In a series of newly unearthed
podcasts, Pete
Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, appears to endorse
the theocratic
and authoritarian doctrine of “sphere sovereignty”, a worldview
derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian
reconstructionism (CR) and espoused by churches aligned with far-right
Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson.
In the recordings, Hegseth rails
against “cultural Marxism”, feminism, “critical race theory”, and even
democracy itself, which he says, “our founders blatantly rejected as being
completely dangerous”.
For much of the over five hours
of recordings, which were published over February and March 2024, Hegseth also
castigates public schools, which he characterizes as implementing an
“egalitarian, dystopian LGBT nightmare”, and which the podcast host Joshua
Haymes describes as “one of Satan’s greatest tools for excising Christ from not
just our classrooms but our country”.
Elsewhere in the recordings,
Hegseth expresses agreement with the principle of sphere sovereignty, which, in
CR doctrine, envisions a subordination of “civil government” to Old Testament
law, capital punishment for infringements of that law such as homosexuality,
and rigidly patriarchal families and churches.
Julie Ingersoll, a professor and
director of religious studies at the University of North Florida who has
written extensively about Christian reconstructionism and Christian
nationalism, told the Guardian: “When these guys say they believe in the
separation of church and state, they’re being duplicitous. They do believe in
separate spheres for church and state, but also in a theocratic authority that
sits above both.”
Hegseth’s far-right
beliefs have garnered attention as his nomination to lead the world’s
largest military has proceeded. The former elite US soldier and Fox News
television star has also garnered negative attention over media reports on his
allegedly excessive
drinking and allegations of sexual assault.
On Hegseth’s probable assumption
of a high-ranking cabinet position in the Trump
administration, and how he might view his constitutional role, Ingersoll
said: “These folks are not particularly committed to democracy. They’re
committed to theocracy.”
She added: “If the democratic
system brings that about, so be it. If a monarchy brings it about, that’s OK,
too. And if a dictatorship does, that’s also OK. So their commitment is to
theocracy: the government of civil society according to biblical law and
biblical revelation.”
Logan Davis, a researcher,
consultant and columnist from Colorado, grew up in a reformed Calvinist church
similar to Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, which Hegseth now attends, and
spent middle and high school in a classical Christian school affiliated to the
one Hegseth’s children now attend. In November he wrote a column entitled
“Pete Hegseth and I know the same Christian Nationalists”.
Asked how Hegseth would
understand his oath if sworn in as secretary of defense, Davis said: “Hegseth
will be swearing to defend the constitution that he, to the extent he is
aligned with Doug Wilson, does not believe includes the separation of church and
state.”
Asked if Hegseth’s performance of
his duties might be influenced by the belief that, as Wilson put it in a 2022
blogpost, “We want our nation to be a Christian nation because we want all
the nations to be Christian nations,” Davis said: “I can tell you that the
reformed leaders around him … are all sincerely hoping that that is how he will
view his mandate.”
The Guardian contacted Hegseth
with questions about his beliefs on the separation of church and state, and
sphere sovereignty, but received no reply.
Podcast
The podcast series, recorded for
Pilgrim Hill’s Reformation Red Pill show, was ostensibly a discussion of
Hegseth’s 2022 book Battle for the American Mind, co-written with David
Goodwin. The book claims to reveal a “progressive plan to neutralize the basis
of our republic” via public schools, core curriculums, and even rituals such as
the pledge of allegiance, all of which stretches back at least a century.
Hegseth’s co-author, David
Goodwin, is also the serving president of the Association of Classical
Christian Schools (ACCS), an organization founded in Moscow, Idaho, which
promotes and certifies “classical Christian” schools, and is closely associated
with Wilson, a pastor based in Moscow, Idaho, and a leading promoter of
classical Christian education.
Both the John Edwards Classical
Academy, which Hegseth’s children attend, and Franklin Classical School
attended by Davis are affiliated with ACCS. Each is near Nashville, which Davis
describes as “one of the cradles of the movement”, but Classical Christian
Education has by now exploded nationwide. By his reckoning the number of
schools affiliated to ACCS around the country has more than doubled in the last
decade to 475.
The Guardian has reported
extensively on how Wilson and the church he founded, Christ church, have sought
to expand
their influence in Moscow; how the church resisted Covid-19 public
health mandates despite members
pocketing government loans associated with the pandemic; and how
figures associated with Christ church, including Wilson’s son, sought
to expand their activities into the entertainment industry, including,
apparently, mainstream children’s entertainment.
Wilson has also attracted broader
criticism. Controversies have arisen from his apparent
defense of slavery; his church’s handling of abuse
accusations and the tolerance of convicted pedophiles
in their ranks.
Wilson’s teachings include that “wives need
to be led with a firm hand”, that “Christians do
not set aside the death penalty for homosexual sin”, that “all the nations of
man are to be brought into submission to Christ”, and that in a Christian
nation, non-Christian religions would be banned from
the public square.
In a discussion of sexuality,
Wilson once wrote: “The sexual act cannot be made into an egalitarian
pleasuring party”, adding: “A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A
woman receives, surrenders, accepts.”
Earlier this month, Right Wing
Watch reported that Wilson outlined his
Christian nationalist objection to H1-B visas by saying: “That’s a lot of
Hindus.”
In the first of the recorded
episodes, Hegseth tells Haymes, the host, that writing the book with Goodwin
led him to move his family to Tennessee so he could enroll them in a classical
Christian school.
“The whole writing process was a
red pill,” Hegseth says at one point, adding: “We moved to Tennessee to move to
a classical Christian school because of this book. Because when I started
writing it, we didn’t have all our kids in that form of education.”
Later, he adds: “We landed on one
in middle Tennessee, and we moved to it. We thought we were moving to a school,
but we moved to a church and a community and a whole view of the world that has
changed the way we think, too.”
The church, Pilgrim Hill Reformed
Fellowship, is in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, the same community where Hegseth
in 2022 acquired a more than 8,800 sq ft house standing on over 76 acres for
some $3.4m, according to Sumner County property records, MLS records, and data
brokers.
The church is, in turn, a member
of the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), another
organization co-founded by Douglas Wilson, which unites a growing number of
churches around the country who subscribe to Wilson’s theological vision.
In the recordings, Haymes or Hegseth directly and favorably quote Wilson at least three times, with Haymes praising his criticism of the concept of white privilege, and sharing his criticism of the founders for “not making our country distinctly Christian in the [founding] documents”, and Hegseth reporting that he would read a book from a rightwing Catholic publisher at Wilson’s recommendation…
-The Guardian
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