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~~ recommended by newestbeginning ~~
In his book published this summer, “The War on Warriors,” Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, described being called up to active duty to guard the streets of Washington, D.C., during the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the police killing of George Floyd.
He acknowledged protesters’ First Amendment rights but also seethed at “violent professional agitators” and “armies of armed and violent left-wing extremists” who he said behaved “like twenty-first century hoplites,” referring to a term for well-armed citizen soldiers in ancient Greece.
In a recurring theme for the man who might soon lead history’s most powerful military, he fantasized about treating Americans like overseas combatants.
“Most of us [National Guard soldiers] wanted to fight back,” Hegseth wrote. “Within ten minutes, I became one of them. As your muscles ache and your eyes fill with sweat and dust, you begin to seek closure with a sense of resolve. We could easily have pushed this line back, snatched the leaders or the loudest protesters in Antifa, and sucked them back behind the lines.”
“If this engagement were to occur in Damarra or Kandahar,” Hegseth continued, “we would be home by breakfast.”
Hegseth, a Princeton grad who worked as an analyst at Bear Stearns, deployed overseas three times between 2004 and 2012 — to Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan — before becoming a Fox News personality and an advocate for accused and convicted war criminals. As Trump’s pick for Pentagon chief, his nomination faces turbulence in the Senate both for his far-right beliefs and for an allegation of sexual assault made against him, which Hegseth denies, though his attorney has acknowledged a settlement agreement involving paying his accuser not to tell her story publicly.
In “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth painted the military as a civilizing force for America’s young men.
“Who knows what the untrained and unconstrained world would have made of these alpha males, but the military made great warriors–and now great citizens,” he wrote of two friends, “masculine football-playing studs” who served their country.
But he’s also explicit that the military — and therefore America — is under attack from supposed left-wing ideologies, and that the military should fight back against the “woke” tide just as it would a foreign enemy. America, he said, is “in a cold civil war” and under attack by “a confederacy of radicals.” In the book, he dedicated considerable time railing against modern laws of war and called on the United States to rewrite them and “fight by its own rules.”
After HuffPost reached out to the Trump-Vance transition team for comment, it responded with a statement attributable to a “Hegseth advisor.”
“I didn’t know HuffPo was still in business,” the statement began, before saying that Hegseth shared Trump’s “vision and plans” for “Settling the Russia-Ukraine War,” “Rebuilding our military and replenishing the ammunition and supplies sent to Ukraine,” “Building a Great Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield,” “Restoring the Warrior Ethos to our Military,” and “Ensuring that embarrassments like the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle never happen again.”
Hegseth’s conception of the American left as the enemy within is the defining theme of “The War on Warriors.”
On its surface, the book answers the question, “How did the military allow itself to go woke?” According to Hegseth, the existence of women in combat roles, the presence of transgender people in the military, the requirement that soldiers take the “experimental” COVID-19 vaccine, his perception of affirmative action in military promotions, the renaming of military bases named after Confederate generals, and the military’s efforts to root out violent extremism — an effort that affected him at one point — all flow from the same source.
You guessed it: It’s the Marxists in academia, hell-bent on shoving “DEI” and “CRT” — diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory, respectively — down everyone’s throats, along with an “unholy alliance of political ideologues and Pentagon pussies [that] has left our warriors without real defenders in Washington.”
The effects are obvious, according to Hegseth’s book.
“When I think about my career in uniform, in almost every instance where there has been poor leadership or people in positions they’re not qualified for, it was based on either the reality or the perception of a ‘diversity hire,’” Hegseth wrote. On the other hand, he claimed that woke military bureaucrats have “said Trump supporters are extremists, full stop.” He also linked the supposed push toward progressivism in the military to recruiting troubles.
“For the past three years, the Pentagon–across all branches–has embraced the social justice messages of gender equality, racial diversity, climate stupidity, vaccine worship, and the LGBTQA+ alphabet soup in their recruiting pushes,” Hegseth wrote. “Only one problem: there just aren’t enough tr**nies from Brooklyn or lesbians from San Francisco who want to join the 82nd Airborne.”
Hegseth’s view that “woke” ideology is specifically weakening the military — and America overall — is the generic Republican Party position in 2024. It remains to be seen if Trump bans transgender people from the military, bans women from combat roles, or pursues Hegseth’s other ideological battles once in office.
Elsewhere in the book, Hegseth described fighting “a war on two fronts” — against both “radical Islamist ideology” abroad and also left-wing “domestic enemies at home.”
Just like “an enemy at war,” Hegseth wrote, “The radical Left never stops moving and planning. They do not respect cease-fires, do not abide by the rules of warfare, and do not respect anything except total defeat of their enemy – and then total control.”
In the book, he proposed “a frontal assault” to reclaim the military from the left. And he’s quite explicit this isn’t a political difference of opinion: In the military, Hegseth wrote, “The expectation is that we will defend [the Constitution] against all enemies–both foreign and domestic. Not political opponents, but real enemies. (Yes, Marxists are our enemies.)”
He added in the next paragraph that the left wants America to turn away from the Constitution and “let America’s dynasty fade away.”
“Those who push DEI/CRT ideology,” Hegseth wrote, are not only hypocrites and Marxists but “traitors.” While regular citizens have First Amendment protections for bad ideas, military leaders who seek to retrain soldiers based on those ideas “are guilty of coercive violence against their neighbors,” he argued.
“The Constitution is our lodestar,” he added later. “Marxists hate the Constitution. DEI and CRT are Marxist philosophies. Therefore DEI and CRT are enemies of our Constitution – domestic enemies.”
Perhaps most notably in a book obsessed with fighting against perceived “domestic enemies,” Hegseth spent a considerable amount of time in “The War on Warriors” criticizing the military’s rules of engagement, and modern international laws of warfare more generally. Military lawyers and limited rules of engagement, he posited, are the real reasons America can’t seem to take its gloves off and win a war.
Speaking on his time in Iraq, for example, Hegseth recalled a judge advocate general — or, as Hegseth wrote, “jagoff” — telling his men that they were not allowed to fire on a hypothetical man carrying a rocket-propelled grenade launcher “until that RPG becomes a threat. It must be pointed at you with the intent to fire.” Hegseth told his men to disregard the instruction: “Men, if you see an enemy who you believe is a threat, you engage and destroy the threat. That’s a bullshit rule that’s going to get people killed.”
“Our enemies should get bullets, not attorneys,” he wrote later. “The fact that we don’t do what is necessary is the reason wars become endless. Modern wars never end, because we won’t finish them.”
So what is “necessary” to win modern wars? The likely future defense secretary has an answer — in a chapter called “The Laws of War, for Winners.”
In it, Hegseth decried “hopelessly outdated international laws,” which he argued clash with ancient theories of proportionality and just war, particularly when groups like Al Qaeda don’t respect the Geneva Conventions.
“If our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves, aren’t we just better off winning our wars according to our own rules?! Who cares what other countries think,” he wrote. “The question we have to ask ourselves is, if we are forced to fight, are we going to fight to win? Or will we fight to make leftists feel good – which means not winning and fighting forever.”
In the same chapter, he took particular issue with a 2023 update to the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual — that commanders and other decision-makers must assume people are civilians if there is nothing indicating they are combatants — writing: “In short, this means our troops are going to have to hesitate every time they fire.”
“Our boys should not fight by rules written by dignified men in mahogany rooms eighty years ago,” Hegseth wrote. “America should fight by its own rules. And we should fight to win, or not go at all.”
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Pete Hegseth, the New Secretary of Defense, Is a Christian Dominionist
Le'ts call it what it is--religious extremism in a Brooks Brothers suit
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The Senate narrowly approved Pete Hegseth's nomination as Secretary of Defense—a devastating turn of events that places an inexperienced individual with a controversial history at the helm of the most powerful military force in the world.
Hegseth, who paid $50,000 to a woman who accused him of sexual assault and has been repeatedly noted for public drunkenness, now occupies a position that requires the highest levels of competence, integrity, and prudence.
What has garnered much less attention, however, is Hegseth's religious views.
This is not merely conservative theology; this is Christian dominionism—the advocacy of theocracy.¹
Let’s just call it what it is—religious extremism in a Brooks Brothers suit.
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What is Christian Dominionism?
Christian dominionism is the belief that Christians are called to "take dominion" over all spheres of life, including politics and government, by applying a narrow view of rigid biblical law to every aspect of society.
Dominionists reject the separation of church and state. Instead they seek to establish a theocratic order where civil policy aligns with their repressive interpretation of biblical principles.
A key extension of this ideology is the Seven Mountains Mandate, a framework that identifies seven key areas of influence—government, education, media, arts and entertainment, business, religion, and family—that Christians must control to shape society according to biblical values.²
Proponents of the Seven Mountains Mandate argue that secularism has led to moral decay and that reclaiming these "mountains" is essential to restoring God's intended order.
Some of the key promoters of the Seven Mountains Mandate include—C. Peter Wagner, a leading figure in the New Apostolic Reformation; Lance Wallnau, a preacher whose work has spread the ideology far and wide; Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, and Lauren Cunningham who started Youth With A Mission (YWAM).
The Seven Mountains Mandate has gained traction among influential Christian leaders and organizations, blending theology with political activism to assert control over public life.
This framework provides dominionists with a strategic roadmap for achieving their goal of a hyper-Christianized society that covets influence in the areas of government policy, media narratives, and educational institutions.
Figures like Hegseth, who are steeped in this ideology, will likely prioritize policies that align with their religious worldview over pluralistic and democratic principles.
As noted scholar of Christian extremist ideology, Julie Ingersoll, commented, “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.”
Key tenets of Christian dominionism include:
The Dominion Mandate – The belief that Christians must exercise authority over society and institutions to reflect God's sovereignty.
Patriarchy – A strict gender hierarchy where men lead in the home, church, and society.
Biblical Law in Public Life – The promotion of Old Testament law as a foundation for civil governance.
Anti-Pluralism – The rejection of secularism and religious diversity in favor of a Christian nation.
Hegseth's Connections to Christian Dominionism
Pete Hegseth is a member of a congregation in Goodlettsville, Tennessee that is affiliated with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).
This denomination was co-founded by Douglas Wilson, a figure notorious for blending extreme theology with politics.
Wilson's influence extends through institutions he founded or inspired, including:
Christ Church – The flagship church of the CREC.
New Saint Andrews College – A hub for classical Christian education.
Canon Press – A publishing arm promoting dominionist ideology.
Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS) – A network advancing classical education as an alternative to public schooling.
Wilson's teachings emphasize patriarchal social structures and advocate for integrating his interpretation of biblical law into government.
His controversial pamphlet Southern Slavery, As It Was, which he co-authored in 1996, in which he argued that tales of the brutality of slavery were “largely false.” Wilson concedes that abuses occurred but wondered, “How widespread were these instances of unbiblical and ungodly treatment on the part of Southern slave holders?” (emphasis original)
Wilson's ideas continue to shape the CREC's push for a Christian society that challenges democratic values and pluralism.
How Hegseth's Dominionist Views Will Impact His Role
As Secretary of Defense, a role that puts him in charge of the agenda and policy for the entire U.S miliatry, Hegseth's dominionist beliefs put the “power of the sword” in the hands of an ideological extremist.
His views on gender roles and social hierarchy raise concerns about the treatment of women in the military and the potential erosion of existing policies aimed at fostering inclusion.
Furthermore, his affiliation with Christian nationalist circles raises the specter of military policies influenced by a radical ideology, potentially undermining the constitutional commitment to religious neutrality.
Hegseth’s rhetoric echoes the dominionist goal of "reclaiming" America for Christ, a vision that is fundamentally at odds with the principles of a pluralistic democracy.
His tenure could see increased pressure to infuse military culture with Christian nationalist ideals, further marginalizing non-Christian service members and reinforcing exclusionary policies.
Pushing Back Against Distortions of Christianity
Christian dominionism distorts the message of Jesus, who called for love, mercy, and humility—not authoritarian control.
As believers and citizens committed to justice, we must push back against these distortions and advocate for a faith that truly reflects the character of Christ.
The lectionary reading for this Sunday includes Luke 4:14-21. It’s the passage where Jesus announces his public ministry. He reads from a section of Isaiah, and says to the assembly:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:14-21)
True Christianity uses power to uplift the oppressed not to impose policies designed to compel piety.
We are seeing corruptions of Christianity invade the highest halls of power. They loudly proclaim the name of Christ while using their positions in ways that look nothing like him.
In these dismal days where men of unsound character and distorted faith are momentarily ascendant, it is incumbent upon Christians who love the pure, peaceable religion of Jesus to unapologetically proclaim a different witness.
The installation of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense must serve to rouse Christians who strive to live as disciples of Jesus not devotees of dominionism.
