'Version of the Taliban': Trump defense secretary pick has 'close ties' to extreme Christian nationalists

22 November 2024

Fox News host Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the U.S. Department of Defense, has been drawing criticism for a variety of reasons.

Hegseth is a veteran, but critics argues that he lacks the experience necessary for a position as important as defense secretary. Moreover, Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault — an allegation he vehemently denies — and his comment that women should not serve in comment have drawn plenty of scorn.

Another possible liability for Hegseth, according to the Idaho Capitol Sun, is his involvement with far-right Christian nationalism.

Sun journalist Heath Druzin, in an article published on November 21, reports that Hegseth "has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy."

That church is Christ Church, which is based in Moscow, Idaho and led by Pastor Doug Wilson.

During an appearance on Christ Church's show "Crosspolitic," Hegseth described Christian nationalism in militaristic terms — saying that Christian schools are "boot camp" in a "spiritual battle" with secular America.

Hegseth, on "Crosspolitic," said, "We're in Middle Phase One right now, which is effectively a tactical retreat where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize and as you do so, you build your army underground with the opportunity later on of taking offensive operations — and obviously all of this is metaphorical and all that good stuff."

Druzin reports that "Wilson and his allies have a rigid patriarchal belief system and don't believe in the separation of church and state."

"They support taking away the right to vote from most women, barring non-Christians from holding office and criminalizing the LGBTQ+ community," Druzin explains. "Recently, Wilson has increased his influence nationally as he's built a religious, educational and media empire. His Association of Classical Christian Schools has hundreds of fundamentalist schools around the country, and his publishing outfit Canon Press churns out dozens of titles a year as well as popular streaming shows that highlight unyielding socially conservative ideals."

Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a U.S. Air Force veteran, believes that someone who promotes extreme Christian nationalism has no business serving as defense secretary.

Weinstein told the Sun, "Pete Hegseth is a poster child for literally everything that would be the opposite of what you would want to have for someone who's controlling the technologically most lethal organization in the history of this country…. Christian nationalism is an absolute fatal cancer metastasizing at light speed (for) the national security of this country. It is a Christian version of the Taliban.”

Read the full Idaho Capital Sun article at this link.

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