Desk Report,
Hegseth supports comments by priests calling for women’s suffrage, posts on social media
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has come under fire after posting a video on social media supporting pastors’ negative comments about women’s suffrage.
Hegseth supports comments by priests calling for women’s suffrage, posts on social media
The video shows several pastors from a Christian Nationalist church arguing that women should no longer be allowed to vote.
Hegseth’s post, which was reposted on X on Thursday night, shows him having a deep and personal relationship with a Christian Nationalist pastor who has extremist views on religion and the role of women. In his post, Hegseth commented on a nearly seven-minute CNN report on the activities of Doug Wilson, co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). In the report, a pastor from Wilson’s church advocates for removing women’s suffrage from the US Constitution. Another pastor said that in his “ideal society,” people would vote by family. A female member of the group can also be heard saying she is loyal to her husband.
Hegseth posted the video, writing that the teachings of Christianity will influence all aspects of life. Hegseth’s post has been liked more than 12,000 times and shared more than 2,000 times. While some users agreed with the views of the pastors in the video, many expressed concern about the Secretary of Defense’s Christian nationalist views.
However, Pastor Doug Pugit, executive director of the progressive evangelical organization Vote Common Good, said the views expressed in the video were those of “a small minority of Christians” and called it “very disturbing” that Hegseth was promoting them.
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, told The Associated Press on Friday that Hegseth was “a proud member of a church” affiliated with the CREC. He highly valued many of Wilson’s writings and teachings.
Last May, Hegseth invited his personal pastor, Brooks Pottiger, to the Pentagon, where he led the first of several Christian prayer services during government hours. Defense Department employees and military members said they received invitations to the event in government emails.
“I want to see this country as a Christian country and I want the world to be a Christian world,” Wilson said, according to a CNN report.
