Pete Hegseth Shares Video of Pastor Questioning Women's Voting Rights | Vanity Fair

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted, with an endorsement, a video of pastors associated with his church saying that women shouldn’t vote, sodomy should be illegal again across the nation, and that each town, each state, the nation, and the world ought to be Christian.

“All of Christ for All of Life,” Hegseth wrote on X.

The CNN interview features Doug Wilson, a self-described “Christian Nationalist” and senior pastor of Christ Church in Idaho, and other leaders describing their view of what America should look like. The church just opened a location in DC, which held its inaugural service in a building owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute, a think tank co-led by President Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, according to CNN.

Christianity Today reports that, during a service several weeks ago, “Children in the pews whispered excitedly when Hegseth entered, and the defense secretary was mobbed by supporters as he left the church.” The defense secretary, who is a parishioner, has previously praised Wilson, saying that the current generation is “standing on the shoulders” of leaders like him.

In the CNN interview, reporter Pamala Brown asked Wilson, “Is planting a church in DC part of your plan to turn this into a Christian nation?” “Yes,” he replied, noting earlier in the interview, “I’d like to see the town be a Christian town. I’d like to see the state be a Christian state. I’d like to see the nation be a Christian nation. I’d like to see the world be a Christian world.”

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Brown asked Wilson a series of questions about his views on women in the church and public life. Wilson calls himself “patriarchal,” celebrated the Dobbs decision as a gift from God and Trump, has said voting should come from households, which men should typically run, and that women shouldn’t hold any positions of power in the church that “involve exercising authority over men.” Wilson, a veteran himself, believes that women shouldn’t be in military combat. Secretary Hegseth has also said he’s against women in combat roles.

“Women,” Wilson began in the CNN interview, “are the kind of people that people come out of.” “So,” Brown asked back, “you just think they’re meant to have babies?”

“It doesn’t take any talent to simply reproduce biologically,” Wilson replied. “The wife and mother, who is the chief executive of the home, is entrusted with three or four of five eternal souls.” Brown then says that she is a working journalist and a mother of three. “Good for you,” he said. “Is that an issue for you?” she asked. “No, it’s not automatically an issue,” he replied.

CNN also asked other pastors from the church if women should be allowed to vote. Toby Sumpter, a senior pastor, said that, in his “ideal society,” we would vote as households. “And I would ordinarily be the one to cast the vote,” he said. “But I would cast the vote having discussed it with my household.” Jared Longshore, another pastor, said he would support repealing the 19th Amendment.

Doug Wilson in DC last July speaking at the National Conservative Conference. Recently, he confirmed that planting a church in DC was a part of his goal to make America a Christian nation.

CNN also spoke with Josh and Amy Prince, a married couple who moved with their children to attend the church. Brown asked Josh if he saw Amy as his equal. “Yes and no,” he replied. Yes, he explained, in that they are both saved by God. And no, he clarified, because they have different God-given “purposes.” “He is the head of our household,” Amy said, “and I do submit to him.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Wilson reiterated some other talking points: while he thinks slavery wasn’t biblical, there were some “decent human beings” who were enslavers, and that America should go back several decades to when sodomy was illegal in all 50 states.

Hegseth didn’t repost the CNN link to the interview. Instead, he reshared the video from Canon Press—a publishing house located in Moscow, Idaho that is connected to Christ Church. Canon Press, which sells books written by the Wilson family, merchandise, Christian homeschooling materials, and more, described itself as, “a Christian publisher with a sense of humor that sometimes gets us into trouble.” But, their website notes, “We like it that way.”

Canon Press is currently hosting a “CNN Sale” until Monday evening, featuring books like “It’s Good To Be A Man,” “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” “Same-Sex Mirage: Phantasmagoria at the Altar & Some Biblical Responses,” “Building Her House: Commonsensical Wisdom for Christian Women,” and “The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity.”

"The books above are the ones CNN doesn’t want you to read," the sale page says.

Hegseth’s post—"All of Christ for All of Life"—is also the name of a Canon Press podcast, with episode titles like "Should Women Work Outside Of the Home?" and "Better Personnel = More Trump Wins."

The defense secretary has also come under fire for his views on women in the military and his alleged treatment of women. On women in service, he wrote in his book that "women cannot physically meet the same standards as men" and that "Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units."

Hegseth, according to himself and his lawyer, paid a woman $50,000 in a confidential financial settlement after she accused him of sexual assault. In a 2018 email she now says she regrets, Hegseth’s mother, Penelope, wrote that her son "belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego."

Currently, Hegseth is the most high-profile Trump administration member who attends Wilson’s church and has, since taking office, imbued his form of Christianity into his professional life. In May, in what he hopes will become a monthly tradition, Hegseth led a Christian prayer service in the Pentagon’s auditorium. At the event, which was during working hours, Trump was praised as a divinely appointed leader.

In the CNN interview, Wilson said that the prayer service is not "organizationally tied" to his congregation. But, he noted, "it’s the kind of thing we love to see."

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