How Hegseth’s controversial religious views could affect military leadership
PBS NewsHour – December 12, 2024 (07:00)
President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement, all of which he denies. Laura Barrón-López and Brad Onishi discussed something else that’s drawn scrutiny, the influence of Hegseth’s religious beliefs and how they may impact his leadership at the Pentagon.
Why the religious beliefs of Trump defense pick Pete Hegseth matter
The Conversation, Julie Ingersoll – December 12, 2024
In 2023, Hegseth moved from New Jersey to Tennessee to join a church and school community that arises from a 20th-century movement, called Christian Reconstruction. It holds deeply conservative views about the family, roles for women, and how religion and politics are related.
The followers of the movement seek to make America a Christian nation, by which they mean a nation built on biblical law, including its prohibitions and punishments.
Senators at Hegseth’s confirmation hearings will likely be reluctant to engage in questions about religion, yet in the religious community with which Hegseth has associated himself, there is no distinction between religious issues and political ones; there is no separation of church and state. Every area of life is to be governed by the Bible, and there is no secular sphere of authority that exists apart from religion.
Brooks and Marcus on Wray’s resignation and what’s next for the FBI
PBS NewsHour – December 13, 2024 (11:28)
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including FBI Director Christopher Wray’s announcement that he will be stepping down, what to expect from the FBI under Kash Patel and what Trump voters are expecting from his second term.
Pete Hegseth’s Crusade to Turn the Military into a Christian Weapon
Politico, Jasper Craven – December 6, 2024
Trump’s pick to run the Pentagon has embraced an aggressive form of Christianity that is at war with the military’s nonpartisan and pluralistic culture.
The backstory to Hegseth’s bitter complaint is this: Just after Jan. 6, 2021, when scores of active-duty troops and veterans participated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, a fellow member of the Army National Guard flagged Hegseth’s tattoos as evidence he was a potential “insider threat.” Along with the Jersualem cross, Hegseth also has a tattoo that reads “Deus Vult” or “God wills it” — a motto from the Crusades that has been adopted by white supremacists and was seen at the deadly march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
Hegseth, a veteran of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and the recipient of two Bronze Stars, resigned voluntarily from the military shortly after the episode, and has decried criticism of his tattoos as anti-Christian bias. The way he tells the story indicates a profound sense of betrayal. “The military I loved, I fought for, I revered … spit me out,” he writes in the book.
