Tag Archives: Doug Wilson

MSNBC:Maddow Blog | Why the Pentagon needed to clarify Pete Hegseth’s position on women’s voting rights

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The good news is, the defense secretary’s spokesperson said he supports a woman’s right to vote. The bad news is they had to clarify in the first place.

Under normal circumstances, no one would think to ask the Pentagon whether the current secretary of defense supports women’s voting rights, but there’s little about our current political landscape that’s “normal.” Hence, The Hill reported:

The Trump administration on Thursday sought to clarify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s support for women’s voting rights following controversy spurred by his repost of a video tied to a pastor who said the opposite. ‘Of course, the secretary thinks that women should have the right to vote. That’s a stupid question,’ Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters during Thursday’s briefing.

I can appreciate why the DOD’s right-wing spokesperson — someone who, as Politico reported earlier this year, “has touted antisemitic views, white supremacist conspiracy theories and Kremlin-like statements on social media” — would be eager to dismiss the line of inquiry. But it really wasn’t that stupid a question.

In fact, it was just two weeks ago when Hegseth used his social media account to amplify a video about a Christian nationalist church that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote. The Associated Press reported:

In the post, Hegseth commented on an almost seven-minute-long report by CNN examining Doug Wilson, cofounder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC. The report featured a pastor from Wilson’s church advocating the repeal of women’s right to vote from the Constitution, and another pastor saying that in his ideal world, people would vote as households. It also featured a female congregant saying that she submits to her husband.

Hegseth didn’t explicitly endorse the idea of repealing voting rights for American women, but he also didn’t make any effort to distance himself from the rhetoric used in the video he shared with his online followers. On the contrary, he promoted the video, alongside his own written message that read, “All of Christ for All of Life.”

When this sparked a controversy, the former Fox News host could’ve made it clear that he disagreed with the comments, or that he supports leaving the 19th Amendment intact. Instead, Hegseth said nothing.

What’s more, the secretary’s office didn’t make much of an effort, either. When asked about the video he promoted, a Pentagon spokesperson told the AP that Hegseth is “a proud member of a church” that is affiliated with CREC and he “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”

All of this, of course, came on the heels of Hegseth’s efforts to purge several women from leadership posts within the U.S. armed forces.

Hopefully, what the Pentagon spokesperson said was accurate, and the secretary doesn’t actually support rolling back women’s voting rights, despite the content of the video he amplified online. But to see this question as somehow out of bounds given the broader context is difficult to take seriously.

Why the Pentagon needed to clarify Pete Hegseth’s position on women’s voting rights
The good news is, the defense secretary’s spokesperson said he supports a woman’s right to vote. The bad news is they had to clarify in the first place.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/pentagon-needed-clarify-pete-hegseths-position-womens-voting-rights-rcna225686

Idaho Statesman: Idaho Christian nationalists embrace the immoral if they have power | Opinion

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently shared on X an interview with Moscow Pastor Doug Wilson, a key figure in the Christian nationalist movement who argues that women should be subordinate to men — even to the point that they should not be allowed to vote.

The movement has been emboldened by the re-election of President Donald Trump, and the CNN report Hegseth shared details the ongoing effort among Wilson and his allies to gain political power.

And the episode contains another important lesson: That the essential part of Christian nationalism is right-wing nationalism, while Christianity is a secondary, accidental feature.

The point is to gain power for a reactionary kind of political and cultural view — hence the movement’s constant insistence on the submission of women to men; the sympathy for the Old South, even to the point of defending slavery; constant attacks on gay and transgender people; occasionally downplaying the Holocaust and so on — and Christianity is a pretty cloak to wrap that foul project in.

This explains their consistent embrace of individuals who relentlessly exhibit personal debauchery — so long as they have political power — people like Hegseth and Trump.

To recite the obvious: Trump has been found liable for sexually abusing a woman, has bragged about his ability to sexually assault women at will, faced complaints about leering at teenage contestants in the locker rooms of beauty pageants, has cheated (often ostentatiously) on all three of his wives and faces numerous other credible allegations of sexual misconduct.

Hegseth, Trump’s moral clone, has faced credible allegations of sexual assault and admitted cheating on the mother of his children with five different women. His former sister-in-law has alleged he abused his next wife. His drunken escapades have become notorious.

“I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” wrote one of his critics. “You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

When the idea is that only families, led by a husband, can vote, Hegseth dons the demeanor of a pious Christian and declares, “All of Christ for All of Life.” But the moment his marriage requires him to be faithful, his Bible hits the floor just before his pants.

We are all poor sinners, it’s true. But doesn’t it seem strange that the Kingdom of God would be brought forth by the most degenerate among us? Maybe it’s worth thinking about false prophets and the idea that “you will know them by their fruit.”

The Christian nationalist movement’s embrace of people like this can be understood in much the same way as the massive hoard of pornography found on the outwardly pious Osama bin Laden’s hard drives after his death: It shows that terrorism was his primary commitment, and his religion was a situationally dispensable secondary matter.

In the CNN segment, Wilson argued that working for a theocratic takeover of Idaho government is nothing but tending “our little corner of the vineyard.” Asked if Muslims in Idaho should have to live by Christian law, Wilson responded: “If I went to Saudi Arabia, I would fully expect to live under their God’s rules.”

But Idaho is not Wilson’s little corner of the vinyard.

What the Christian nationalist movement proposes is not a return to Idaho’s older and better days. It is the imposition of a new and fundamentally alien order. The equality of women, even if never perfectly realized, has been deeply threaded through Idaho’s history and tradition from the very beginning.

Unlike in many eastern states, the right of women to vote was not a late development in Idaho’s history. Only six years after Idaho’s 1890 founding, the right of women to vote was enshrined in the state Constitution — with the overwhelming approval of the then-all-male electorate — making ours the fourth state to protect universal suffrage.

That is our heritage.

Two years later, in 1898, Permeal J. French became Idaho’s first female constitutional officer when she was elected state superintendent. After that, Idaho has always had at least one woman in statewide office or Congress, except for a brief period between 2013 and 2014 between the resignation of State Controller Donna Jones and the election of Superintendent Sherri Ybarra.

That is our history.

The point isn’t for America or Idaho to be Saudi Arabia with a different religion. The point is for America and for Idaho to be free.

If Wilson doesn’t like that, maybe he should find another vineyard. Maybe the aforementioned Saudi Arabia, where it’s illegal to be gay, where women can’t vote, where institutions quite like slavery persist, where most of what Wilson and his cohort want for Idaho is already accomplished.

Sure, there may theological differences, but what’s a minor philosophical disagreement between friends, especially when they agree about pretty much everything else?

Idaho Christian nationalists embrace the immoral if they have power | Opinion
The moment Hegseth’s marriage requires him to be faithful, his Bible hits the floor just before his pants. | Opinion

https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article311708559.html

Also here:

Idaho Christian nationalists embrace the immoral if they have power | Opinion
The moment Hegseth’s marriage requires him to be faithful, his Bible hits the floor just before his pants. | Opinion

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/idaho-christian-nationalists-embrace-the-immoral-if-they-have-power-opinion/ar-AA1KAseo

Daily Beast: Hegseth Posts Video of Pastor Saying Women Shouldn’t Vote

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The evangelical leader says in the clip that the America where gay sex was outlawed was “not a totalitarian hellhole.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reposted a video that features the leader of the Christian evangelical movement he follows calling to make gay sex illegal.

The segment from CNN focused on Doug Wilson, co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).

“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, sodomy was a felony in all 50 states,” Wilson says in the clip. “That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole.”

He adds that he wishes America would bring back those laws, which made sex between people of the same sex illegal. In fact, sodomy was a felony punishable by imprisonment or hard labor in every state until 1962, when Illinois became the first state to remove criminal penalties for consensual sodomy. The Supreme Court invalidated bans on gay sex in its 2003 ruling, Lawrence v Texas.

At other points in the video, Wilson says that some American slave owners were “decent human beings” and suggests that women should focus on having and raising children.

“Women are the kind of people that people come out of,” Wilson says.

The video also features a female congregation member saying that she “submits” to her husband and a pastor from the movement calling to repeal the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

“All of Christ for All of Life,” Hegseth wrote alongside the clip. The CNN report noted that Hegseth has publicly declared his support for Wilson in the past.

Asked for comment, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told the Daily Beast that Hegseth is a “proud” member of a church associated with CREC and “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”

During the nomination process for defense secretary, Hegseth’s past comments arguing that women should not be allowed to serve in military combat roles resurfaced as a source of controversy.

Hegseth walked back the comments after it became clear that they might impede his nomination. He was eventually confirmed with a tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President JD Vance.

Since taking over the Pentagon, Hegseth has instituted more stringent fitness standards for women, and removed at least five senior female military officials from leadership roles.

In May, Hegseth sparked controversy when he brought his personal pastor, Brooks Potteiger, to the Pentagon to lead a monthly prayer circle. The pastor praised President Donald Trump as divinely appointed.

Hegseth, despite being a devout Christian, was rocked by reports during the nomination process detailing his repeated infidelity during his first marriage. He has been married three times.

Hegseth also has several controversial pro-Christian tattoos, including one that has been criticized as anti-Muslim, and others that allude to the Crusades.

Pete Hegseth Posts Video of Pastor Calling for Gay Sex Ban
The evangelical leader says in the clip that the America where gay sex was outlawed was “not a totalitarian hellhole.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-hegseth-posts-video-of-pastor-saying-women-shouldnt-vote