The Pastor, The Pentagon, and the Push for a Christian America

The Pastor, The Pentagon, and the Push for a Christian America

On a Sunday morning last month, a standing-room-only crowd gathered above a shuttered bar three blocks from the US Capitol. Exposed brick and pipes lined the ceiling. An American flag hung above the pastor on a makeshift stage. Minutes before the service began, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth walked in with his wife and children.

The inaugural service of Christ Church Washington DC marked a major milestone for Douglas Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist pastor who has spent nearly five decades building an Evangelical movement from his base in Moscow, Idaho. What began as a small church plant in a college town has grown into an international network of more than 150 churches, Christian schools, a college, and a publishing company.

Wilsons vision is unapologetically theocratic. “Every society is theocratic,” he told CNN in an interview at his Idaho church. “The only question is whos Theo? In Saudi Arabia, Theo is Allah. In a secular democracy, it would be Demos, the people. In a Christian republic, itd be Christ.”

A Theology of Patriarchy and Power

Wilson believes in a patriarchal society where women submit to their husbands. Women are barred from leadership positions in his church. He supports repealing the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote, though he says its not a top priority. He wants to outlaw abortion and says homosexuality should be a crime.

His critics point to a litany of views they argue are well outside the mainstream. “They actually literally want to take over towns and cities, and so theyre building a grassroots infrastructure to do that,” said Rev. Jennifer Butler, founder of Faith in Public Life, a network of progressive faith leaders. “And they have access to this administration. If you are Jewish, if youre a Muslim, if youre a woman, if youre gay — they want to criminalize LGBTQ people — you dont belong in this society.”

Wilson doesnt apologize for his theology. He notes he writes with a “tartness” that animates those who disagree with him. He has embraced the term “Christian nationalist” because, as he puts it, its better than the other names he gets called.

“Im not a White nationalist. Im not a fascist. Im not a racist. Im not a misogynist, and those are the names that usually get thrown at me,” he said. “And then when someone says, well, thats Christian nationalism, I can — well, I can work with that.”

From Fringe to Mainstream

For decades, Wilson operated on the fringes of the religious right. That changed during the Covid pandemic. His church in Moscow defied lockdown rules and held an outdoor protest in September 2020, leading to arrests, national attention, and support from Donald Trump on Twitter. His church community has roughly doubled in size since 2019.

Last year, Wilson was interviewed on Tucker Carlsons podcast and spoke at Charlie Kirks Turning Point USA “The Believers Summit.” His views, he says, havent changed — the audience has.

“My views on a number of things have become steadily more mainstream and have done that without me moving at all,” Wilson said.

Matthew Taylor, a senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic-Christian-Jewish Studies, describes Wilson as the “avatar or ringleader” of a movement of mostly male online-influencer pastors preaching hardline Calvinist theology. Taylor calls them the “Theo Bros.”

With a newly created White House Faith Office and Hegseth instituting monthly prayer services at the Pentagon, Wilson is part of an ascendent group of Christian religious leaders finding influence among MAGA conservatives.

The Hegseth Connection

Wilsons most prominent follower in the Trump administration is Hegseth, a member of a Tennessee church thats part of Wilsons network, known as the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. When Hegseth held his first Christian prayer service at the Pentagon, he brought in the pastor from his church.

While Wilson didnt meet Hegseth until after his confirmation as defense secretary, the pastor says its “very encouraging” to see the unapologetic way Hegseth has “owned what he believes.” Asked about Hegseths controversial history, including marital infidelities and allegations of excessive drinking and sexual assault, which Hegseth has denied, Wilson acknowledged, “His past is pretty raggedy.” But now, Wilson says, “Pete Hegseth is living like a Christian man ought to live.”

A Pentagon spokesperson said Hegseth “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilsons writings and teachings.” After the CNN story published, Hegseth retweeted it, writing, “All of Christ for All of Life.”

A Mission to Babylon

In a May blog post titled “A Mission to Babylon,” Wilson announced the new church in Washington, writing there would be “many strategic opportunities with numerous evangelicals who will be present both in and around the Trump administration.”

“Were not planting the church so that we can get to meet senators and important people,” Wilson told CNN. “What were doing is planting a church so that the important people in DC will be reminded that God is the important one.”

The Washington congregation meets above a shuttered bar popular with congressional staffers. The building is owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute, a think tank co-led by Trumps former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Its one of several properties near the Capitol purchased by CPI while Trump was out of power.

Asked how the church ended up using CPIs building, Wilson says a friend in Washington made the connecti on.

Wilson says he was grateful for the first Trump administration and the appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices that led to the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Now he wants to see the high court repeal the 2015 decision legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

Asked how the president fits into his mission, Wilson says: “Trump is the wrecking ball. He is the wild card. He is, hes the thing that nobody really anticipated.”

A Divided College Town

In person, Wilson, 72, comes across as a sincere, mild-mannered grandfather with a thick white beard. He has three grown children, all members of the CREC church. Hes a postmillennialist, meaning he believes its the job of Christians to build the kingdom of God on Earth to bring about the second coming of Christ.

Christ Church was founded in Moscow, Idaho, in the 1970s by Wilsons father. The younger Wilson had just completed a stint in the Navy and was attending college in Moscow when he became the head preacher after about a year and a half.

Home to the University of Idaho, Moscow is a college town with clear competing forces. Coffee and book shops displaying pride flags and “Black Lives Matter” signs reside beside businesses owned by “kirkers,” the name members of Wilsons congregation call themselves based on the Scottish word for church.

While walking down Main Street with a CNN reporter, a shop owner popped out of a vintage clothing store and shouted “boo” in Wilsons direction.

“Well, there ya go,” Wilson said, looking unphased. “Its not unusual,” he said of that sort of reception. “Everybody laments the fact that we dont have community anymore, and then as soon as you start to have community, people start calling them names like a cult.”

The churchs sprawling presence in the town is hard to miss. In addition to Christ Church, Wilson started the Logos School more than four decades ago. He says it was the first of whats now more than 400 “classical Christian schools” across the US. He also started New Saint Andrews College in the 1990s. Just up the way from Christ Church is the Canon Press building.

The CREC network now has more than 130 churches in nearly 40 states and another 25 around the globe, including Canada, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, and Australia.

More than anything, Wilson says, the Covid pandemic and the governments response fueled growth in his church. People were “chased here,” he says, by blue-state governors, Covid restrictions, and pastors elsewhere who closed their churches down.

Controversial Views on Race and Sex

Wilsons writings on sex and marriage have sparked criticisms that his theology opens the door to spousal abuse and even marital rape. In a passage from his 1999 book “Fidelity: What it Means to be a One-Woman Man,” Wilson writes: “A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants. A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.”

Wilson insisted to CNN that his theology has never supported sexual or spousal abuse, and he says hes helped women escape abusive relationships.

“If there is sexual abuse or violent abuse, other forms of misbehavior, I believe that other authorities, sometimes the cops, sometimes the elders of the church, sometimes other family members, extended family members, need to intervene to protect the woman or to protect the children,” Wilson said.

His most controversial commentary is arguably about slavery. He co-wrote a booklet in the 1990s on slavery in the South, which included the claim: “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.”

Asked if he still believes there was affection between the races, Wilson said: “Well, yes, it depends on which master, which slave youre talking about.”

“Slavery was overseen and conducted by fallen human beings, and there were horrendous abuses and there were also people who owned slaves who were decent human beings and didnt mistreat them,” he said. “I think that system of chattel slavery was an unbiblical system, and Im grateful its gone.”

Its Barely, Barely Started

Wilson says his vision of turning America into a Christian nation means Christ would be “in the public square” but others would still be free to practice their own religions. He says his ultimate goal remains achieving a Christian theocracy across the globe, to facilitate the second coming of Christ. Its a goal he believes is 250 years or so away.

“Yes, by peaceful means, by sharing the gospel,” he says of how it would happen. “Were a little putt-putt effort here. So the world has got 8 billion people in it. Theres a lot of work yet to do. I believe that we are working our little corner of the vineyard.”

In Washington, Wilson says its “very encouraging” to see Hegseth defending his beliefs as hes taken a top position in Trumps administration. Hegseths service at the Pentagon with a CREC pastor was “not organizationally tied to us, but its the kind of thing we love to see,” Wilson said.

“But everybody who loves the Lord in Washington, DC, will tell you how much theyre up against,” Wilson said. “And its not anywhere close to being done. Its barely, barely started.”

Next month, Wilson is coming to the Washington area to speak at an event hosted by his church, “Christ or Chaos,” held at George Mason Universitys campus in Arlington, Virginia. Hes preaching at a church service there the next day, too.

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What does it mean when a pastor who wants to repeal the 19th Amendment and criminalize homosexuality has the ear of the Secretary of Defense? The answer may depend on whether you see Wilsons rise as a threat to pluralistic democracy or simply as another voice in the American religious cacophony. Either way, the quiet expansion of his network — church by church, school by school — suggests this story is far from over.