Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invited far-right Christian nationalist Doug Wilson to preach at the Pentagon Tuesday, reported Brian Kaylor at A Public Witness. Hegseth’s monthly evangelical worship services and the appearance of Wilson are signs of just how far the most aggressive forms of Christian nationalism have advanced within the MAGA movement and the Trump administration.
As Right Wing Watch has reported, Wilson is a Christian nationalist extremist who believes women should not have the right to vote. In the “Christian republic” he envisions, liberal Christians and non-Christians would not be allowed to hold public office or worship in public. He wants to see the Apostle’s Creed inserted into the U.S. Constitution.
Hegseth was criticized for apparently endorsing Wilson’s views last year when he promoted a CNN profile of Wilson with the comment, “All of Christ for All of Life.” (Hegseth eventually clarified that he supports women’s right to vote.) But Hegseth’s words and actions since then make it clear that he is intent on imposing his Christian nationalist worldview on the U.S. military.
Kaylor reported earlier that at the Feb. 5 National Prayer Service, Hegseth asserted, “America was founded as a Christian nation” and that public officials “have a sacred duty to glorify him.” He also suggested that serving in the U.S. military was a form of Christian spiritual warfare and that serving that mission could earn a soldier eternal life.
In 2023, Wilson’s Canon Press published The Statement on Christian Nationalism and the Gospel, which declared that the United States must formally “acknowledge the Lordship of Christ” in all its laws, “abolish abortion,” outlaw marriage equality, and “recapture our national sovereignty from godless, global entities who present a grave threat to civilization.” The statement affirms that “the Christian Nationalist project entails a national recognition of essential Christian orthodoxy” and supports laws against “public blasphemy.” Wilson is also notorious for publishing a book downplaying the evils of slavery.
Wilson oversees an expanding influence network that includes the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a network of “classical” Christian academies, and a cadre of far-right “theobros” who embrace his ultra-patriarchal Christian nationalist ideology. The Idaho-based Wilson planted a church in Washington, D.C. last year to “calibrate” conservative Christians working in the Trump administration in alignment with his worldview. Right Wing Watch recently noted that the mother of Brook Potteiger—the pastor tapped to lead Wilson's new church in D.C.—recently told an interviewer that Potteiger became psychically abusive and domineering after falling under Wilson's influence, so much so that she filed a report against him with child protective services.
