Pete Hegseth’s conservative evangelical faith came under scrutiny well before his January 2025 confirmation as secretary of defense. He is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a loose network rooted in ideas traced to 20th-century Christian Reconstructionism. Many leaders within the CREC have argued that civil life should be governed by biblical law and that society should be ordered around a patriarchal, Christian polity. The CREC reports more than 160 congregations spanning North America, Europe, Asia and South America.
Hegseth’s persistent use of confessional language and public prayers has raised questions about how his religious convictions intersect with his responsibilities over the military. At a March 25, 2026, prayer service during the war with Iran he prayed, “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation,” and added a plea for “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
The CREC is closely associated with Doug Wilson, the pastor who started Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. Wilson co-founded the CREC in 1993 and remains its most visible figure; Christ Church serves as a de facto center for the network, running Logos Schools (private and homeschool curricula), Canon Press (publishing and media), and New Saint Andrews College. These institutions promote a worldview that sees Christians as in tension with secular culture. Wilson and Hegseth have publicly praised each other; Hegseth invited Wilson to lead prayers at a Pentagon service in February 2026, where Wilson linked military success to Christian faith and described opponents in demonic terms.
Wilson has openly spoken of wanting to “make Moscow a Christian town.” CREC teaching generally rejects religious pluralism and discourages political compromise on doctrinal grounds. Many CREC congregations embrace a strongly patriarchal reading of Scripture; Wilson has written that in sexual relationships “A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.” The movement often resists a strict wall between church and state, maintaining that civil authorities and officeholders should be Christians.
Growth in the CREC is driven by a strategy of church planting; new congregations seek materials and mentoring from the network rather than relying on a centralized ordaining body. While the CREC is smaller than major evangelical denominations, it has expanded both across the U.S. and internationally.
The movement has attracted controversy. In 1996 Wilson published material that depicted slavery in a positive light, and media reporting has raised accusations of sexual abuse and criticized how church leaders handled survivors’ accounts. Wilson has denied wrongdoing and said allegations should be reported to civil authorities. The network’s ties drew renewed attention after several of Hegseth’s early actions as defense secretary in May–June 2025—banning transgender people from military service and removing the name of gay activist Harvey Milk from a Navy ship—aligned with CREC positions on gender and sexuality.
Hegseth has a pattern of framing foreign policy and military action in religious terms. In a March 5, 2026, address to Latin American leaders he appealed to a shared Christian identity to justify actions such as intervention in Venezuela, the blockade of Cuba and naval operations: “We share the same interests… whether our nations will be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under God…” Since bombing began in late February, his rhetoric has evoked Crusader imagery; he sports tattoos reading “Deus Vult” (“God wills it”), the Arabic word for infidel, and a Jerusalem cross, and he is the author of a book titled American Crusade. He has cast opponents as “religious fanatics” seeking nuclear capability for an “Armageddon.”
So long as Hegseth remains secretary of defense, his CREC ties and frequent invocation of faith are likely to shape how conflicts are described and prosecuted at home and abroad.
Samuel Perry is associate professor of rhetoric at Baylor University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
