The Confederation (now Communion) of Reformed Evangelical Churches was launched in 1998. At the time Doug Wilson was well known but only within Reformed circles. He was primarily associated with his books on marriage, education, and child rearing. A few years later (in the early 2000's) the Federal Vision controversy would explode making him somewhat notorious. But again, this was all largely limited to the Reformed spectrum.
He continued to build his empire - a school, college, and publishing house raising his profile and yet it was certainly 2020 and his resistance to Covid mitigation efforts (and ultimately his group's public protests) that launched him into superstar status. His name is now nationally known and associated with Christian Nationalism and the kind of Christianity that is on board with Donald Trump.
The truth is of course a little more nuanced. Wilson may be happy that Trump is president but it would be mistake to say he's fully behind his movement. Rather, it would be more accurate to say that Wilson finds him useful.
Wilson was always associated with Theonomic Postmillennialism and yet that movement has certainly fragmented with the death of RJ Rushdoony in 2001. Following the political shifts within the American Right, there are now strong Libertarian elements at work and in some cases extreme Right-wing ideologies that can only be described as fascistic.
Pete Hegseth is a member of this latter group and his appointment as Secretary of Defense is certainly a milestone for that office and for Wilson's movement. Hegseth is a member of the CREC and is touted by its leadership. The Guardian ran an article on Hegseth some months ago, touching on his views and connections to Wilson. In response a CREC pastor linked the article and proudly proclaimed to come to his church for these views (those of Hegseth) and the kind of Christianity he represents were what they advocated. In other words he celebrated Hegseth despite the fact the man is clearly a drunkard and deviant - a rapist by all accounts. He denies the charge but paid a settlement to the woman who went to law enforcement after the incident and bore bodily injury. His views are fascistic. He clearly wants to turn the US military loose on street protesters and 'Marxists' - which is a label applied to anyone that opposes his views.
Having a CREC pastor hold services at the Pentagon is representative of the sacralism of the Wilson group and their desire to Christianize society. Of course in doing so they must necessarily redefine the term Christian - which in Biblical terms tags them as heretics.
Aside
from being the biggest bureaucracy in history, the Pentagon is the
tip of the American Empire's spear. It is literally Murder Inc. and a
seedbed of not just global violence but profound corruption. The
building itself symbolizes evil on a massive scale - literally. The
fact that Christian services take place there is obscene. But the
fact that it's the CREC holding them - that makes perfect sense. The
Pentagon is in many respects an outworking of what the CREC stands
for - worldly power. This power is attained by means of the sword and
coin and that's certainly what the Pentagon is all about - at its
very essence. It represent the interests of not just the geopolitical
strategists, but Wall Street. In Christian terms the building is one
of the American Beast's seats of power.
And so again, it is
entirely appropriate that the CREC would find itself making a home
there. This is the power they desire. If they can harness it they can
change the world. Hoping to build the Kingdom, they instead labour to
build the Tower of Babel - topped by a cross. They are unaware of the
difference.
Is Trump 'sovereignly appointed' as the article suggests? I'm sure they mean something more by the choice of words but in Biblical terms - sure, the powers that be are ordained by God. And so that's just as true when it comes to Barack Obama, Joe Biden - or perhaps in a few years when Pete Buttigieg is president. The same will be true even then. This is obviously not an endorsement, anymore than Nero was when Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans in the first century.
As far as 'male-led Christian authority over society' - this is both something and nothing. On the one hand, male leadership and male-female role distinctions are basic to the New Testament. They are only controversial in the context of Enlightenment Individualism and its logical outworkings - egalitarianism and feminism. That said, there is something more going on and this is in keeping with the Far Right quasi-fascistic shift taking place in Right-wing circles. There is a cult of masculinity emerging that is reminiscent of the fascist ethos seen during the 1930's. For some like Hegseth, it's about warrior status which he exhibits with his many disgusting and evil tattoos which again is in some respects appropriate. They deface his body and since Satan wars against God he delights in the defacing of His image in man. This is all part of a theology concerning piercing, cutting, tattooing, and the like. When I see Hegseth with his violence-oriented tattoos and his permanent scowl - I do not see someone who is a Christian. In fact I can think of several CREC pastors who exhibit something of the same spirit.
The whole debate over women in combat is moot. Christians have no business being in the military. Christian women have no business being in the military. If the Babylonians want to use their women as Amazons - what is that to us? Will the bombing of children and the machine-gunning of the poor be somehow more moral if perpetrated by straight men? I think it entirely appropriate that the American Empire turns to women and sodomites to wield its guns and sit on its thrones. This is a phoney debate taking place among those who have sacralist assumptions and look to the false paradigm of Christendom, and who celebrate the evil orders of Christian (so-called) knighthood and the like. We know Hegseth does as he clearly embraces revisionist views of the Crusades. It's tattooed on his body and has become a hallmark of Far-Right movements. This has been fueled by several decades of revisionist history regarding those thieving, murderous, and heretical military campaigns.
Another over-reaction to feminism has produced the now cookie cutter type we see everywhere - the young men with big long beards and deeply affected by gun culture. There's nothing wrong with having a substantial beard. I certainly did for many years but that was over twenty years ago, back when it wasn't cool. But there's a look, an ethos, these types exhibit. It's basically - look, I'm a man! I've got my beard, my guns, and I breed.
The New Testament is fundamentally opposed to American gun culture and the Second Amendment in not only anti-Scriptural, it's popular interpretation is without basis. Having children is a wonderful thing but what's behind this ethos is Dominionism and postmillennialism. The militant fecundity (as one feminist rightly labeled it) is rooted in a vision of power. They literally hope to outbreed the pagans - to breed an army of cultural conquest. It's not just about trusting in the Lord when it comes to reproduction. It's programmatic.
There are a great many ironies at work here. The article mentions Hegseth aide, Tami Radabaugh. One can spend just a few minutes looking into her and discover she is but one of a multitude of Christian feminists that supposedly oppose feminism. Evangelicalism once opposed the movement, but a generation ago moved the goalposts in order to accommodate it. It no longer opposes feminism but a particular brand of it. In work with such 'Christian' women, Hegseth reveals that his principles are weak and inconsistent at best. There are others within the CREC who would rightly frown on such professional women but I always find these critiques are set aside whenever an Evangelical sits in the corridors of power.
As I've talked about for years, this debate in many ways was ended in 2008 with Sarah Palin. The Republicans were down in the polls and very unhappy with John McCain who was no friend to Evangelicals. By putting Palin on the ticket they received a massive boost and there was such excitement that any of the voices that raised concerns regarding this wife and mother taking a lead role were shut down. The Evangelicals never looked back.
Watching the service at the Pentagon I was having bad flashbacks to my unfortunate and ill-chosen time in the military - and the bogus Christianity that exists within its ranks. I erred in joining, having been misled by my Right-wing upbringing and my sacralist confusion between the American Empire and Christianity. As I and others have said - truly, I joined wanting to be a Luke Skywalker and instead discovered I was a stormtrooper. God used that time to change me. I was genuinely converted, got out as soon as I could, and never looked back - and I repudiate the organisation and all it stands for. My response to watching this service is both visceral and doctrinal but in every way sickened. Potteiger says it's an honour to be in the military. Well I can say that while sitting in my room in the barracks (amid the Gomorrah-bacchanal culture) and studying the Scripture I felt deep shame regarding what I was a part of, and it was cathartic to throw my uniforms and medals into a dumpster - where they rightly belong. The experience was formative for me and I got to see how the Empire works overseas, and learned much to that end, but I am deeply ashamed that I ever wore the uniform. It was no honour.
These poor deceived people invoke Christ even while they bear on their bodies the symbols of the Beast - symbols that can only be associated with the deaths of millions of people, the rape of the world, theft on an impossibly monumental scale, and great evil. It is truly laughable, ridiculous, and absurd, but more than anything it is obscene. The Christians in that room (if any) will repent of it before they depart this life.
Potteiger (the pastor) clearly glories in their rise to power and there is no way this can be separated from Donald Trump and all that he is and represents. A Faustian bargain if there ever was one, these people have wed themselves to a thief, adulterer, rapist, and murderer. Shall we do evil that good may come? For men like Potteiger, Hegseth, and Wilson the answer is an unequivocal 'yes'.
Make no mistake, these men are scions of the false prophets in the Old Testament who strengthened the hands of those that do evil. They are Court Prophets who in their quest for power will whisper 'peace, peace' in the ears of doubting leaders. God is with you they assure. Don't fret your evil and hypocrisy. These men are not alone as these types of false teachers come in many different forms and flavours but usually their unbiblical nature is a little more patent. These are particularly dangerous because they talk the talk and thus deceive many.
And like all such false teachers, Potteiger relies on myths and a panoply of twisted theology and history - invoking Washington, Samuel Adams, the land of America, our 'war-fighters' (note the 'our' pronoun), and all who fight under the banner of the DoD. He must therefore include the assassins and death squads that are engaged across the globe fighting in wars that are not reported and thus undermine any pretense this nation has to democracy. Even though America is the chief rogue state on the planet and promoter of terror and genocide, he calls on God to have America's enemies to feel fear.
With his forked tongue he speaks of the 'stability' brought by Trump and the 'moral clarity'.
Wow.
It's not hard to see how God literally brings judgment on these people and sears their consciences so that they no longer inhabit reality but are lost in the labyrinths of their own deception.
There's a Potteiger quote from the article:
"If our Lord is sovereign, even over the sparrows' fallings, you can be assured that he is sovereign over everything else that falls in this world, including Tomahawk and Minuteman missiles, including strategy meetings and war room debriefings. Jesus has the final say over all of it," he said.
This remind me so much of Assyria and Babylon. Undoubtedly God was 'with' them in a Providential sense. They were His arm of judgment and no doubt the US serves a similar role. But Potteiger confuses Providential permission with sanction and blessing and so he invokes nuclear-capable and outright nuclear ICBM's and their use as something God would sanction - as something therefore Christians could utilize in good conscience.
The world may someday experience nuclear war and it would be God's judgment, but those who use such weapons (and so far this would only include the United States) are guilty of abomination and mass murder. Potteiger tickles their ears and assuages any guilt or hint of doubt - do what you have to do and don't fret because God is in charge.
Well, God is in charge but men are responsible and will give account. The slaughter of Israel as a result of David's census was in the plan of God to be sure - but David was responsible because of his actions. Judas betrayed Christ as it was written but woe unto him for doing so. It would have been better if he had not been born.
Potteiger twists the meaning of Psalm 46 as some kind of sanction for what the Pentagon is and what it represents, as if the Pentagon and Washington are the City of God mentioned in the Psalm. He wants them to think of themselves as analagous to Old Covenant Israel's armies - when in reality they are all wearing the uniforms of Rome, Babylon, and Assyria.
He quotes Colossians exhorting them to do their work 'as unto the Lord' - as if the forgiving, charity, mercy, meekness, and longsuffering Paul talks about in the passage has anything to do with the values of the United States and its military arm. The passage also destroys the notion of national filiation - calling the Church to an internationalist mindset that transcends the divisions of this Earth. The passage 'by inference' to quote the good pastor, destroys any notion that Christians should be part and parcel participants in military action or expressions of nationalist ideology. We do things unto the Lord under the aegis of being regenerate, of putting off the old man, of setting affection on things above - the antithesis of what the Pentagon represents and its dark projection of power and US interests in terms of economics, resources, and the like.
Also there is no doing anything unto the Lord when one lies - and Potteiger is a liar, promoting lies, and he and Hegseth have cast their lot in with one is a Liar - one who quite literally cannot tell the truth and is condemned by the New Testament to the Lake of Fire.
Imagine this 'service' taking place in the context of Ancient Rome. The Early Church would describe it for what it is - an expression of apostasy. Only after Constantine (when the Church embraced the sword and coin values of the Roman Empire) did such a thing become thinkable. The Enlightenment was certainly anti-Christian and has poisoned the minds of many - even within the Church. But watching this video, I'm reminded of how in some respects Christendom was inhabited by 'scheming demons' on thrones (as described by one rock band) and that their downfall is nothing to lament. The problem is the fools who did so did not realize that others (without the trappings of a crown) would sit on their thrones.
Potteiger and Hegseth represent a reactionary movement that seeks to undo the Enlightenment revolutions. This is another great irony as their movement is Anti-Liberal - as in they reject the values of Classical Liberalism. It's true these Enlightenment ideals are not Christian but neither was Christendom. The thing is these were the ideals of the Founders and so the absurdity is these men invoke George Washington and wave the flag and yet represent ideals and interests that are actually opposed to the Founder's ideals. They're not patriots but counter-revolutionaries. They're using the symbols of the present order and attempting to replace it with something else. By that metric the uniformed people in the room are connected to what can only be described as a treasonous movement. But given that the man who heads the Department of War (for that's what it is) is part of that movement - then it's safe to say the US order is in trouble and historically grounded and reflective analysts and historians are rightly concerned.
I care nothing for the American order but what troubles me profoundly is the way this movement and its ideals have gained traction in the Church. The CREC may be reckoned as something of an extreme but Dominionism in general is so prevalent that it has become the functional orthodoxy within both Confessional and Evangelical movements. And on a connected note, Traditionalist Catholicism is experiencing a surge. It's beset by the same kind of internal contradictions and dissonance seen in these Protestant groups, but its rise has revitalised the ideology of Integralism which is basically the Roman Catholic version of Dominionism - harking back to the Catholic centuries and the kind of authoritarianism and darkness they represent.
Potteiger wants his audience to know that the Lord of Hosts refers to the Lord of Armies - as if the heavenly host had anything to do with the US military. What a travesty this is. What a corruption of God's Word. Potteiger is clearly 'pumped up' and riding high, failing to understand that he will give account for this sermon when he stands before God's Throne. I tremble for him and those who sit under him.
It was entirely appropriate that they responded to him with applause. It was a performance - even down to looking at your watch while you're supposedly praying. He tickled their ears and they loved it.