WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he’s proud to be part of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, an archconservative network of Christian congregations.
Hegseth recently made headlines when he shared a CNN video on social media about CREC, showing its pastors arguing women should not have the right to vote.
Pastor Doug Wilson, a CREC co-founder, leads Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, the network’s flagship location. Jovial and media-friendly, Wilson is no stranger to stirring controversy with his church’s hard-line theology and its embrace of patriarchy and Christian nationalism.
Wilson told The Associated Press on Monday he was grateful Hegseth shared the video. He noted Hegseth’s post was labeled with Christ Church’s motto: “All of Christ for All of Life.”
“He was, in effect, reposting it and saying, ‘Amen,’ at some level,” Wilson said.
Hegseth, among President Donald Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks, attends Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, a CREC member church in a suburb outside Nashville, Tenn. His pastor, Brooks Potteiger, prayed at a service Hegseth hosted at the Pentagon.
CREC recently opened a new outpost in the nation’s capital, Christ Church DC, with Hegseth attending its first Sunday service.
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed Hegseth’s CREC affiliation and told the AP that Hegseth “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”
Wilson’s church and wider denomination practice complementarianism, the patriarchal idea that men and women have different God-given roles. Women within CREC churches cannot hold church leadership positions, and married women are to submit to their husbands.
Wilson told the AP he believes the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote “was a bad idea.” Still, he said his wife and daughters vote.
He would prefer the United States follow his church’s example, which allows heads of households to vote in church elections. Unmarried women qualify as voting members in his church.
“Ordinarily, the vote is cast by the head of the household, the husband and father, because we’re patriarchal and not egalitarian,” Wilson said. He added that repealing the 19th Amendment is not high on his list of priorities.
Hegseth’s views on women have been in the spotlight, especially after he faced sexual assault allegations, for which no charges were filed. Before his nomination to lead the Defense Department, Hegseth had questioned women serving in combat roles in the military.