WASHINGTON – The leader responsible for the country’s military reshared a video focusing on a Christian nationalist church where several pastors expressed the view that women should be stripped of their voting rights.
The notable repost on X by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which took place on Thursday night, highlights his significant and personal bond with a Christian nationalist pastor known for radical opinions regarding religion and the role of women.
In his post, Hegseth discussed an almost seven-minute segment by CNN about Doug Wilson, the co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. The report included a pastor from Wilson’s church advocating for the removal of women’s voting rights from the Constitution, and another suggesting that voting should be done by households. The segment also showed a female church member expressing her submission to her husband.
“All of Christ for All of Life,” Hegseth wrote in his post that accompanied the video.
Hegseth’s repost gained over 12,000 likes and 2,000 shares on X. Reactions were mixed, with some users agreeing with the statements made in the video, while others voiced concern over the defense secretary endorsing Christian nationalist views.
Doug Pagitt, a pastor and executive director at the progressive evangelical group Vote Common Good, remarked that these opinions represent a “small fringe of Christians” and expressed his concern over Hegseth’s support of them as “very disturbing.”
On Friday, Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell informed The Associated Press that Hegseth is “a proud member of a church” linked to CREC and highly values many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.
In May, Hegseth invited his personal pastor, Brooks Potteiger, to the Pentagon to lead the first of several Christian prayer services that Hegseth has held inside the government building during working hours. Defense Department employees and service members said they received invitations to the event in their government emails.
“I’d like to see the nation be a Christian nation, and I’d like to see the world be a Christian world,” Wilson said in the CNN report.
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AP journalists Mike Pesoli in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
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