NOTE: This piece was originally published at our newsletter A Public Witness.
Doug Wilson, a Christian Nationalist pastor in Idaho and a self-described “paleo-Confederate,” wants to strip the citizenship of anyone who voted for New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani. As leader of the denomination that includes Pete Hegseth, Wilson previously sparked headlines for wanting to repeal the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote and for seeking a return to religious tests for officeholders. But during a recent forum on Christian Nationalism, he went a step further to argue people should lose their citizenship for voting for the first Muslim mayor of the Big Apple.
“Citizenship is more of a privilege, dependent upon ancestry, background, how long you’ve been here, whether you meet the qualifications or not,” Wilson said as he insisted citizenship was not a right. “And if America is a creedal nation, then you have to have creedal standards. So anybody who voted for Mamdani should lose their citizenship.”
Wilson’s comment during an event in Moscow, Idaho, sparked applause from the audience that had gathered for a conference hosted by his church. The session on Christian Nationalism featured comments and dialogue by Wilson, Joe Rigney (an associate pastor with Wilson), Albert Mohler (president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), Paul Miller (a professor at Georgetown University who was mostly offering a counter voice opposing Christian Nationalism), and moderator Jared Longshore (an associate pastor with Wilson). The “Which Way, America?” session was sponsored by Canon Press, a publishing house Wilson founded and that has published many of his works. Canon just published a book, Five Views on Christian Nationalism, featuring Wilson, Rigney, Mohler, Miller, and R.R. Reno — and the session promoted the book by having four of the authors offer remarks and then engage in discussion and debate over various church-state issues.
Screengrab as Doug Wilson speaks during the “Which Way, America?” session in Moscow, Idaho, on Aug. 7, 2026.
Before making his remark about Mamdani voters, Wilson argued in the session that he thinks the United States could be considered a creedal nation, calling it “a Christian nation with a Christian consensus, Christian history.” As a result, he insisted that to participate in decision-making, people must acknowledge “the historical reality of our Christian history — which I think is undeniable” and must want to “preserve” the “overwhelmingly Christian ethos” of the United States. He therefore condemned the Biden administration for allowing immigrants to come into the country with a different history and worldview. Wilson insisted that because of immigration, “we’ve lost our bearings.”
In addition to Mamdani voters, Wilson argued that someone who is a “nihilist” shouldn’t be “allowed to be a citizen” since “he denied the whole foundation of the state” and therefore “rejected his own citizenship.” He also referred to the ideology he wanted to strip of citizenship as “atheistic nihilism.”
Although Wilson did not explicitly explain why he felt Mamdani voters deserved to be stripped of their citizenship, his remarks came after comments by Rigney and Mohler that the immigration of Muslims threatened the United States. Mohler argued that since he believes the U.S. Constitution and polity “is based upon Christianity,” then “one of the biggest problems we face right now” is immigrants who practice Islam. Rigney made the point even more directly, insisting that “religious diversity is destructive. It’s not our strength. Islamic and Hindu immigration erodes America’s Christian core.”
“Hindu and Islamic immigration in particular are harmful because, quite frankly, statues to monkey gods anger the living God,” Rigney added. “He doesn’t like it. Idolatry is offensive to him and we can’t expect his blessing while engaging in that kind of idolatry. Moreover, Islam in particular is adept at manipulating Western Christian and post-Christian structures and policies in order to establish beachheads.”
Wilson previously argued that Muslims and Hindus should not be allowed to hold political office in a “Christian” nation. And he insisted that Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, and other non-Protestants should not be able to worship in public spaces in a “Christian” nation.
In the forum on Christian Nationalism, he did not explain any details for how he would strip citizenship from someone because of the faith of those they vote for. Such a proposal would apparently mean that voting could no longer be done by secret ballot.
Screengrab as (from left) Albert Mohler, Joe Rigney, Jared Longshore, Paul Miller, and Doug Wilson speak during the “Which Way, America?” session in Moscow, Idaho, on Aug. 7, 2026.
As Miller, the author of The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism, pushed back on some of Wilson’s rhetoric, Wilson said he rejects the idea of government neutrality when it comes to religion. He said that while he wanted “denominational neutrality” since “the state should stay out of Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist” disagreements, he wants the Protestant Bible to serve as a governing guide. As an example, Wilson argued that the tax rate should not be more than 10%, which he claimed was based on his reading of the Bible. Wilson later added he wants to repeal the 17th Amendment, which switched the election of U.S. senators from state legislators to a vote of the people in each state, because the new system is too democratic.
Once considered a fringe far-right Christian figure, Wilson in recent years has found himself increasingly embraced by the broader evangelical world and the conservative political movement in the age of Donald Trump. The biggest evidence of his rise is that Hegseth, who likes to call himself the “secretary of war,” is part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches and invited Wilson to preach at the Pentagon in February. Wilson’s CREC launched a church in Washington, D.C., last year that Hegseth often attends. Rigney recently preached the installation service for its pastor, Brooks Potteiger, who has preached at the Pentagon three times.
Mamdani won the election as mayor of New York City on Nov 4, 2025, with more than 1.1 million votes. Since then, he has been a key target of a surge in Islamophobic rhetoric by Republican politicians and rightwing preachers — including those preaching inside the Pentagon during a war against an Islamic nation.
As a public witness,
Brian Kaylor
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