{"id":412034,"date":"2026-04-26T17:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/412034\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T17:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T17:41:12","slug":"pete-hegseths-iran-war-messaging-echoes-sermons-from-his-extremist-church-pete-hegseth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/412034\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth\u2019s Iran war messaging echoes sermons from his extremist church | Pete Hegseth"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 17 April, at a briefing<\/a> on the Iran war, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth<\/a> told reporters he had been \u201csitting in church with my family\u201d the previous Sunday while the minister preached from Mark 3.<\/p>\n

Hegseth then recast a passage about the Pharisees watching Jesus \u201cso that they might accuse him\u201d as a description of the US press corps, which has long been a target of his ire. \u201cOur press is just like these Pharisees,\u201d Hegseth said. He accused \u201cthe legacy Trump-hating press\u201d of a \u201cpolitically motivated animus\u201d that blinded it to \u201cthe brilliance of our American warriors\u201d.<\/p>\n

The sermon Hegseth described as attending bears similarities to one delivered only days earlier at Christ Kirk DC<\/a>, a Washington branch of the openly Christian nationalist Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches<\/a> (CREC), the denomination to which Hegseth belongs.<\/p>\n

The 12 April sermon<\/a>, titled \u201cThe Fellowship of Grievance\u201d, also exhorted worshippers to embrace a \u201cbiblically informed hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n

That sermon, other Christ Kirk DC sermons, and episodes of podcasts produced inside the CREC network show pastors who have preached to Hegseth\u2019s congregation, and the most senior figures in the denomination, advancing a theocratic program that would restrict the vote, criminalise LGBTQ+ expression and apply biblical law through the courts.<\/p>\n

Asked in an email whether CREC had shaped Hegseth\u2019s worldview, CREC founder and pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Douglas Wilson wrote: \u201cYou would need to ask him that. But his worldview is broadly the same as ours.\u201d Asked if he was a Christian nationalist, Wilson wrote: \u201cYes, that would be a fair description.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s cabinet tenure continues to underscore the growing influence of CREC inside the US military and the Trump administration, including through his portrayals of the Iran war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are things that God hates, and it\u2019s right for us to share that hatred\u2019<\/p>\n

The preacher at the 12 April service was Dr Benjamin Merkle. He is the president of CREC-aligned New Saint Andrews College<\/a> in Moscow, Idaho, a senior fellow of theology there, a teaching elder at Christ Church Moscow, the CREC\u2019s flagship congregation, and the son-in-law of Wilson, the denomination\u2019s co-founder.<\/p>\n

Christ Kirk DC has met since July 2025 in a Pennsylvania Avenue building owned by the Conservative Partnership Institute, a Trump-aligned non-profit which, as previously reported in the Guardian<\/a>, acquired the real estate to support activities including influencing Republican staffers and targeting government employees<\/a>. The congregation uses a rotating roster<\/a> of CREC preachers.<\/p>\n

In the sermon, Merkle cast the Pharisees as having \u201cgathered around simply so that in this moment they can find something prosecutable against Jesus, because of the hatred that they have in their heart\u201d.<\/p>\n

Merkle told the Guardian in a phone call that he had not listened to Hegseth\u2019s press conference or seen any reporting on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t making a political observation, I was making a human observation,\u201d Merkle said of his comments on the Pharisees. He added: \u201cSecretary Hegseth\u2019s application to that situation could very well be a very appropriate application of the principle that I was fleshing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite speculating on Hegseth\u2019s adaptation of the sermon, Merkle refused to confirm or deny Hegseth\u2019s attendance at the service. When asked in an email to confirm his attendance, Merkle answered: \u201cSorry, I don\u2019t want to be weird. But I don\u2019t think I will do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Pentagon would neither confirm nor deny Hegseth\u2019s attendance. Asked to do so in an email, Hegseth\u2019s assistant press secretary, Riley Podleski, wrote: \u201cWe have nothing further to provide\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the sermon, Merkle also said that the previous day he had been at a conference where \u201csomeone was lamenting how unified the left seems to be in their attacks on the right\u201d while \u201cthe conservative right is very disjointed\u201d. \u201cWhen they all hate the same thing,\u201d Merkle said, \u201cit forms a temporary unity, a fellowship of the grievance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about these remarks, Merkle said: \u201cMy point is that when you have a strong opposition from multiple different places to one particular figure or one particular movement or people, then you can find groups that would never have gotten along before suddenly kind of bond together. And I do think we see that in our current political situation. I think that\u2019s one appropriate application of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

After spending 40 minutes contrasting the unity of the Christian church with the \u201cgrievance\u201d unity of its opponents, Merkle told his congregation: \u201cIt\u2019s also not true that those who love God are only united by our loves. We\u2019re also united by the things that we hate. We share a hatred of evil. There are things that God hates, and it\u2019s right for us to share that hatred.\u201d Christians, he said, are defined \u201cnot just by love\u201d but by \u201cbiblically informed hatred\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about the phrase, Merkle said: \u201cI dislike how, particularly more liberal branches of Christianity<\/a>, we start to define godliness as love \u2013 but love disembodied, love in its most general state.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re supposed to hate what is evil, detest what is evil,\u201d Merkle said. \u201cBut evil is defined by God\u2019s word.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether believers were to hate abstract evil or the people who do evil, Merkle said: \u201cIt\u2019s a classic evangelical trope to say we hate the sin and not the sinner. But the problem is, in the end, God throws sinners into hell. So I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s right to draw that distinction as if I can just hate this thing that was done but not the person that did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julie Ingersoll, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida, has studied the CREC for decades. She told the Guardian: \u201cThe CREC motto \u2018All of Christ for All of Life\u2019 refers to their view that there is no area of life that is not governed by God\u2019s law. This version of Christianity allows for no realm in which there can be neutrality: not church and state, not religion and the courts, not education or the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cNot only do they want the US to be a Christian nation, but they also want all nations to be Christian nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merkle\u2019s father-in-law, Wilson, is a co-founder of Christ Church Moscow, CREC and New Saint Andrews, and one of the most prominent Christian nationalist<\/a> leaders in the US. Wilson and his church<\/a> teach that civil authorities should enforce Old Testament law<\/a>, and that both homosexuality and abortion warrant death penalties under that law.<\/p>\n

Wilson told the New York Times in October that he looks forward to a future in which \u201cthere aren\u2019t any Pride parades and there aren\u2019t any drag queen story hours\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if his sermon connected to CREC demands for abortion to be outlawed and severely punished, Merkle said: \u201cI would absolutely make that connection. I mean, I hate abortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I really reject the claim that it\u2019s this private, personal decision. It\u2019s the execution of a child, and I think it\u2019s grotesque that our culture accepts it, and I want to see that eradicated,\u201d Merkle said. \u201cI think it\u2019d be a great blessing to our nation to see the widespread murder of our children eliminated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if LGBTQ+ people merited biblically informed hatred, Merkle said: \u201cI think God is clear that he made a woman to go with a man and a man to go with a woman, and that\u2019s what a marriage is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think that the acceptance of homosexuality not only has done great evil to America, but I think it does great evil to those that are practising it. I think it does great harm to them, and I think they\u2019re greatly blessed to be delivered from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On abortion and homosexuality, Merkle said: \u201cIf we were to hate what is evil, I think those two things are evil. So I think that\u2019s a pretty simple syllogism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I hope that God kills him\u2019<\/p>\n

At key moments in his cabinet tenure, Hegseth has given CREC pastors a platform in services that have put Christian nationalism at the centre of the US military.<\/p>\n

Brooks Potteiger, Hegseth\u2019s pastor in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, presided over the first worship service<\/a> in a monthly series Hegseth initiated at the Pentagon in May 2025. Potteiger returned on 21 January 2026 for the first service<\/a> after the US operation that captured deposed Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n

In a 4 March blog post<\/a>, Wilson announced that Potteiger had \u201caccepted a call and will be coming to serve as an on-site pastor\u201d of Christ Kirk DC starting in July.<\/p>\n

Potteiger has been described in reporting as Hegseth\u2019s spiritual adviser. Asked if that was accurate, he told the Guardian in an email: \u201cI\u2019d simply say he\u2019s been one of many parishioners at church that I\u2019ve had the privilege of ministering to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Potteiger drew media attention in March<\/a> after appearing on the Reformation Red Pill podcast with its host Joshua Haymes. Discussing Texas Democratic senate candidate James Talarico, Haymes said: \u201cI hope that God kills him.\u201d Potteiger responded: \u201cWe want him crucified with Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the exchange, Potteiger said: \u201cBeing \u2018crucified with Christ\u2019 is a quote from the apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20 talking about conversion. Mr Talarico claims to be a Christian but teaches contrary to Christ. Far from wishing him harm, I wish for him to have a true experience of salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n

On 17 February, 11 days before the US joined Israel in the first attacks on Iran, Wilson presided over a Pentagon worship service<\/a>. \u201cGod can do what he likes,\u201d Wilson told the assembled personnel, \u201cand as we should know by now, what he likes to do is to take the most unlikely materials and do something glorious with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s own public rhetoric has increasingly drawn on the vocabulary of Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

On 5 March, at a counter-cartel conference, Hegseth told Central and South American leaders<\/a> that with the US they were \u201cwestern nations with distinct characteristics\u201d and \u201cChristian nations under God\u201d. On 19 March, he asked<\/a> the American people to pray for US troops \u201con bended knee\u201d and \u201cin the name of Jesus Christ\u201d. On 25 March, he read from<\/a> Psalm 18 \u2013 \u201cI thrust them through, so that they were not able to rise; they fell under my feet\u201d \u2013 and prayed that God would \u201cbreak the teeth\u201d of US enemies. On 16 April, he offered a garbled passage of Ezekiel filtered via Pulp Fiction<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Guardian previously reported<\/a> that Hegseth said on Haymes\u2019 podcast in 2024 that moving his family to a CREC church had brought him \u201ca whole view of the world that has changed the way we think, too\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response to questions about his relationship with CREC, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement: \u201cThe Secretary is a proud member of a church affiliated with the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches, which was founded by Pastor Doug Wilson. The Secretary very much appreciates many of Mr Wilson\u2019s writings and teachings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said: \u201cHegseth has aligned himself with some of the most extreme Christian nationalists in the country. Their anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs and extremist views about women should give anyone pause, as well as his \u2018biblical\u2019 attacks on journalists, especially when Hegseth is sharing them with our soldiers and blasting away at the separation of church and state.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut even more worrisome is his infusion of his Christian beliefs as the basis for our war in Iran<\/a>,\u201d Beirich added. \u201cOur national security should not be based on fanatical holy war fantasies, but that is what Hegseth, and by extension Trump, have wrought.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 17 April, at a briefing on the Iran war, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth told reporters he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-412034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}