The FFRF Action Fund has once again designated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as “Theocrat of the Week” for abusing his cabinet position to officially promote Christian nationalism.
Hegseth recently invited the infamous Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson to lead the latest unconstitutional Pentagon worship service, an endeavor Hegseth started in May. Wilson is known for advocating that American society should be dictated by an ultraconservative Christian theocracy, leading his Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) to espouse this dogma. The pastor was “Theocrat of the Week” in May for bringing his theocratic agenda to Washington, D.C., where he opened a branch of his denomination. Hegseth and his family attended the church’s inaugural Sunday service.
Wilson also holds dangerous misogynistic views, proposing a strict patriarchal system rooted in an extremist interpretation of Christianity. Wilson has advocated that women’s right to vote should be revoked. Wilson told CNN last year that women should focus on being mothers, also remarking, “It doesn’t take any talent to simply reproduce biologically” and that “women are the kind of people that people come out of.” In Wilson’s utopic society, only Christians who ascribe to his ultraconservative dogma would be allowed to hold public office — and women would be restricted to the household.
Other notable remarks from Wilson include calling for the recriminalization of homosexuality and describing the dynamic between enslaved people and their masters as “a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence.” Wilson has also called the trope of a dominant man and a submissive woman “an erotic necessity.”
In Wilson’s service, the pastor likened those in the Pentagon to fighting for God and pointed to the monthly worship services as a sign of a “black swan revival, a black swan reformation.” Hegseth also joined Wilson onstage, praising the pastor: “Thank you for your leadership, for your mentorship, for the things you’ve started, the truth you’ve told, your willingness to be bold. It’s the type of thing that we’re trying to exercise here too with the monthly worship service.”
Hegseth has repeatedly praised and endorsed Wilson and his dangerous views. In 2024, Hegseth said, “Now we’re standing on the shoulders of a generation later, the Doug Wilsons and the others.” Bringing Wilson to the Pentagon to sermonize during normal working hours is highly worrisome. Hegseth is abusing his position as defense secretary to try to embed Wilson’s extreme brand of Christianity into our federal government and secular democracy.
Hegseth has also delivered highly inflammatory remarks recently about the “godless left” in his headline address at a Christian communicators conference in Tennessee. “Under the leadership of President Trump, the military once again supports and trains our troops and tends to their spiritual health. You see, we train our troops, we no longer trans our troops,” Hegseth professed.
“Gone is godless and divisive DEI, gone is gender-bending equity and quotas, gone is climate change worship to a false God. We are one military, one fighting force, one nation under God. We are not in woke we trust, we are in God we trust,” he declaimed. The defense secretary also argued that protecting various policy priorities “is not political — it is BIBLICAL,” proving that Hegseth’s decision-making at the Pentagon is driven by religious doctrine. About the worship services, Hegseth said, the “left wing shrieks, which means we’re right over the target.”
Hegseth is now a four-time “Theocrat,” including his designation as last year’s “Theocrat of the Year.” The defense secretary is relishing his role in the religious right’s effort to install Christianity in the federal government. Hegseth and Wilson’s dangerous beliefs have no place in our secular democracy.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.