directionless, discouraged, or unsure what adulthood even requires of them.  More boys now have smartphones than fathers in the home, and young men are being shaped more by algorithms than by actual men. The problem has never been the presence of masculinity. It’s the absence of it. A confused culture produces confused boys. Confused boys become wounded boys. And wounded boys—and wounded men—act out. What we often call “toxic masculinity” isn’t masculinity at all—it’s strength severed from love, power detached from purpose. This isn’t accidental. This is cause and effect.  When Men Go Silent, the Influencers Step In  In the midst of confusion, the strongest voices fill the void. For these craving direction, voices like Andrew Tate or Nick Fuentes appeal. They speak with certainty. They promise strength, belonging, answers, and initiation.   This isn’t an endorsement of them. It’s an indictment of us. A society that erases sexual difference is not enlightened—it’s disoriented. And children cannot flourish in a world where nothing is solid.  This Is Why the ‘Y’ Matters  America is waking up to the reality that the “Y” matters. That masculinity matters. And young men are searching for meaning in the only place capable of giving it: the truths of Scripture. There, they discover that the “Y” doesn’t just mark their biology—it points them to their purpose. The “Y” gives them their Why.  The Y chromosome is not a cultural construct. It is a design—biological, psychological, and spiritual. Every man is born with a Y. But only intentional formation gives him his Why.  Masculinity was God’s idea first, not a social disease that needs to be eradicated. And as C.S. Lewis wrote of Aslan, we can say of men: “He isn’t safe. But he’s good.” We don’t need less masculinity. We need masculinity ordered toward courage, conviction, humility and love.  The Model Still Stands  The truest picture of manhood isn’t coming from Hollywood, Washington, or YouTube. It comes from Jesus Christ—the One who confronted hypocrisy and welcomed the broken, who overturned tables and washed feet, who carried the weight of the world not to dominate but to redeem.  This is masculinity rightly ordered. This is the standard that boys are starving for.  Where the Work Happens  Across the country, boys are waiting—quietly, anxiously—for men to step in with the clarity the culture refuses to give. This is the work being done at Trail Life USA. Not politics. Not theatrics. Intentional formation  To do that, boys need milestones on the journey to manhood. Boys need formation. Boys need men. They need fathers and mentors who teach them how to carry weight, how to honor women, how to master impulses, how to take responsibility, how to use strength for the good of others—strength that serves, not dominates.  Men walking with boys. Men modeling strength ruled by love. Men showing boys how to build, protect, serve and lead. Not perfect men. Present men. Because if we lose the boys, we lose the future.  A Generation Is Watching  Every boy is asking, even if he never says it out loud: Who will show me the way?  Masculinity doesn’t emerge by accident. It is shaped by steady hands, steady hearts, and steady men. Freedom needs fathers. Faith needs fighters. Families need men who know who they are—and why they’re here. America needs masculinity right now. It will take restoring the principles that created the greatest generation to build a new generation that doesn’t just navigate this destructive tide but turns back the tide itself.  God made you masculine on purpose. That means your “Y” matters. So, embrace your “Y” and live your Why. Because the “boY” matters, and boys are looking for men to follow.  And when boys flourish, families strengthen, communities stabilize, and nations endure. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Erasing Masculinity Has Created a Generation in Crisis appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Southern Poverty Law Center was deeply involved in setting federal policy during the Biden administration, as well as law enforcement and even school policies across the country, despite labeling mainstream right-of-center organizations as “hate groups,” experts told a House panel Tuesday.  The SPLC previously claimed it was not anti-Christian, citing how it did not label Focus on the Family on its “hate map.” However, earlier this year, the group did add Focus on the Family to the list–and removed the defense of being anti-Christian from the website, said Tyler O’Neil, senior editor of The Daily Signal and author of “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.” The “hate map,” is intended to chill speech, O’Neil told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government on Tuesday.  “This contributes to the hostile climate in which conservatives keep their mouths shut in order to avoid being accused of racism, Islamophobia, or hate,” O’Neil said. “It is no accident that activists use this hate map to deplatform conservatives, or that activist groups have tried to pressure donor advised funds to blacklist the SPLC’s targets.” The Real Reason the SPLC Excludes Antifa From Its Hate MapAt today's @JudiciaryGOP hearing on the SPLC's influence on federal civil rights policy, @RepHageman asks The Daily Signal's @Tyler2ONeil why ?they exclude "Antifa, pro-Palestinian, and pro Hamas organizations on… pic.twitter.com/dfYW3Lq2TJ— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) December 16, 2025 The subcommittee held a hearing investigating the SPLC’s coordination with the Biden administration titled “Partisan and Profitable: The SPLC’s Influence on Federal Civil Rights Policy.”  The SPLC has frequently labeled conservative groups as comparable to the Ku Klux Klan. O’Neil noted the Biden White House hosted SPLC staff at least 18 times. During the Biden administration, the FBI cited the SPLC in its memo targeting “radical-traditional Catholics.”  He highlighted an SPLC staffer who advised the Justice Department on hate crimes and spoke at a symposium for prosecutors about the “anti-LGBTQ movement.” Further, Biden nominated SPLC attorney Nancy Abudu to a federal judgeship on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.   Daily Signal Editor Schools Democrat Rep. On How the SPLC Targets CatholicsThe Daily Signal’s @Tyler2ONeil sets the record straight with Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., on how the SPLC demonizes Catholics by labeling the Ruth Institute a “hate group” for adhering to the teachings of… pic.twitter.com/JYWBQGmEiP— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) December 16, 2025 During the hearing, Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., asked about why the SPLC hasn’t warned about Antifa, pro-Palestinian groups that targeted Jewish students at college campuses, or pro-abortion agitators that targeted pro-life centers.  O’Neil said it was an “absolute travesty” that conservative groups such as Turning Point USA and Moms for Liberty were labeled as anti-government extremist groups, while the SPLC “did not put actual groups that are hurling Molotov cocktails at government buildings” on its list of threats. What Happens to an Organization When Labeled a ‘Hate Group’ by the SPLC?At today's @JudiciaryGOP hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s influence on federal civil rights policy, Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin dismissed the SPLC’s hate map as something that can simply be… pic.twitter.com/LI9o0Muykh— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) December 16, 2025 Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said no one from the SPLC has ever been convicted in a violent crime. “The Southern Poverty Law Center has been a vigilant voice in civil society, against radical white nationalist violence and extremism, neo Nazism, and other forces across the political spectrum that spread organized hate,” Raskin said.  Members and witnesses noted that earlier this year, the SPLC added Turning Point USA to its “hate map.” In October, a gunman assassinated TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk in Utah. Kirk warned about the SPLC’s rhetoric, said Andrew Sypher, executive vice president of field operations for TPUSA.  “Charlie warned, just before his murder, that the SPLC’s hate map designation, equating campus kids who promote the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and pro-life, pro family values with the KKK and neo-Nazis, would put Turning Point in the crosshairs. This proved prophetic,” Sypher said.  Subcommittee Chairman Chip Roy, R-Texas, said the SPLC began as a legitimate civil rights organization, but “has reinvented itself as a political fundraising machine built on an ever-expanding ideologically defined hate mission.” Roy noted the SPLC has more than $829 million in assets with an endowment of more than $738 million. “Fear is profitable, and this organization  built a financial model around it,” Roy said.  Toward the conclusion of the hearing, Roy asked if the SPLC rhetoric created an atmosphere that led to Kirk’s assasination. Sypher, of Turning Point USA, replied, “most definitely.” “I find it ironic that a civil rights organization is marginalizing the country,” Sypher said.  In 2012, an LGBTQ+ activist opened fire at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Family Research Council after the gunman saw the conservative group on the SPLC’s “hate map.” The shooter was stopped and later convicted on terrorism charges.  “To the SPLC, the life threatening gunshot suffered by our African American building manager, Leo Johnson, was a little more than collateral damage, acceptable if it intimidated Christians who uphold biblical teaching on marriage and human sexuality,” FRC President Tony Perkins said of the shooting. “Local law enforcement agencies circulate SPLC lists as though they were intelligence bulletins,” Perkins later followed. “Schools have incorporated SPLC’s material into curriculum presented to children as objective facts. Major corporations from online platforms to payment processors have used SPLC’s label to deny services, restrict donations, and cut off basic financial tools to Americans. “Once a group is branded, the SPLC label functions like a digital scarlet letter deployed to restrict speech, marginalize, and financially ruin individuals in organizations.” The SPLC did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal for this story on Tuesday. Subcommittee ranking member, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., complained the SPLC was not invited to the hearing to defend itself. The Democrats’ witness was Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “Civil rights organizations, Southern Poverty Law Center included, are part of the essential infrastructure of American civil society,” she said. “Civil rights organizations have historically helped communities in many ways, including documenting and combating discrimination.” The post House Investigates SPLC’s Profiting, Partisanship in Attack on Conservative Groups appeared first on The Daily Signal.