Why Doug Wilson’s Pentagon Visit Should Alarm Every American
- 805speakeasy
- Feb 27
- 6 min read
-Special Thanks to Guest Writer Jessica Safani-Franko
For many, the man at the lectern was an unfamiliar face. However, to those who have been following the rise of White Christian Nationalism in the United States, the appearance of Pastor Doug Wilson at the Pentagon’s monthly Christian prayer service (a practice which started in May of 2025) sounded an alarm about increased erosion of the wall of separation of church and state.
Douglas Wilson (b. 1953) is a conservative, Reformed evangelical pastor based out of Moscow, Idaho, where he leads the Christ Church congregation. His father, Jim Wilson, was an evangelist who moved to the Moscow area after retiring from the Navy to start a Christian bookstore. Doug followed in his father’s footsteps by enlisting in the submarine service. He graduated from the University of Idaho in Moscow, where he met his wife, Nancy. They were married in 1975, and Doug began preaching in 1977, eventually adopting a conservative interpretation of Reformed theology, which was based on the teachings of John Calvin, a 16th century Protestant theologian.
Calvin’s teachings on the doctrine of salvation can be summarized using the acronym TULIP, and teach that humans are inherently sinful and unable to choose God of their own free will, and thus, God chooses specific individuals for salvation based on His purpose alone, and not on the merits of the person who is saved. Calvinism teaches that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was solely for the salvation of the elect, and not a universal one meant to save all of humankind, and that God’s grace is irresistible - the “elect” will always be brought to salvation, and this salvation cannot be revoked.
Reformed theology also emphasizes the absolute authority of the Bible, the complete sovereignty of God, and a “covenant” relationship between God and the saved. Many theologians since the time of Calvin have disputed this model of salvation based on predestination. According to Calvinism, while one’s “elect” status is determined solely by God’s will, those who are among the “elect” will embody virtues of hard work, piety, and strict adherence to Scripture and obedience to Church authority. These qualities informed much of public thought in the United States beginning with the Puritans, and eventually became integrated and enmeshed with ideas about American free-market capitalism.
In 1998, Wilson established the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), which now boasts over a hundred member churches across the world. Additionally, he has established the Logos Academy (a private, “classical” Christian K-12 school), New Saint Andrew’s College (a liberal arts college), Greyfriar’s Hall (a ministry training program), and Canon Press (a Christian publishing house). He is the author of numerous books and has been a frequent guest on podcasts and at conferences. Despite the fact that Wilson never attended seminary and has no formal training as a clerical leader, his current ministerial reach is immense.
Wilson is no stranger to controversy. In 2004, he organized a conference at the University of Idaho, and published promotional material which included his tract Southern Slavery as it Was, in which he argued that slavery was not in itself evil, and that slavery in the South was often “patriarchal,” and based on “mutual affection,” and that our “impression of the crushing oppression which was slavery in the South… is largely false.” Wilson has said that it was a time of “genuine affection between the races.” Wilson, however, insists that he is not racist and states that he is not a White nationalist.
In addition to his comments on race, Wilson has drawn heavy scrutiny for his teachings on the role of women in both the church and society at large. In August of 2025, journalist Pamela Brown did an interview with Wilson for CNN in which Wilson stated that, “Women are the kind of people that people come out of.” According to Wilson, the right for a woman to vote should be abolished in favor of “headship voting,” in which the man of the house votes for his family.
Wilson advocates for a strict patriarchal society, in which women are submissive to their husbands and are homemakers. He believes that women should not be in any positions of authority in the public square, and are not allowed to have leadership positions in his organizations. According to Wilson, a woman who has denied her husband sexual access for any reason has committed an offense worthy of excommunication. Divorce is verboten. In her 2021 article for Vice entitled Inside the Church That Preaches ‘Wives Need to Be Led with a Firm Hand,’ journalist Sarah Stankorb interviews former members of Christ Church who recall the prevalence of marital rape occurring amongst congregants. One woman stated that she was discouraged from reporting her husband’s physical and sexual abuse to the police, and that once she prepared for divorce and stopped attending Christ Church, her car was vandalized repeatedly and she was bullied online and in public by congregants. Many more instances of abuse at Christ Church have been documented by Stankorb, both in the aforementioned article and her book, Disobedient Women: How a Small Group of Faithful Women Exposed Abuse, Brought Down Powerful Pastors, and Ignited an Evangelical Reckoning.
One of the most memorable instances involves Steven Sitler, a former New Saint Andrew’s student convicted of multiple counts of lewd conduct with a child under 16. Despite the objections of Sitler’s parole officer, Wilson welcomed Sitler back into the congregation (with a chaperone) and ultimately, officiated his wedding. According to one wedding guest, Wilson explained that he believed marriage would curb Sitler’s pedophilic tendencies, since his wife was expected to be sexually available to him at all times. Stankorb writes, “Using a wife as a sexual decoy to distract Sitler from children didn’t work. Later, a judge rued Sitler must be chaperoned around his infant son, due to admitted sexual stimulation resulting from contact with the baby.” It is little wonder that an environment that stresses absolute submission to male authority would be rife with allegations of sexual abuse.
Abuse at Christ Church is also well documented in the podcast series "Sons of the Patriarchy” that explores the roots of ideas propagated by Doug Wilson and his network and how they played out in real people’s lives. The series amplifies the voices of survivors who share their personal stories of spiritual and institutional harm within churches like Wilson's CREC, including accounts of how authority was misused in marriages, family systems, and religious communities, and how leaders failed to protect vulnerable members. One episode dives into the origins of Wilson’s movement and its broader cultural impact, with stories about the consequences of harmful pastoral counseling and family dynamics. You can listen to the podcast on platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at sonsofpatriarchy.com. (sonsofpatriarchy.com)
In addition to his abhorrent views about women and documented stories of abuse within his church, Wilson is also a self-described Christian nationalist, believing that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and that Christianity should guide public life and legislation. Church and state separation should exist only insofar as the state is not allowed to interfere in the workings of the Church, in direct contradiction to the Establishment Clause outlined in the First Amendment of the Constitution. He emphasizes that the government should not provide social welfare programs, which he calls “idolatrous,” and posits that the responsibility of caring for the poor should lie with the family and the church, not the government. He endorses a “religion of responsibility,” which echoes the Reformed focus on hard work, self-reliance, and the free market. However, it can also be argued that Reformed theology provides a permission structure for denying assistance to the needy - after all, if humans are born depraved, they are unworthy of the charity of their neighbors; indeed, the fact that they are needy in the first place is an indication of their character is lacking and they are not among “the elect.”
In addition to claiming that the United States is a Christian nation, Wilson is a vocal proponent of dominionist theology, arguing that Christians are commanded to exercise dominion over every aspect of life. This has become more widely known as “Seven Mountains Dominionism,” or the “Seven Mountains Mandate,” which maintains that Christians should take control of the seven key areas of culture that dictate societal values - family, religion, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business/economics. Wilson is also a theonomist, believing that Biblical law is binding on modern society, as well as a Christian reconstructionist - in Wilson’s view, society should be transformed by instituting Christian order based on Biblical law and Christian values. This vision is not limited to Moscow, Idaho - this worldview should be extended outward into the United States, and then to the rest of the world. In fact, Wilson has stated that he believed the US would be a Christian theocracy within 250 years.
This is precisely why Wilson’s appearance at the Pentagon is disturbing. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is a member of a CREC church, and in August of 2025, a new Christ Church branch opened in Washington DC. According to Wilson, this branch would serve church members who had relocated to Washington DC to serve in the Trump administration. The endorsement of an official of Hegseth’s rank not only increases Wilson’s visibility - it also provides a platform for networking with other high-level Christian nationalists who have the means to sway public policy. It is imperative, therefore, for us to educate ourselves about the worldviews that justify the disenfranchisement of women, the protection of men in power, and the demolishing of the separation of church and state.
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