White Christian Nationalism Is On the Rise

CNN's Pamela Brown tackles White Christian Nationalist Pastor Doug Wilson, who opposes women voting and equal rights for women. Imagine his view on non-whites.

Organized religions are breeding grounds for violent cults - especially Christianity.

As a child, society attempted to indocrinate me into the cult of Catholicism but I never bought into it. I could never understand why a group of human beings could not engage in “good will towards men” without having to subscribe to a religious cult.

I grew up around Catholics, Baptists and additional religious cults born of the blood of Jesus Christ. The signs of a cult were always present:

“No one gets to the Father without drinking the Blood of Jesus Christ and repenting for your sins.”

“You must accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Your Savior in order to attain eternal salvation or suffer eternal damnation, fire and hell.”

The idea that man was born with some kind of “Original Sin” to be atoned for in a manner prescribed by white males writing books or suffer eternal damnation is one of the cruelest hoaxes ever perperated upon mankind.

“Good Christians” will tell you that they are “Good Christians” who aren’t crazy racist bastards who actually do good things to help other people.

Fine. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Except it isn’t.

Upon further questioning and confrontation with objective reality, if you ask “Good Christians” why a person cannot engage in “good will towards men” without subscribing to your religion, that “Good Christian” will tell you, “Sure, you can do good deeds, but without accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you’re never going to make it into heaven and escape eternal damnation for NOT ACCEPTING Jesus Christ as your Lord Savior. Boom - your “Good Christian” just christened you an “infidel.”

Suddenly the person who subscribes to objective reality realizes that “Good Christian” pastors use the threat of permanent violence, eternal damnation to keep “Good Christians” from straying from the “Word of God.”

I am not an atheist, as I believe in a “Higher Power” like our Founding Fathers, who also refused to assign a personality and scripture to that “Higher Power.”

Our Founding Fathers detested organized religion, especially Christianity and wrote their feelings and thoughts into words on paper for anyone to read: See,

Founding Fathers Detested Organized Religion, Especially Christianity

America was founded on Separation of Church and State

https://dailybeastie.com/founding-fathers-detested-organized-religion-especially-christianity

Thomas Jefferson detested Christianity and disregarded the contents of the Bible, except Jefferson found value in the teachings and words of Jesus Christ; and thus extracted Jesus words from the Bible into a leather bound edition known as “The Jeffersonian Bible.” Jefferson viewed Jesus moral teachings as timeless, yet wrote that:

“I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives…. It is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read.

By the same test the world must judge me. But this does not satisfy the priesthood.

They must have a positive, a declared assent to all their interested absurdities.

My opinion is that there would never have been an infidel, if there had never been a priest.

The artificial structures they have built on the the purest of all moral systems, for the purpose of deriving from it pence and power, revolt those who think for themselves, and who read in that system only what is really there.”

Fast forward to the 19th century when Confederates used Christianity as a vehicle to justify White Supremacy, slavery, misogyny and mass murder.

Fast forward to the 20th century when the Third Reich used Christianity as a vehicle to justify White Supremacy, slavery, misogyny and mass murder.

Fast forward to the 21st century when Republicans use Christianity as a vehicle to justify White Supremacy, misogyny and mass murder. Much to the chagrin of Confederate states, slavery had been outlawed but still practiced in state prisons to this very day.

Now in the year 2025 Christianity is the vehicle modern Republicans use to further justify White Supremacy, misogyny, violence and mass murder of non-Christians, non-Jews. Don’t think so? Ask the Palestinians or Iraqis or Afghanis or any one of the millions of dead Muslims or Arabs murdered by the U.S. government.

I view any organized religion as a loaded gun sitting on a table.

Christians, Jews, Muslims will tell you that their religion is harmless and non-violent; but sometimes mentally deranged persons use their religion to justify violence and murder.

American gun owners will tell you that gun ownership is necessary, but sometimes mentally deranged persons use guns to commit violence and murder.

American gun owners defend gun ownership the same way Christians, Jews and Muslims defend their religion as necessary and a legitimate exercise of personal choice and freedom to practice religion.

History informs us that gun owners and people who subscribe to organized religion are indeed members of high-risk groups susceptible to violence, murder and state-sponsored mass murder.

That’s why I support a gun-free America where me and my family can walk out the door and not have a single worry or thought of being shot to death by some armed angry fool at work, at school or at play - you know, like other countries who outlawed firearms in their country.

That’s why I support enforcing and practicing the American democratic principle of Separation of Church and State - just like Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson clearly did not want theology taught in public schools:

“A professorship of Theology should have no place in our institution (the University of Virginia.)”

Jefferson wrote voluminously to prove that Christianity was not part of the law of the land and that religion or irreligion was purely a private matter, not cognizable by the state.

Leonard W. Levy, Treason Against God: A History of the Offense of Blasphemy, New York: Schocken Books, 1981, p. 335

Currently We The People elect Congresspersons and Senators who do NOT practice Separation of Church and State and who incorporate their personal religious beliefs into the promulgation of U.S. government policy.

In the year 2025 America suffers an angry White Christian Nationalist Cult born of confederacy, slavery, racism, misogyny, violence and state-sponsored mass murder growing like cancer inside the Republican Party and the American body politic.

What’s driving these White Supremacists mad? Their concern and fear that America is becoming a non-white majority of diversity and diverse cultures and that White Supremacy and White Power control of U.S. government is coming to a rapid end.

A U.S. government run by an ethnically diverse population is simply a nightmare and a bridge too far for Republicans.

Just ask Republicans and Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth who reposted a video last week advocating repealing the 19th Amendment, which guarantees women the right to vote.

The video is an excerpt from CNN anchor Pamela Brown's interview with Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, who Brown reports believes "women shouldn't be able to vote."

Brown speaks to two pastors in Wilson's Idaho church who agree with Wilson. "In my ideal society, we would vote as households," pastor Toby Sumpter says. "And I would ordinarily be the one to cast the vote." (This is the model also advocated by Wilson.)

Pastor Jared Longshore says he supports the repeal of the 19th Amendment because "the current system is not good for humans."

KING: Pastor Doug Wilson is a self-described Christian nationalist on a mission to make the United States a Christian nation and the entire world a Christian world.

Over the decades, he's built an international network of more than 150 churches. And last month, he opened a new one just three blocks from Capitol Hill with the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, attending the service. Pastor Wilson preaches a strict interpretation of the Bible.

He believes women should submit to their husbands and not have the right to vote. In his view, abortion and homosexuality are criminal. He's been on the fringes of the religious right for decades, but now finds more of a mainstream Republican audience. CNN's Pamela Brown reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christ Church Senior Pastor Doug Wilson makes no apologies for his beliefs on God and country.

DOUG WILSON, SENIOR PASTOR, CHRIST CHURCH: I'd like to see the town be a Christian town. I'd like to see the state be a Christian state. I'd like to see the nation be a Christian nation. I'd like to see the world be a Christian world.

BROWN (voice-over): And now Wilson's controversial views as a Christian nationalist are gaining sway in the nation's center of power with the recent opening of his new church and high-profile parishioners like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. BROWN: Is planting a church in D.C. part of your mission to try to

turn this into a Christian nation?

WILSON: Yes. So every society is theocratic. The only question is, who's Theo? In a secular democracy, it would be Demos, the people. In a Christian republic, it'd be Christ.

BROWN: Well, what would you say to someone watching this? Say, look, I'm a Muslim. Who are you to say your worldview is better than mine? That your God is better than mine?

WILSON: Well, if I went to Saudi Arabia, I would fully expect to live under their God's rules.

BROWN: But you said earlier that you want this to be a Christian world.

WILSON: Yes.

BROWN: So you want to supplant their religion with your Christian.

WILSON: Yes, by peaceful means, by sharing the gospel. There's a lot of work yet to do. I believe that we are working our little corner of the vineyard.

BROWN (voice-over): Wilson's little corner, a picturesque campus nestled on the outskirts of downtown Moscow, Idaho, is growing by the day with thousands of like-minded Christians. Parishioners of his church, known as Kirkers, own and operate several businesses downtown next to liberal college town stores.

WILSON: If it's true, if it's true --

BROWN: Why did he yell boo? Because it's good of you.

WILSON: Well, there you go.

BROWN: That's a regular day for you.

WILSON: That's not unusual.

BROWN (voice-over): A big focus of his Christian movement is on a patriarchal society where men are dominant and women are expected to submit to their husbands.

WILSON: Women are the kind of people that people come out of.

BROWN: So you just think they're meant to have babies. That's it. They're just a vessel.

WILSON: No, it doesn't take any talent to simply reproduce biologically. The wife and mother, who is the chief executive of the home, is entrusted with three or four or five eternal souls.

BROWN: I'm here as a working journalist, and I'm a mom of three.

[20:45:01]

WILSON: Good for you.

BROWN: Is that an issue for you?

WILSON: No, it's not automatically an issue.

BROWN (voice-over): Josh and Amy Prince, along with their four kids, moved here from Washington State.

BROWN: Do you see Amy as your equal?

JOSH PRICE, MEMBER, CHRIST CHURCH: Yes and no, in the sense that we're both saved by grace. We're absolutely on equal footing. But we have very different purposes, God-given.

BROWN: But do you see yourself as the head of the household, as the man?

AMY PRINCE, MEMBER, CHRIST CHURCH: He is the head of our household. Yes, and I do submit to him.

BROWN: So, like, moving here was ultimately your decision.

PRINCE: I was just going to say that. Yes, that's a great example.

J. PRINCE: That's a great example.

BROWN (voice-over): Wilson says in his vision of a Christian society, women as individuals shouldn't be able to vote. His fellow pastors, Jared Longshore and Toby Sumoter, agree.

TOBY SUMOTER, SENIOR PASTOR, KING'S CROSS CHURCH: In my ideal society, we would vote as households. And I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote, but I would cast the vote having discussed it with my household.

BROWN: But what if your wife doesn't want to vote for the same person as you?

SUMOTER: Right. Well, then that's a great opportunity for a good discussion.

BROWN: There are some who have gone so far as to say that they want the 19th Amendment repealed.

JARED LONGSHORE, EXECUTIVE PASTOR, CHRIST CHURCH: I would support that. And I'd support it on the basis that the atomization that comes with our current system is not good for humans.

BROWN (voice-over): And Wilson, a veteran himself, is unapologetic about his view that women shouldn't be in certain leadership or combat roles.

BROWN: Looking at the leadership page for Christ Church, it's all men.

WILSON: Right.

BROWN: Do you accept women in leadership roles in the church and government?

WILSON: In the church, no.

BROWN: Why?

WILSON: Because the Bible says not to.

JENNIFER BUTLER, FOUNDER, FAITH IN DEMOCRACY: Well, that's not what happens in the Bible. Women do lead all the time.

BROWN (voice-over): Progressive faith leader Reverend Jennifer Butler is concerned about Wilson's growing influence.

BUTLER: He is rapidly gaining in power. He has hundreds of churches established around the country. They actually literally want to take over towns and cities. And they have access to this administration.

BROWN (voice-over): Wilson is part of a broader Christian nationalist movement making inroads with the Trump administration, with a newly created faith office led by Evangelical pastor Paula White-Cain and people seen right outside the White House entrance praying and speaking in tongues.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are standing on the soil of the White House, and we are declaring your word.

BROWN (voice-over): And now there's a monthly prayer service at the Pentagon initiated by Hegseth, Wilson's highest-level connection to the administration.

WILSON: It's not organizationally tied to us, but it's the kind of thing we love to see.

BROWN (voice-over): For his part, Hegseth has publicly praised Wilson.

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Now we're standing on the shoulders of a generation later, the Doug Wilsons and the others.

BROWN (voice-over): And as Wilson grows closer to the mainstream, the critics are also getting louder, accusing him and other Christian nationalists of wanting to create the dystopian world from The Handmaid's Tale, something he insists has never been his goal for society.

WILSON: I'm not a white nationalist. I'm not a fascist. I'm not a racist. I'm not a misogynist.

BROWN: How far off do you see a Christian nation, like a full-on Christian theocracy?

WILSON: Oh, 250 years.

BROWN: 250 years. WILSON: Honestly, that's, yes.

BROWN: That's what you see. But you do think it will happen?

WILSON: Yes, I do. We're not going to usher in anything ourselves. We're really genuinely pioneers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: John, we reached out to the Defense Department to better understand the relationship between Wilson and Hegseth, and a DOD spokesman said that Hegseth is a, quote, proud member of the network of churches founded by Pastor Wilson, and he also said that Hegseth, quote, very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson's writings and teachings. John?

KING: Pamela Brown. Thank you so much. That's fascinating.

Hegseth is a member of a church that is part of Wilson's network, the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), in Tennessee. When a CREC branch recently opened in Washington, DC, Hegseth attended. Longshore delivered the sermon.

Hegseth's response to the video — "All of Christ for All of Life" — is a Christian nationalist slogan used frequently by Wilson. It stands for the idea that Christianity should dominate all aspects of life, including government.

In response to media inquiries, the Pentagon reiterated Hegseth's admiration for Wilson and his ideology. "The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson's writings and teachings," Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

Beyond repealing women's voting rights, what are Wilson's "writing and teachings"? Let's review.

Wilson argues that slavery benefited blacks and whites and was "based on mutual affection"

Wilson has sought to recast slavery in the pre-Civil War South as a mutually beneficial relationship in many cases. In a 1996 pamphlet co-written by Wilson, Southern Slavery as It Was, he argued that "[s]lavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity." According to Wilson, "[b]ecause of its predominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." He asserts that "[t]here has never been a multi-racial society which has existed with such mutual intimacy and harmony in the history of the world," which he attributes to "the predominance of Christianity."

Wilson claims that "[s]lave life was to [the slaves] a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes and good medical care." He urges people not to "overlook the benefits of slavery for both blacks and whites."

In Wilson's 2005 book, Black and Tan, he defends Southern Slavery as It Was, and writes "that slavery was far more benign in practice than it was made to appear in the literature of the abolitionists." He also claims that slavery was biblically justified, claiming that "the Christians who owned slaves in the South were on firm scriptural ground."

In 2020, Wilson returned to the topic again, saying that slave narratives collected after the Civil War prove "that there were 'many' benevolent masters." Here is one of the examples he provides:

She was a fine woman. The Brown boys and their wives was just as good. Wouldn’t let nobody mistreat the slaves. Whippings was few and nobody get the whip ‘less he need it bad. They teach the young ones how to read and write; say it was good for the Negroes to know about such things.

Nevertheless, Wilson says that he is not "a defender of the system of Southern slavery as it existed prior to the Civil War." He also states that he condemns racism.

He does argue, however, that the Civil War was a mistake. "[W]ho cannot but lament the damage to both white and black that has occurred as a consequence of the way it was abolished?" Wilson asks in Southern Slavery as It Was. Wilson blames the Civil War for sparking a "revolution" that continues "to this day," claiming "slavery has increased in our land as a result."

Wilson describes himself as a "paleo-Confederate." In a 2009 interview with Christianity Today, Wilson said, "I would say we’re fighting in a long war, and that [the Civil War] was one battle that we lost." Wilson also describes Robert E. Lee as "one of the greatest men this nation has ever produced."

Last week, Hegseth announced he was reinstalling a Confederate memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. The memorial was removed in 2003 following criticism that it "glorified the Southern cause and glossed over slavery." The frieze depicts "an enslaved woman depicted as a “Mammy,” holding the infant child of a white officer, and an enslaved man following his owner to war." The memorial also includes a Latin phrase pushing the "narrative of the Lost Cause, which romanticized the pre-Civil War South and denied the horrors of slavery." Returning the memorial will cost taxpayers $10 million.

Wilson's unsettling views on women and sex

Wilson's retrograde views on women go well beyond repealing voting rights. Wilson explicitly advocates for "patriarchy," saying that it should be the view of "every biblical Christian." Wilson says, "the wife is to follow the lead of her husband in all things."

Wilson has referred to feminists as "small-breasted biddies" and other women who don't meet his approval as "'lumberjack dykes' and 'cunts.'"

In his 1999 book Fidelity: What It Means to Be a One-Woman Man, Wilson applies his patriarchal worldview of the topic to sex. "A man penetrates, conquers, colonizes, plants," Wilson writes, "A woman receives, surrenders, accepts."

In Her Hand in Marriage: Biblical Courtship in the Modern World, which Wilson published in 1997, he writes that "[w]omen inescapably need godly masculine protection against ungodly masculine harassment." Women who refuse such "masculine protection," Wilson asserts, "are really women who tacitly agree on the propriety of rape."

According to Wilson's 2012 book, Reforming Marriage: Gospel Living for Couples, a husband must assume "lordship in the home." That involves the wife submitting to the husband's views on all matters, including "spending habits, television viewing habits, weight, rejection of his leadership, laziness in cleaning the house, lack of responsiveness to sexual advances." To achieve this, a man must "outline clear expectations, and repeatedly point out her failures." If a wife does not comply, Wilson says the man should report her to the church elders.

Hegseth's nomination was nearly derailed over allegations that he engaged in sexual abuse, including the revelation that "he paid $50,000 as part of a confidentiality agreement to a woman who alleged he sexually assaulted her." The settlement "included a confidentiality clause." In another incident, "[a] California woman told police that Trump Cabinet pick Pete Hegseth physically blocked her from leaving a hotel room, took her phone, and then sexually assaulted her even though she 'remembered saying ‘no’ a lot.'"

Hegseth was never criminally charged and denied the allegations.

Wilson supports recriminalizing homosexuality

It is not surprising that Wilson wants the Supreme Court to overturn the Obergefell decision, which established the right to same sex marriage. But Wilson would go even further. In the same video promoted by Hegseth, Wilson argues for recriminalizing homosexuality.

“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, sodomy was a felony in all 50 states,” Wilson says. “That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole. In 2003, Wilson stated that someone who is homosexual should be subjected to punishment:

The Bible indicates the punishment for homosexuality is death. The Bible also indicates the punishment for homosexuality is exile. So death is not the minimal punishment for a homosexual. There are other alternatives.

Wilson says that this quote reflects his "rejection of the view that execution for homosexuals was mandatory." He does not specify exactly what the appropriate punishment should be in modern times, but insists that there is some latitude.

As Defense Secretary, Hegseth has banned trans people from serving in the military and ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a ship named after a gay rights activist who served in the Korean War. Previously, Hegseth said he opposed allowing women or LGBTQ people to serve in the military. But he reversed his stance when it became clear he otherwise would not be able to be confirmed as Defense Secretary.

Pastor Wilson supports repealing the 19th Amendment, repealing a Woman’s Right To Vote - only the man can vote.

Wilson argues that slavery benefited blacks and whites and was "based on mutual affection"

Wilson supports recriminalizing homosexuality.

Hegseth supports all of Pastor Doug Wilson’s White Supremacist beliefs and principles.