During the first Christian worship service at the Pentagon in 2026 — and the first since the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — the Secretary of War framed that U.S. military action as a godly mission.
The pastor, celebrating 50 years in his pulpit, has never had more influence than he does under the current presidential administration.
With Pentagon prayer services continuing into the Christmas season, this issue of A Public Witness peeks inside Pete Hegseth’s monthly effort to establish his brand of rightwing Christianity inside the government.
Although researchers have long discussed Christian Nationalism, it’s fairly new to public discourse. Let’s clarify some points that are often misunderstood so we can have an effective, organized response.
‘Whatever he may have been in the past, he’s not fringe now,’ said Brian Kaylor, a Baptist minister and Wilson critic who wrote the forthcoming book ‘The Bible According to Christian Nationalists.’
This issue of A Public Witness looks at how one Calvinist voice with connections to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is publicly doing violence to Scripture to justify some disturbingly unChristlike behavior.
Hegseth recently made headlines when he shared a CNN video on social media about the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, showing its pastors arguing women should not have the right to vote.
The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches is a conservative network of churches most easily understood through three main parts: churches, schools, and media.