Apocalypse Now: Extreme interpretation of Christian nationalism now guides Pentagon policy

The Senate has confirmed former Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Trump’s defense secretary by just one vote. Hegseth has “very clear” ties to extreme Christian nationalism, as well as a history of alleged sexual assault and abuse. Logan Davis, a reporter in Denver, Colorado, who grew up in the same classical Christian educational movement that Hegseth is raising his family in, explains the problematic ideology that shapes it. Hegseth has endorsed leaders in the community and their beliefs that the church possesses supremacy over worldly affairs, antebellum slavery was a “beneficent American institution” and the U.S.'s global war on terror is a modern-day iteration of the medieval Crusades. Davis says Hegseth's lack of qualifications for his new role means he will likely be “leaning on these controversial faith leaders in his life more than someone with adequate experience” would be — bringing this extremist Christian nationalism into the mainstream.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show with the Senate confirmation of Pete Hegseth as defense secretary by one vote on Friday night and Hegseth’s embrace of extreme Christian nationalism. Vice President JD Vance cast a rare tie-breaking vote to confirm the former Fox News host and combat veteran, who faced accusations of rape, spousal abuse, repeated public drunkenness, and financial mismanagement of veterans organizations. Three Republican senators joined Democrats opposing. That’s the former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski and Maine Senator Susan Collins.

We go now to Denver, Colorado, where we’re joined by Logan Davis, a longtime political consultant and columnist for the Colorado Times Recorder, where his recent piece is headlined “Pete Hegseth & I Know the Same Christian Nationalists.”

Logan, welcome to Democracy Now! Explain his record and what you mean by “extreme Christian nationalism.”

LOGAN DAVIS: Thanks so much for having me.

Important thing to understand about Pete Hegseth is that he’s been very clear about what he believes and what faith communities he sees himself as being a part of. He’s written books. He’s appeared on podcasts. In Hegseth’s case, he is affiliated with a conservative sect of Calvinists who have been driving the classical Christian education movement for a long time, which he is also associated with, embrace things like sphere sovereignty, and have been at really —

AMY GOODMAN: Sphere sovereignty?

LOGAN DAVIS: Yes. So, sphere sovereignty is the extreme interpretation of Christian nationalism, referenced in The Guardian this most recent week, in which there is an understanding of different authorities being given to the church, the state, the family, etc. And ultimately, the church is above all of those. So, Hegseth is a member of a faith community that believes in the supremacy of the church over earthly affairs and has pursued that. And I think there’s reason for concern as to which of those beliefs he will bring to the Pentagon.

AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can talk about, for example, his views of women, whether he’s talking about getting women out of combat military, what that means, how that fits into his Christian nationalist beliefs?

LOGAN DAVIS: So, Christian nationalism, of course, has some variety towards it — to it. In Hegseth’s case, he’s a member of a community that very much is led by a man named Doug Wilson, based out of Moscow, Idaho. Wilson has been a lightning rod for controversy over the last few decades for his positions on things like slavery and the separation of church and state and, in this case, whether or not women should have the right to vote. He has said that that was bad for the family. In this community, there is a certain chauvinism.

And I think it is interesting that Hegseth is stepping into this role shortly after we’ve had conversations about women in combat roles, about greater egalitarianism in the military. I would expect that he’s going to see some of that rolled back. And I think that his spiritual leaders and folks like Doug Wilson would be pleased to see that.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk more about the glorification of the Confederacy as a godly cause within Reformed Calvinist circles and their views of slavery, particularly what Pete Hegseth has said.

LOGAN DAVIS: So, we know that Hegseth has strongly endorsed Wilson’s take on this. Doug Wilson has made the Confederacy a pretty popular trope in Reformed and classical Christian education circles, which has always been interesting to me, given that he is not even a Southerner. Going back several decades, Wilson has really embraced a neo-Confederate strain. Two decades ago, he wrote a pamphlet entitled Southern Slavery as It Was with a guy named Steve Wilkins, who was the head of the League of the South, which is listed by Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Wilson and Wilkins toured with this pamphlet, which essentially argued that antebellum slavery in the American South was a beneficent institution that kept families together and helped expose Black families to the gospel. So he really argued full-throated that the institution of American slavery was a beneficent American institution.

And we know that Hegseth has studied at this man’s feet. He talks on virtually every podcast he has been on about the most recent thing he has read from Doug Wilson. He seems to have consumed all of his books. He talks about him on podcasts constantly. Most people in American public life do not have a track record of having defended antebellum American slavery. The fact that the incoming secretary of defense firmly sides with a man on the other side of that divide is probably not a great sign.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to talk about your background and Pete Hegseth’s background, the community of the Reformed Calvinists, the Hegseth family, and what you were a part of. For example, you grew up in a Reformed Calvinist church that was similar to Hegseth’s, one of his children attending the high school that Hegseth’s child attends?

LOGAN DAVIS: So, I did. I grew up in the Reformed community in and around Nashville, Tennessee. My father is actually a pastor. To his credit and ours, when the Doug Wilson faction, the Community of Reformed Evangelical Churches, splintered off, we did not go with it. However, a lot of the folks in our school, which was a classical Christian school very much affiliated with our church, did. And that’s kind of a whole package, the church and classical school thing.

So, I do know many of the same people as Hegseth. The classical school that he moved to Nashville to send his children to is kind of a bookend to the one that I grew up in. They are on either end of the Nashville area. Several alumni from my school have taught his children. I’m very familiar with the doctrine and the curriculum that they share, because I was taught much of it as a child, less so on the doctrine side as things got a little bit later. We were never, for instance, on the slavery-defending end of things. The curriculum, however, at the classical Christian schools, nearly identical. And I think there’s a lot of reason for concern in there, as well, because there are, for instance, those tropes about the Confederacy or the Crusades and how those things are portrayed. I think that it’s a risky thing to be teaching young children.

AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the tattoos on his body, not just artwork, but the political and religious significance, that go back to the Crusades, Logan.

LOGAN DAVIS: Absolutely. The Crusades are a popular historical trope in this community. During the first couple decades of this century especially, we saw the Crusades kind of resurge in popularity in curriculum and discussion, for the obvious reason that it was being used to impose a kind of clash of civilizations frame on the “global war on terror,” conflicts in the Middle East, and it was being done in such a way as to cast Christian America as the sword of the Lord in that context. With Hegseth’s service and what we know he has said about that, it is pretty clear that his Crusader tattoos are a reference to his service in the “war on terror.”

AMY GOODMAN: So, in this last minute we have, if you can respond to him becoming head of this 3 million-person organization, the charges against him of spousal abuse, of rape, but there were nondisclosure agreements, nondisparagement agreements, repeatedly of public drunkenness and driving two veterans organizations — well, of financial irregularity in running these two organizations?

LOGAN DAVIS: This is the thing about Hegseth — right? — is we can talk about his faith. We can talk about his community. The biggest problems with Hegseth — I mean, his beliefs are troubling, but he is wildly unqualified for this role. He also has a long track record of demonstrating a fairly serious moral unfitness to be in polite society. My biggest concern with that is a man holding these fairly intense, far outside of mainstream beliefs, finding himself in a position well beyond anything he is qualified for or has experience in, I think that that puts us in a position where he is likely going to be leaning on these controversial faith leaders in his life more than somebody with adequate experience for the job might. So I think we do need to be concerned about what —

AMY GOODMAN: Logan, we’re going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much. But we’ll link to your article in the Colorado Times Recorder, Logan Davis. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.