Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday promoted a CNN interview with an infamous Christian nationalist, anti-LGBTQ +advocate Doug Wilson.
“All of Christ for All of Life,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. Hegseth, who is a member of Wilson’s Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches in Tennessee, also sends his children to schools associated with Wilson’s ministries.
Wilson, whose ministry operates hundreds of churches around the world, is an outspoken right-wing evangelical, espousing extremely conservative views of Christianity, including the view that the U.S. should be a theocracy.
“I’d like to see the nation be a Christian nation,” Wilson told a CNN reporter. Wilson advocates for a Christian world devoid of other religions and beliefs, “by peaceful means, by sharing the gospel,” and contrasts Christian theocracy with democratic rule.
In the interview with CNN, Wilson called women “the kind of people that people come out of” and for their role in life to be “the chief executive of the home.” Senior pastors at his church, King’s Cross Church, supported the idea of repealing the 19th Amendment, which gives women the right to vote, and called instead for men and women to vote “as a household.” Wilson denies that he is a sexist or a misogynist.
Hegseth has previously praised Wilson, saying that Trump-era conservatives “are standing on the shoulders” of avowed Christian nationalists like him.
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Among Wilson’s controversies are comments he made about chattel slavery in the 1990s, when he claimed there was a “mutual affection between master and slave.”
“It depends on which master and slave you’re talking about,” he told CNN, defending his earlier remarks. While he acknowledged “horrendous abuses” done by slave owners, he said that “some decent human beings” also owned slaves.
Asked for comment, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell defended Hegseth’s association with Wilson
“The Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson. The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings,” Parnell said.
Wilson, for his part, said that Hegseth and the department he leads are “not organizationally tied” to his ministries, but said Hegseth’s close involvement “is the kind of thing we like to see.”
Watch the CNN interview below:
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