Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ignited outrage after inviting a Christian nationalist pastor to lead a worship service at the Pentagon this week. The pastor, Doug Wilson, has in the past justified slavery, essentially arguing that the enslavement and brutality against Black people had redeeming qualities.
Wilson, a self-described “paleo-Confederate,” is the founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, the Christian denomination of Hegseth. The pastor has said his goal is to make America a Christian nation, despite the country’s intentional founding principles of not establishing a national religion or language and of embracing diversity.
But it’s Wilson’s views on slavery, women, and same-sex marriage that are particularly troubling to critics of Hegseth’s embrace of the pastor. In his 1996 book, “Southern Slavery: As It Was,” Wilson argued that slavery promoted “affection between the races” in the South.
“Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity,” he wrote. “There has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world. The credit for this must go to the predominance of Christianity.” The pastor even said that Christian enslavers were on “firm scriptural ground,” according to The Washington Post.
We have gathered at the Pentagon for our monthly worship service.
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We are One Nation Under God. pic.twitter.com/o5L8GgjFS8
While Wilson acknowledged there were “evils” to the system of slavery in the U.S., he argued that the benefits it had on Black and white Americans cannot be overlooked.
“Slavery produced in the South a genuine affection between the races that we believe we can say has never existed in any nation before the War or since,” he wrote.
Wilson has also said that women should be denied the right to vote and has barred women from holding leadership positions in his church.
“Secretary Hegseth is an unscrupulous bigot. It is unsurprising that he would invite a racist to evangelize for our troops during Black History Month,” Richard Brookshire, co-CEO and co-founder of Black Veterans Project, told theGrio. “The unintelligible narratives he supports and deploys reflect how deeply unserious, unqualified and unexceptional he is as a leader.”
“It’s reinforcing this whole concept of white Christian nationalism,” said Ed Anderson, an organizer with Common Defense, an advocacy group for veterans. He told theGrio, “It’s a warning flag of what’s to come, and I think proudly proclaiming to be a Christian nationalist, as the church promotes, spells negative things for people of color, women, and others in the military.”
Anderson noted that the Pentagon’s embrace of a pastor with such views on slavery also comes after Secretary Hegseth has aggressively targeted DEI, which has included the firing of CQ Brown, the former Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the elimination of a decades-old shaving waiver that has allowed many Black veterans with skin conditions to serve in the military.
Kingsley Wilson, a spokesperson for the Pentagon, defended the appearance of Pastor Doug Wilson, saying in a statement, “Secretary Hegseth, along with millions of Americans, is a proud Christian and was glad to welcome Pastor Wilson…the Christian faith is woven deeply into the fabric of our nation.”
Anderson said he expects the Pentagon to go further, explaining, “I expect there to be chaplains from that religion as a part of the Department of Defense Chaplain Corps. It makes me fear for Sunday services at military bases.”
He added, “Their belief that America is a Christian nation and who they identify as Christians is a dangerous precedent that the military would have to confront, particularly as we’ve seen an increase in other non-traditional, non-Christian religions amongst the ranks in the military.”
