Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a video about Christian domination in the age of President Donald Trump — and his post has since sparked controversy.
Late Thursday, Hegseth posted to his X platform, “All of Christ for All of Life,” sharing a report from CNN that profiled Douglas Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist pastor who has built an international network of dozens of churches, schools and a college since the 1970s. Hegseth has been identified as a prominent follower.
In the video, the outlet reported that Wilson’s movement focuses on a “patriarchal society, where men are dominant, and women are expected to submit to their husbands.”
“Women are the kind of people that people come out of,” Wilson said.
CNN’s Pamela Brown then asked, “So you just think they’re meant to have babies? That’s it? They’re just a vessel?”
Wilson responded: “No. It doesn’t take any talent to simply reproduce biologically... the wife and mother, who is the chief executive of the home, is entrusted with three, or four, or five eternal souls.”
Brown went on to say that Wilson’s vision of a Christian society includes “women as an individual shouldn’t be able to vote.” His fellow pastors agreed — with one claiming, “in my ideal society, we would vote as a households.”
“I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote, but I would cast the vote having discussed it with my household,” the pastor said.
When asked by Brown about if there is a disagreement with his wife, he said “that’s a great opportunity for a good discussion.” The other pastor went on to say that he would “support” the repeal of the 19th Amendment, which constitutionally guarantees all women the right to vote.
CNN also revealed that Wilson believes women shouldn’t hold certain leadership positions, such as in the church, or combat roles.
Hegseth’s repost began to gain traction on social media on Friday — with many pointing to the controversial statements.
“Very healthy to have the Secretary of Defense promoting a Christian nationalist who thinks women should not have the right to vote,” journalist James Surowiecki wrote.
Another user said: “We are losing our country right before our eyes.”
“Please watch this video, in which certain religious leaders call for women to lose the vote, and for the reintroduction of slavery. Then note who retweeted it,” a different user posted.
Former GOP Rep. Barbara Comstock also weighed in: “Not unnoticed that @petehegseth, the most unqualified and insecure SecDef, has retweeted this piece that includes extremist men advocating that the right to vote be taken away from women and women must submit to men (apparently even if they are cheaters?) This is the Hegseth worldview."
“When I see this from Hegseth, I think of Lincoln in 1855: ‘When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy,’” wrote Bill Kristol, the director of Defending Democracy Together, an advocacy group created by lifelong conservatives and Republicans.
In another section of the video, one of Wilson’s members is asked if he views his wife as an equal, to which he responded “yes and no, in the sense that we’re both saved by grace, we’re absolutely on equal footing, but we have very different purposes, God-given.” His wife said that she does “submit” to him.
Wilson also said that he wishes for the end of same-sex marriage, and agreed when asked if he still believes in a “mutual affection” in slavery.
“Yes, it depends on which master and which slave you’re talking about. Slavery was overseen and conducted by fallen human beings, and there were horrendous abuses, and there were also people who owned slaves who were decent human beings and didn’t mistreat them,” he said.
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