Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth belongs to an archconservative church

By TIFFANY STANLEY and PETER SMITH, Related Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth says he’s proud to be a part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Church buildings, an archconservative community of Christian congregations.

Hegseth lately made headlines when he shared a CNN video on social media about CREC, exhibiting its pastors arguing girls mustn’t have the correct to vote.

Pastor Doug Wilson, a CREC co-founder, leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, the community’s flagship location. Jovial and media-friendly, Wilson is not any stranger to stirring controversy along with his church’s hard-line theology and its embrace of patriarchy and Christian nationalism.

Wilson advised The Related Press on Monday he was grateful Hegseth shared the video. He famous Hegseth’s put up was labeled with Christ Church’s motto: “All of Christ for All of Life.”

“He was, in impact, reposting it and saying, ‘Amen,’ at some degree,” Wilson stated.

Hegseth, amongst President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cupboard picks, attends Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a CREC member church in a suburb outdoors Nashville, Tennessee. His pastor, Brooks Potteiger, prayed at a service Hegseth hosted on the Pentagon.

CREC lately opened a brand new outpost within the nation’s capital, Christ Church DC, with Hegseth attending its first Sunday service.

Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed Hegseth’s CREC affiliation and advised the AP that Hegseth “very a lot appreciates lots of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”

Listed here are different issues to know in regards to the church community:

What does Wilson’s church say about girls?

Wilson’s church and wider denomination observe complementarianism, the patriarchal concept that women and men have totally different God-given roles. Girls inside CREC church buildings can’t maintain church management positions, and married girls are to undergo their husbands.

Wilson advised the AP he believes the nineteenth Modification granting girls the correct to vote “was a foul thought.” Nonetheless, he stated his spouse and daughters vote.

He would favor the US comply with his church’s instance, which permits heads of households to vote in church elections. Single girls qualify as voting members in his church.

“Ordinarily, the vote is forged by the top of the family, the husband and father, as a result of we’re patriarchal and never egalitarian,” Wilson stated. He added that repealing the nineteenth Modification will not be excessive on his record of priorities.

Hegseth’s views on girls have been within the highlight, particularly after he confronted sexual assault allegations, for which no fees had been filed. Earlier than his nomination to steer the Protection Division, Hegseth had questioned girls serving in fight roles within the army.

Wilson, a Navy veteran who served on submarines, additionally questions girls serving in some army roles.

“I believe we ought to seek out out the identify of the one that instructed that we put girls on these submarines and have that man dedicated,” Wilson stated. “It’s like having a playpen that you simply put 50 cats in after which drop catnip in the midst of it. No matter occurs goes to be ugly. And should you suppose it’s going to advance the reason for girls and make sailors begin treating girls much less like objects, you then haven’t been across the block very many instances.”

What’s the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Church buildings?

Based in 1998, CREC is a community of greater than 130 church buildings in the US and world wide.

CREC ascribes to a strict model of Reformed theology — rooted within the custom of Sixteenth-century Protestant reformer John Calvin — that places a heavy emphasis on an omnipotent God who has dominion over all of society.

Wilson and CREC are additionally strongly influenced by a Twentieth-century Reformed motion known as Christian Reconstructionism, in keeping with Julie Ingersoll, a faith professor on the College of North Florida who wrote about it in her 2015 guide “Constructing God’s Kingdom.”

She sees that theology mirrored within the Wilson slogan Hegseth repeated on social media.

“When he says, ‘All of life,’ he’s referencing the concept it’s the job of Christians to train dominion over the entire world,” Ingersoll stated.

Because the Seventies, Wilson’s ministry and affect have grown to incorporate the Affiliation of Christian Classical Colleges and New Saint Andrew’s Faculty in Moscow, Idaho.

The ministry has a strong media presence, together with Canon Press, writer of books like “The Case for Christian Nationalism” and “It’s Good to Be a Man: A Handbook for Godly Masculinity.”

What’s the connection to Christian nationalism?

Wilson desires the US to be a Christian nation. He doesn’t thoughts being known as a Christian nationalist.

“I’m more than pleased to work with that label as a result of it’s a greater label than what I often get known as,” Wilson stated.

“If I get known as a white nationalist or a theo-fascist or a racist bigot, misogynist thug, I can’t work with them besides to disclaim them,” he stated. “I’m a Christian, and I’m a patriot who loves my nation. How do I mix these two issues? How do they work collectively?”

U.S. Christian nationalism is a fusion of American and Christian id, ideas and symbols that sometimes seeks a privileged place for Christian individuals and concepts. Wilson contends that early America was Christian, a notion historians dispute.

“If we succeed, this will likely be Christian America 2.0,” Wilson wrote in 2022.

American Christian nationalism entails overlapping actions. Amongst them are evangelicals who view Trump, a Republican, as a champion, a few of whom are influenced by Christian Reconstructionist concepts; a charismatic motion that sees politics as half of a bigger non secular struggle; and a Catholic postliberal motion envisioning a muscular authorities selling conventional morality.

CREC now has a better relationship to the higher echelons of presidency. This has renewed scrutiny of Wilson’s different controversial views, together with his downplaying of the horrors of Southern slavery within the U.S. Nevertheless it’s additionally given Wilson an even bigger stage.

Hegseth and Wilson have spoken approvingly of one another. Wilson stated they’ve solely met in particular person as soon as, after they talked informally after Wilson preached at Hegseth’s house church in Tennessee this 12 months.

Wilson stated CREC’s new Washington church started as a option to serve church members who relocated to work within the Trump administration.

“That is the primary time we’ve had connections with as many individuals in nationwide authorities as we do now,” Wilson stated. “However this isn’t an ecclesiastical lobbying effort the place we’re making an attempt to fulfill necessary individuals. We’re making an attempt to offer a few of these individuals a possibility to fulfill with God.”

Smith reported from Pittsburgh.

Related Press faith protection receives assist via the AP’s collaboration with The Dialog US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely liable for this content material.

Initially Printed: August 12, 2025 at 8:50 AM PDT