Should Danish Soldiers go to war for Christianity?

At a time when Europe is cracking under the weight of secularization and cultural disintegration, Denmark’s political leadership has issued a remarkable statement: “Danish soldiers should go to war for Christianity”. The remark came from Denmark’s Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, Morten Dahlin. In an interview with the conservative newspaper Berlingske, he argued that Danish soldiers are not merely sent to defend territory or political interests, but to uphold the values that define Danish civilization — values that, in his words, are inseparable from Christianity.

“You don’t become a better soldier by knowing the Bible. But you can’t separate the story of Denmark and our values from the fact that they come from a Christian value system”, he said in the national public service radio debate program P1 Debat.

The reaction in this radio debate got heated. Chairman of the Danish Army’s Corporals and Privates Union, Tom Block, himself a former deployed soldier, warned against the move: “We should not go to war based on religion – that would risk more conflict. When deployed, it’s important that we appear neutral.” He does not dispute Denmark’s Christian heritage, but disagrees with Dahlin’s premise: “We’re not going to war for Christianity, but for peace, freedom, and democracy – and we do that because we have religious freedom in Denmark.” Dahlin maintains that there is nothing controversial in his statement: “Our Constitution is quite clear. We have freedom of religion in Denmark, but not religious equality. Christianity has a special status.” “I believe we fight for Denmark – and you simply can’t speak about Denmark without acknowledging that many of its foundational values come from Christianity.”

Critics from the political left, such as Trine Pertou Mach of the Red-Green Alliance, who was also part of the debate, argued that this rhetoric is divisive: “A large segment of the population would feel unrepresented, and would find it difficult to perform compulsory military service. This creates completely unnecessary lines of division – even within our own society”. When asked whether non-Christians would feel excluded from military service, Dahlin replied: “No, I’ve emphasized several times that you can be just as good a soldier whether you believe in something else or nothing at all.”

That such a statement would come from a government minister is striking, but even more so in light of a broader shift in Denmark’s political rhetoric. In recent months, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has repeatedly declared that Denmark is “ready for war”, citing the new geopolitical landscape and the need to support NATO and Ukraine militarily. But her message goes deeper than conventional defence spending. At a press conference at the Danish Parliament on 13 March 2024 she announced a rapid military build-up and the expansion of national conscription, stating: “It’s not enough to donate weapons.”

A month later, speaking at Aalborg University on 3 April, she took an even more dramatic turn: “We will need a form of rearmament that is just as important. That is the spiritual one.”

This is the first time in modern Danish history that a Social Democratic Prime Minister — leader of one of the world’s most secular nations — has openly called for spiritual renewal. Frederiksen later clarified that spiritual rearmament means cultivating our capacity for critical thinking, resisting disinformation, and strengthening democratic consciousness. But she went further still, highlighting the role of the Church of Denmark as a vital institution in this new project.

In an interview with a Christian daily Kristeligt Dagblad, she was asked whether the Church should play a greater societal role:

“I’ve always believed the Church should play a bigger role. Denmark is a Christian society, we are founded on Christianity, and the Church is a very important bearer of values – both in peace and in times of crisis.” 

“I believe that people will increasingly seek the Church, because it offers natural fellowship and national grounding. It’s where we sing the same hymns that generations before us have sung. The church room has helped people through many crises. I believe the Church will find that these times call for such a space.”

“If I were the Church, I would be thinking right now: How can we be both a spiritual and physical framework for what Danes are going through?”

That both the Prime Minister and Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs are speaking in this way reflects a sobering political reality: Denmark is witnessing a sharp decline in the willingness of its youth to defend the nation. Military recruitment is low, national pride is weak, and it has become apparent — even to Denmark’s secular elite — that abstract ideals such as “democracy”, “peace”, and “freedom” no longer inspire people to fight. The conclusion is unavoidable: “secular values alone are not enough to mobilize a people”.

People are only willing to sacrifice when they believe in something higher than themselves; something transcendent. In one psychological study, participants were asked to keep their hands submerged in ice water. One group was simply told to endure. The other group was told to imagine they were doing it to save someone they loved. That group lasted significantly longer. Meaning gives endurance. In modern secular societies, where transcendence has been stripped away, sacrifice becomes incomprehensible.

This is a civilizational vulnerability. If Danish soldiers are called to defend liberal rights without any sense of what those rights ultimately rest upon, they will lack the spiritual resilience that faith-based cultures still possess. But Christianity must never be reduced to a political instrument or made “useful” to the state. What modernity has forgotten is that culture, at its core, is what a civilisation holds sacred. The very word “culture” comes from the Latin cultus — meaning worship. Every moral code, every vision of the good life, ultimately stems from what we revere as divine. Europe was not built on abstractions. It was built on the belief that God became man in Jesus Christ, suffered and died on the Cross, and rose again — to offer mankind salvation.

As the British historian Hilaire Belloc wrote in 1924: “Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.” He was a committed Catholic who understood that Europe’s identity is inseparable from Christianity — not merely as heritage, but as truth. Without that faith, Europe doesn’t become neutral — it becomes hollow. A civilisation without the sacred doesn’t become free; it becomes defenceless. And into that vacuum step more confident belief systems — like Islam — which still affirm transcendence, order, and divine authority. Even in radicalised forms, it offers meaning, loyalty, and courage. It is “something”. And for decades, the West has tried to resist something with nothing.

On 1 June 2025 during the Champions League final in Paris, a jihadist flag was raised over a statue of Joan of Arc. This wasn’t mere vandalism, but a symbolic assault on the Christian soul of Europe. And it exposed a deeper crisis: we no longer defend what is sacred, because we no longer know what is sacred.

When the Danish government now speaks of “spiritual rearmament”, it is — whether consciously or not — admitting a profound truth: that liberal democracy cannot generate meaning from within itself. It can protect freedoms, but it cannot explain why those freedoms are worth dying for. It offers rights, but not purpose. Tolerance, but not truth. In times of peace and prosperity, this vacuum can be ignored. But when a society is asked to sacrifice, to endure, or to fight, it needs more than procedural values — it needs faith. What Denmark’s leaders are beginning to realize is that a civilisation without spiritual foundations cannot defend itself, because it no longer knows what it is defending.

In a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, Bishop Robert Barron made the point bluntly: “Freedom is not just doing what I want. It must be directed toward truth, beauty, and goodness—ultimately toward God.” That is the rediscovery Western civilisation must now undertake. Because without it, we will remain free — but aimless.

In that light, the question is no longer whether Christianity belongs in the public square or on the battlefield of ideas. It is whether anything else can hold the line. Without a transcendent foundation, Western democracies will continue to erode from within — politically, morally, and spiritually.

So yes, seen in this context, Danish soldiers should indeed go to war for Christianity. Not to impose religion on others, but to defend the civilisation that Christianity built — and the only spiritual architecture strong enough to sustain it. That this call comes from the top of one of the world’s most secular countries is not just surprising — it may signal the beginning of a new epoch. One in which other nations, too, begin to realize that without the sacred, nothing can hold.