The Founding Fathers were unequivocally opposed to creating a theocracy. The Constitutuon they wrote provided that there would be no religious tests for any government office. The First Amendment guaranteed freedom of religion and asserted that Congress would make no law to establish any religion. They did not want the new United States of America to be a Christian nation.
Yet there has always been a vocal minority that does want the U.S. to be a Christian nation.The more diverse we are, the more these extremists want to impose their religion on everyone.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s new Secretary of Defense, is apparently a Christian nationalist. He has Christian nationalist tattoos. Too bad for non-Christians and atheists. He will probably assume that every woman and person of color I a high-ranking position is a DEI hire. Only straight white men, he assumes, are qualified. Like him.
In a series of newly unearthed podcasts, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, appears to endorse the theocratic and authoritarian doctrine of “sphere sovereignty”, a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR) and espoused by churches aligned with far-right Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson.
In the recordings, Hegseth rails against “cultural Marxism”, feminism, “critical race theory”, and even democracy itself, which he says “our founders blatantly rejected as being completely dangerous”.
For much of the over five hours of recordings, which were published over February and March 2024, Hegseth also castigates public schools, which he characterizes as implementing an “egalitarian, dystopian LGBT nightmare”, and which the podcast host Joshua Haymes describes as “one of Satan’s greatest tools for excising Christ from not just our classrooms but our country”.
Elsewhere in the recordings, Hegseth expresses agreement with the principle of sphere sovereignty, which, in CR doctrine, envisions a subordination of “civil government” to Old Testament law, capital punishment for infringements of that law such as homosexuality, and rigidly patriarchal families and churches.
Julie Ingersoll, a professor and director of religious studies at the University of North Florida who has written extensively about Christian reconstructionism and Christian nationalism, told the Guardian: “When these guys say they believe in the separation of church and state, they’re being duplicitous. They do believe in separate spheres for church and state, but also in a theocratic authority that sits above both.”
Hegseth’s far-right beliefs have garnered attention as his nomination to lead the world’s largest military has proceeded. The former Fox News television star and US National Guard officer, decorated after deployments that included special operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, has also garnered negative attention over media reports on his allegedly excessive drinking and allegations of sexual assault.
On Hegseth’s probable assumption of a high-ranking cabinet position in the Trump administration, and how he might view his constitutional role, Ingersoll said: “These folks are not particularly committed to democracy. They’re committed to theocracy.”
She added: “If the democratic system brings that about, so be it. If a monarchy brings it about, that’s OK, too. And if a dictatorship does, that’s also OK. So their commitment is to theocracy: the government of civil society according to biblical law and biblical revelation.”
Logan Davis, a researcher, consultant and columnist from Colorado, grew up in a reformed Calvinist church similar to Pilgrim Hill Reformed Fellowship, which Hegseth now attends, and spent middle and high school in a classical Christian school affiliated to the one Hegseth’s children now attend.
In November he wrote a column entitled “Pete Hegseth and I know the same Christian Nationalists”.
Asked how Hegseth would understand his oath if sworn in as secretary of defense, Davis said: “Hegseth will be swearing to defend the constitution that he, to the extent he is aligned with Doug Wilson, does not believe includes the separation of church and state.”
Asked if Hegseth’s performance of his duties might be influenced by the belief that, as Wilson put it in a 2022 blogpost, “We want our nation to be a Christian nation because we want all the nations to be Christian nations,” Davis said: “I can tell you that the reformed leaders around him … are all sincerely hoping that that is how he will view his mandate.”
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please there is so much havoc in our classrooms, we really need to avoid all this anger coming from our leadership. Please we need calm tones . . . please . . .
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NO! Absolutely not. No thanks!
When someone tells you they are going to “eliminate” you, you’d better be ready with the right amount of lethal force to protect yourself, whether physically or verbally. And that includes using very strident, not avoiding sanitizing by checking our anger. Anger can be a very good thing when channeled properly.
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“. . . using very strident means. . . “
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Some of the trumpers I know remain bitter and angry and all messed up, even now. What’s with that? They won the election! Perhaps that’s what happens to people when they wake up on the wrong side of history. Or, as you note, Duane, it seems like some want to “eliminate” us. They just don’t want us to exist!
At what point will things get so extreme in this country that citizens will have mass demonstrations in the streets? And, could our military have to disobey unlawful, unconstitutional orders?
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Hegseth is there to make sure the military follows Trump’s whims.
Hegseth made his first call today to Netanyahu to assure him that the new administration will give him whatever he needs.
The Arab Americans who voted for him fell for a hoax.
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This appointment and the lack of Republican backbone to oppose it is the most frightening aspect of the ascendant Trump.
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Sadly, Roy, it’s just the beginning of those “most frightening aspects”.
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and the lack of an aggressive free press to investigate, query, ask for comments and “Where’s your backbone?” is discouraging and scary. (And, retrospectively, in debate moderators).
Calls to offices and reading newspapers and not one statement anywhere what our congresspersons think about the picks (except 1 where fist-pumping Sen Hawley said about Hegseth that the president keeps his promises.
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Perhaps more ominously, ICE has conducted warrantless searches. This violates the 4th amendment, of course, and it should come as no surprise that these theocrats have no compunction to follow the law.
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Freedom FROM Religion
I’m a lifelong church-going Christian, but I recognize and accept as best for our nation that what our Founding Fathers bequeathed to us was not freedom OF religion, but freedom FROM religion in our government and public life.
The constitutional principle of a “wall of separation” between government and religion in America goes back even far further than our 1797 Constitution: Already back in 1635, Roger Williams, founder of the Rhode Island Colony, declared that a “wall of separation” must forever separate American government from any religion. In Thomas Jefferson’s famous 1802 letter to the Connecticut Baptist Convention, Jefferson quoted Williams’ “wall of separation” phrase to explain the meaning of The First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
Jefferson, author of our Declaration of Independence, also compiled his own version of the Bible, known as The Jefferson Bible, that basically treated Jesus as an admirable philosopher, but not divine. Jefferson’s non-Christian edition of the Bible became widely popular in the new United States, and for decades every new member of Congress was given a copy of The Jefferson Bible when sworn in to Congress.
Our Founding Fathers’ insistence on separating government from any and all religion came about because England had imposed mandatory Anglican church membership in the colonies for anyone who wanted to participate in government; so, although many of our Founding Fathers were Deists, not Christians, they were compelled to join the official British government’s Christian Anglican religion in order to be able to vote or take any part in government.
James Madison, whom we honor with the title “Father of our Constitution” because so many of our Constitution’s key principles are derived from his ideas, wrote that “the purpose of the separation of church and state is to keep forever from our shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries”.
That bloody “ceaseless strife” of religious war in Europe was well known to Madison and to our nation’s other Founding Fathers because they had recent ancestors who had suffered and been killed because of the endless warfare between Christian religions throughout Europe during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Those centuries of bloodshed and misery followed the Protestant Reformation which led to the establishment of dozens of warring Protestant religions, none of which agreed with each other in their dogma, and all of which disagreed with the Catholic church.
Thousands upon countless thousands of people died as each Christian religion tried to force their version of religious beliefs on the others.
George Washington, whom we honor with the title “Father of our Nation”, was in complete agreement with the Establishment Clause and wrote that “the United States government is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” He was compelled to attend Anglican church services but never took Communion because he refused to be that hypocritical.
Today, some who argue against the separation of church and state claim that when the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause says that government shall make no law “respecting the establishment of religion” it means only that the government shall not establish a religion and that government is free to provide all manner of support for existing religions. However, in the grammatical syntax of the time in which the First Amendment was written, the phrase “the establishment of religion” refers to “established religions”, not to establishing a government religion. Written in the grammatical syntax of our current times, the First Amendment would state that the government shall make no law “respecting established religions”.
Correctly read, and knowing the intent of Our Founding Fathers which they clearly expressed, the First Amendment provides Americans with freedom FROM religion.
And yet, today, self-righteous religious zealots — some of whom are even on the U.S. Supreme Court — are driving our nation toward a time of bloody religious warfare in America; warfare that will divide and weaken our nation and allow our enemies abroad to destroy us. That destructive division is already on the stage with the demands that The Ten Commandments be posted in schools and public places and that public schools must teach the Bible: The coming conflict looms with the question of whose version of the Ten Commandments will be displayed and whose version of the Bible will be taught.
Protestants and Catholics each have their own version of the Ten Commandments and their own version of the Bible. Whose version of the Commandments and whose version of the Bible would be posted and taught in public schools?
In the Protestant version of the Commandments, the Second Commandment says that it is sinful to make “graven images”, such as statues — the Catholic version of the Commandments says nothing about graven images, so Catholic churches are filled with statues of Mary and the saints. Will Catholic children in public schools be shamed by their classmates as sinful because Catholic churches contain statues of Mary and the saints?
If America doesn’t remain true to the constitutional rule established by Our Founding Fathers that our government must be separated from all religion by a solid wall, bloody conflict will ultimately follow…and a weakened America will then be conquered by its international enemies.
Beware the NAR — it’s more dangerous than the NRA
JESUS FAILED — Christian nationalists see Jesus as a failure.
At a 2021 Turning Point USA rally, Donald Trump, Jr., declared to a crowd roaring approval that “We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing, while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution in our country.”
The “Christian evangelical” movement known as the “New Apostolic Reformation” (NAR) claims that it has biblical authority, based on the Fivefold Ministry in Eph. 4:11-12, for new teachings that go beyond the teachings of Jesus. NAR founder C. Peter Wagner preached that the year 2000 marked the start of a “New Apostolic Age” in which God renews the Fivefold Ministry for this new millennium and provides Christianity with a new generation of apostles and prophets who advance beyond the teachings of Jesus and the “old apostles”.
In short, the Christian nationalist NAR has a “better” way than The Way of Jesus: Instead of the humility that Jesus taught and lived, the NAR Christian nationalists have decided on pride, as in The Proud Boys.
That’s not Christianity.
Jesus told Peter to put away his sword and that “those who take the sword shall die by the sword” (Matt 26:52). But NAR Christian nationalists view Christ’s teaching of putting away the weapons as having failed, so they have turned to arming themselves with more and more guns.
NAR claims that within NAR there are emerging New Apostles who have been appointed by God to bring to the world New Revelation, new biblical authority. The words of Jesus are no longer the ultimate or final authority for today’s Christian nationalists.
THE “SEVEN MOUNTAINS MANDATE”
NAR claims that today’s Christian nationalists have been given a mandate by God through today’s New Apostles. It’s called “The Seven Mountains Mandate”.
This mandate is to “invade” and take over the seven crucial segments of society: Religion, Family, Government, Business, Media, Education, and Entertainment.
NAR uses the word “invade” because the mandate they claim that they have from the New Apostles is a military-type mandate and requires military-type tactics.
For members of the Christian NAR movement, the objective is: Invade, Take Over, and Rule.
NAR followers are mandated to invade and replace traditional Christian denominations with new doctrine, an oppressive doctrine that imposes conformity to NAR’s New Revelations.
Complete obedience to NAR doctrine and to NAR hierarchical authority is required. There is no forgiveness, only punishment.
NAR is prepared to invade all aspects of family life, imposing NAR’s “revelations” that assign rigid and unchanging roles, with the husband as sole authority, the wife as a submissive producer of babies, and the children as dutiful servants to carry out the will of the father.
NAR government is strictly top-down, dictatorial governance, based on authority claimed from the new apostolic revelations. Adherence to these “revelations” is to be strictly enforced and failure to follow them is severely punished.
Under NAR, the sole purpose of all businesses is to serve and funnel wealth to the NAR movement — and to NAR leaders, of course.
In the NAR world, all media is constant propaganda that constantly bombards people with the NAR teachings and behavioral instructions.
NAR “education” is brainwashing.
Anyone who has read the book “1984” or who has read Project 2025 (available free on Google) knows what it will be like to live in the NAR world.
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Thank you for the background on NAR. The “New Apostolic Age” of 2000 happens to be the same year Al Gore graciously stepped aside for G. W. Bush, who in my mind, was the first modern President to overtly mix politics and religion. Perhaps with all the “hanging chads” in Florida, the same state where G. W.’s brother, Jeb, just happened to serve as governor, may have been the first time the GOP figured out how to cheat and get away with it? https://www.npr.org/2018/11/12/666812854/the-florida-recount-of-2000-a-nightmare-that-goes-on-haunting
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“Will Catholic children in public schools be shamed by their classmates as sinful because Catholic churches contain statues of Mary and the saints?”
I was raised both Catholic & Protestant, but mainly Protestant until 11yo-ish. I well remember a patronizing attitude of Protestants toward Catholics on this score. The statuary was seen as primitive and somewhat pagan. Back in that day [50’s], this was a combined slur on European “ethnics” whose parents or grandparents were naturalized immigrants. Even within Catholic families, there might be an aunt referred to as “religious” [with rolled eyes] whose apt was chock-full of saint figures with candles. The implication was that her religion was ignorant, bordering on superstition.
Though this is an antiquated attitude, I can imagine it perhaps creeping back in, in areas with few Catholics, should evangelistic Christianity make incursions into public school curriculum. OTOH that would be tempered with awareness that Catholic doctrine shares key common features: anti-abortion, LGBTQ as sin, anti-same sex marriages.
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Well-said quikwrit!
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on my facebook page Ihave described the “Double beauty”. of insanity and drugs — I’m sure that there are more stories about his past and incidence of abuse (not just women). We have insanity in the Oval office and in these cabinet positions and departmental offices we have personality disorders, past abusive practices. It reminds me only of the Ivan Tzar the terrible, the and Pope Terribilis… and the medieval practices that have continued. Abu Ghraib and the Viet Name incidents were not atypical — they were just the ones that got reported in the major press. And, turning the national guard on our own students at Kent State …. this is what we are in for. I am hoping that somewhere in the Pentagon there is a group of some kind that has full understanding of the circumstances and knowledge of history. I don’t know who those people are or where they exist but I have some faith (perhpas irrational at this time). It is dishonorable to use Mei Lei as the expression for Double Beauty but I hope that people can forgive me because the situation needs to be described and illuminated in various ways.
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Jean,
I understand your concern.
I fear he is firing those who might stand in the way of his illegal orders. That’s why he picked so many abominable for his Cabinet. They won’t say no.
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We’re being governed by maniacs.
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A digression from hegseth…
Looking (literally) at the president’s cabinet and key non-cabinet picks:
23 cabinet – 1 black man. 9 white women.
Non-cabinet – 9 white / 1 person of color all men.
Accumulated net worth would be a good one to add up, too.
This is not a don’t-be-woke, quota, or “DEI” enabling point as they would make it out to be. It’s his lens (not blinders, his lens – what and who he sees as competent and qualified). Two qualifications: unquestioningly loyal and puppet. (and signed the NDA)
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/trumps-2024-picks-for-his-cabinet-and-administration-so-far#google_vignette
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I take your point, but 1 black man out of 23 cabinet positions is not far off from the percentage of the U.S. population that black men represent.
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And many people who consider themselves Christian will not be tolerated either in the have a “Christian” theocracy. People like Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and perhaps even Catholics.
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Please quit calling them “Christian Nationalists.” Even “Christo-fascists” (aside from being jarringly impossible) is wrong. They are ANTI- everything Christ. As Bishop Budde made abundantly clear.
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Pseudo Christian nationalists?
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