Trump's Defense secretary nominee has close ties to Idaho Christian nationalists
By: Heath Druzin (Idaho Capital Sun)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Pete Hegseth is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Moscow-based Christ Church
Pete Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of Defense, has close ties to an Idaho-based Christian nationalist church that aims to turn America into a theocracy.
Hegseth is a member of a Tennessee congregation affiliated with Christ Church, a controversial congregation in Moscow, Idaho, that has become a leader in the movement to get more Christianity in the public sphere.
In an appearance last year on the Christ Church-connected streaming show "Crosspolitic," Hegseth talked about how building up fundamentalist Christian education systems is important in what he sees as a "spiritual battle" with the secular world. He sees Christian students as foot soldiers in that war and refers to Christian schools as "boot camp."
"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," he said on the show.
Hegseth did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.
Hegseth has spoken positively about Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson's writings
Christ Church is led by Pastor Doug Wilson, who founded the Calvinist group of churches called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. CREC has congregations in nearly all 50 states and several foreign countries. Hegseth's church is a member of CREC, and Hegseth has spoken positively of Wilson's writings.
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.
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.
In the recently released podcast, "Extremely American" (created by this reporter), Wilson says one of his goals is to get like-minded people into positions of influence. In an emailed response for this story, he said he's closer to that post-election and that he supports Hegseth's nomination, though he downplayed any influence he has on him.
"I was grateful for Trump's win, and believe that it is much more likely that Christians with views similar to mine will receive positions in the new administration," he said.
Hegseth nomination could threaten cohesion, diversity of U.S. military, experts say
That's what worries Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein, who is the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Weinstein says Hegseth, if confirmed as secretary of Defense, would threaten the cohesion of a religiously and racially diverse U.S. military.
"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," he said.
Weinstein sees Hegseth's nomination as an example of the dangers of Project 2025, a 900-page policy paper written by far-right political activists. It lays out a plan to gut the federal government and install Christian nationalist ideals.
"Christian nationalism is an absolute fatal cancer metastasizing at light speed (for) the national security of this country," he said. "It is a Christian version of the Taliban."
Matthew D. Taylor, senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies, said Hegseth is "one of the most extreme far right figures ever nominated to a cabinet post, at least in modern memory."
Taylor said he's broadly concerned about Christian nationalists, who tend to take a dim view of democracy, potentially having a lot of sway in this administration.
"I think we should expect a profound degradation of our democratic norms of the rule of law, and I think we are edging closer to a de facto Anglo Protestant establishment, of the kind where Anglo Protestant Christianity as the de facto official religion in the United States," he said.
Hegseth faces some headwinds in his nomination process due to multiple marital sex scandals and the recent revelation that hepaid a woman who accused him of sexual assault in exchange for her not speaking about it. He denies he assaulted her but admits he paid her. He's also gotten criticism for tattoos that are symbols of the Crusades and wrote a book titled "American Crusade," where he derides Muslims.
Before becoming a TV personality, Hegseth led the conservative veterans group Concerned Veterans for America, which advocated for increased privatization of veterans' health care.
He has also said that women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles in the military, and has complained about what he terms "woke" policies in the military.
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www.theguardian.com /us-news/2024/nov/22/trump-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-book
Trump’s Pentagon pick Hegseth wrote of US military taking sides in ‘civil war’
Jason Wilson 10-12 minutes 11/22/2024
Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, has written in a book that he could imagine a scenario in which the US armed forces would be used violently in American domestic politics.
Hegseth, a former elite soldier turned rightwing Fox television personality, is Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon which controls the gigantic American military – by far the largest armed force in the world.
In one of his five published books he wrote that in the event of a Democratic election victory in the US there would be a “national divorce” in which “The military and police … will be forced to make a choice” and “Yes, there will be some form of civil war.”
Hegseth’s 2020 book exhorts conservatives to undertake “an AMERICAN CRUSADE”, to “mock, humiliate, intimidate, and crush our leftist opponents”, to “attack first” in response to a left he identifies with “sedition”, and he writes that the book “lays out the strategy we must employ in order to defeat America’s internal enemies”.
Hegseth’s rhetoric about perceived “internal” or “domestic enemies”, along with media reports highlighting his tattoo of the crusader motto “Deus Vult”, may ring alarm bells for those concerned by Donald Trump’s repeated threats to unleash the US military , which Hegseth would directly control, on those he has described as “the enemy within”.
The Guardian contacted the Trump transition team seeking comment from Hegseth.
John Whitehouse, news director at Media Matters for America (MMFA) which tracked Hegseth’s Fox career, said that Hegseth has “always given off a proto-fascist vibe”, and that “the thing that appealed to him was going into Iraq as a crusader, and when that went wrong he started looking at America through the same lens”.
Throughout his work, and especially in 2020’s American Crusade (AC), Hegseth paints an apocalyptic picture of American politics, and encourages his fellow rightwingers to see their opponents as an existential threat.
At various points in that book, he describes leftists, progressives and Democrats as “enemies” of freedom, the US constitution and America, and counts Israel among the “international allies” who can help defeat such “domestic enemies”.
Addressing his conservative audience in a chapter of American Crusade entitled Make the Crusade Great Again, he writes: “Whether you like it or not, you are an ‘infidel’ – an unbeliever – according to the false religion of leftism.” He added: “You can submit now or later; or you can fight.”
Later in the book, he writes: “Build the wall. Raise tariffs. Learn English. Buy American. Fight back.”
Elsewhere in American Crusade, he writes: “The hour is late for America. Beyond political success, her fate relies on exorcising the leftist specter dominating education, religion, and culture – a 360-degree holy war for the righteous cause of human freedom.”
In fighting, Hegseth wrote: “Our weapon is American nationalism,” adding: “The Left has tried … to intimidate us into thinking that nationalism is a relic of a bygone era.”
Hegseth has followed his own advice in this respect: his tattoos include the words “We the People”, quoted from the constitution, and a “stylized American flag with its bottom stripe replaced by an AR-15 assault rifle” according to Snopes.com reporting .
In relation to the media, “almost all” politicians and credentialled experts, Hegseth advises readers to “Disdain, despise, detest, distrust – pick your d-words. But all of this must lead to action.”
Some actions he recommends resemble forms of disruption and harassment that Trump-aligned activists have brought to nonpartisan local government bodies.
Hegseth tells readers: “The next time conservative views are squelched in your local school, host a free-speech sit-in in your kids’ school lobby and make your case,” and “When local businesses declare ‘gun free zones,’ remember the Second Amendment, carry your legally owned firearm, and dare them to tell you it’s not allowed.”
In the wake of Trump’s defeat in 2020, media reports noted an uptick in rightwing activists open-carrying firearms at political protests, and there was a wave of anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-“critical race theory” protests at school board meetings, with some groups such as Moms for Liberty coordinating efforts to carry out partisan takeovers of school boards.
Hegseth further advises readers: “You know what local politicians fear the most? A cell phone camera in their face.”
In January, the Brennan Center for Justice reported that in the three years since the 6 January 2021 insurrection, local and state elected officials had experienced “a barrage of intimidating abuse”. Their nationwide survey showed that over 40% of state elected officials and 18% of local officeholders had experienced threats or attacks. The numbers balloon to 89% of state legislators and 52% of local officeholders when less severe forms of abuse – insults or harassment such as stalking – are included.
Hegseth explicitly rejects democracy in American Crusade, characterizing it as a leftist demand: “For leftists, calls for ‘democracy’ represent a complete rejection of our system. Watch how often they use the word,” adding: “They hate America, so they hate the Constitution and want to quickly amass 51 percent of the votes to change it.”
He explicitly supports forms of election-rigging through gerrymandering. Fair electoral boundaries, he writes, amount to “Playing nice to placate the so-called middle,” which “has been a losing strategy for patriots for decades”. Since “the other side is stacked with enemies of freedom”, Hegseth argues, “Republican legislatures should draw congressional lines that advantage pro-freedom candidates – and screw Democrats.”
Hegseth addresses the then-looming election repeatedly in the book, at one point writing: “The clash of 2020 is going to focus on the re-election of Donald Trump; but the real clash – underneath it all – is for the soul of America”. He writes: “Yes, the leftist media and machine hate President Trump – but they hate you just as much, if not more.”
And in entertaining the prospect of Trump’s defeat, Hegseth claims that a Biden victory will shatter the US and lead to civil war.
This little tidbit right here made the entire article full of shit.
Absolutely, one hundred percent correct.
Although the rape accusation should disqualify him, his strange obsession with going to war with "the left" is more disqualifying.
So, a mere accusation from a woman who does not want to come forward, and where the local police did not file charges nor arrest him, and this woman made similar accusations to another man a fairly short time before Hegseth, is disqualifying?
OK...then Biden should have been disqualified based on a simple accusation (s)
Where was your demand that he be disqualified then?
This article is not about the sex accusations against Hegseth.
You made it part of the seed when you said this.
you are not going to troll this article
[✘]
The seeder may have opened the door for comment 2.1 so it is in play. 2.1.3 is seeder handling his seed . While what was said in 2.1.4 is correct, it, is his privilege to remove it.
Should rape accusations disqualify everyone? or just republicans.
You are going to have to comment on the seeded article or else have your comments deleted.
Don't threaten. Just do it!
If this was true any time one side did not like the other sides nomination they would just have someone accuse them of sexual misconduct without any facts. Great way to shut down the government.
Military personnel have a duty to disobey illegal orders. If ordered to fire on civilians for no apparent reason, I think many of them would throw down their rifles
Yeah, unfortunately, as evidenced in the article, these creepy-assed militant WC Nationalists, are also members of the military. I can envision Guardsmen from, say Idaho, being sent to Harlem to enforce "someone else's" interpretation of religion/law. It would instigate an immediate response from those of us who have actually had ENOUGH. There is an NFA.
Oh...hell.
With that kind of attitude he had no business in Iraq. They should look into any atrocious acts he may have committed. I see someone like this ordering a massacre
American Taliban! ALAH AKBA!