A recent CNN segment about controversial pastor Doug Wilson has prompted pushback from religious scholars and advocates who believe that his brand of patriarchal Christian nationalism does not align with the teachings of Jesus ― yet is increasingly shaping political and cultural life in the United States.
Wilson, who co-founded the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC, appeared in an interview with Pamela Brown in which he discussed his vision for a Christian nation and a Christian world and referred to women as “the kind of people that people come out of.”
The segment also featured pastors involved in Wilson’s movement who advocated for the repeal of women’s right to vote and the implementation of voting by household, and a congregant who stated that she submits to her husband.
What made the report even more striking, however, was that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promoted it on X with the comment “All of Christ for All of Life.”
A Pentagon spokesperson later shared that Hegseth is “a proud member of a church” that is affiliated with CREC and “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.”
Beyond his views on the role of women in society, Wilson has drawn intense criticism for his views on slavery and homosexuality, his use of derogatory slurs and provacative metaphors and his church’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse.
As Wilson’s religious movement gains ground and influence at the highest levels of government, religious scholars and advocates are ringing the alarm about the harm of this approach to Christianity, which they see as light-years away from Christ and his teachings.
Don’t ignore the “profound abuse” of scripture to justify oppression.
Several Christian scholars say Wilson’s theology hinges on a selective reading of scripture designed to enforce male dominance.
“As a professionally and academically trained Bible scholar, I reject Wilson’s profound abuse of the Bible in order to promote the systemic oppression of women, people of color, and queer people,” said Mattie Mae Motl, whose research focuses on gender and sexuality in the New Testament.
After the CNN segment aired, she posted a video highlighting the ways Wilson and others isolate biblical passages from their historical-cultural and literary context to promote what she sees as a patriarchal, racist and homophobic worldview.
“It is a gross distortion of the Biblical text,” Motl said. “Moreover, these out-of-context passages about ‘submission’ and men being the ‘head of the household’ pale in comparison to the number of women, people of color and queer people who are explicitly celebrated for their faithfulness and leadership throughout the Bible.”
Theologian Brian Recker noted that patriarchal messages are not hard to find in the Bible, but emphasized that “patriarchy is the cultural background of Scripture, not its message ― certainly not the message of Jesus.”
“If you follow Jesus, you find something else entirely: liberation from systems of domination,” Recker said. “Jesus defied the patriarchy at every turn.”
He pointed to stories of Jesus breaking social conventions by speaking to a Samaritan woman, defending a woman’s right to sit as a disciple, including women in his traveling ministry and elevating a woman as the first witness to his resurrection. Looking at scripture, you can also find examples of the early church valuing equality and inclusion ― welcoming women as leaders, hosts, and deacons and even rejecting patriarchal hierarchy.
“Jesus was about love, justice and the uplifting of the marginalized,” echoed Malynda Hale, an advocate and executive director of The New Evangelicals, a nonprofit focused on promoting inclusivity, justice and compassion in Christianity. “To say women shouldn’t vote, and submit to their husbands, that they shouldn’t lead in the church, or that homosexuality should be criminalized are so clearly not the teachings of Jesus.”
She believes Wilson’s version of religion protects power and privilege at the expense of human dignity.
“I’ve been a Christian my entire life, and this ideology is completely about control,” Hale said. “It has never been about compassion or love. We have to see this for what it is.”
These ideas and teachings can cause serious harm.
While Wilson’s ideas might not appear aligned with the values of Jesus, they are deeply embedded in American church history.
“I grew up in the Southern Baptist denomination, where thoughts and ideas like these are mainstream,” Motl said. “It is vital to understand just how pervasive these disillusioned and ignorant beliefs are.”
For author and advocate Tia Levings, the CNN segment with Wilson offered nothing new — only a broader audience for beliefs she’s seen in practice for decades.
“I was not allowed to vote back in 2000 and 2004. Head-of-household voting was taught as God’s best recommendation for civic engagement,” she said, pointing to the framework behind calls to repeal the 19th Amendment.
Levings spent two years as a member of a CREC church when she and her then-husband were seeking “a close community of ‘like minds’” in which to raise their family.
“But what we discovered is that a ‘close community of like-minded people’ can also just be a shiny way to say ‘cult,’” she said. “Outsiders were carefully vetted and unwelcome without conversion. All authority flowed through the pastor and elders. Women were silent, children were uniformly obedient. CREC churches emphasize masculinity, power, patriotism and a ruthless dominance over enemies.”
“How they govern their homes is how they want to govern the country.”
– Tia Levings, author and advocate
Levings believes these kinds of religious movements promote “a vengeful Calvinist doctrine that manifests as violence in families.” Her own story, which she details in her memoir “A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy,” includes marital discipline and struggles with directives around “headship.”
The CNN segment showed that Wilson and “his cronies” have continued their ascent on the same core beliefs, Levings added.
“How they govern their homes is how they want to govern the country, and the interview emphasized they’re scaling up a practiced and established model,” she said.
The political danger affects everyone, not just people of faith.
Those who spoke to HuffPost believe the recent amplification of extreme Christian nationalist rhetoric should alarm everyone ― not just people of faith.
“These views are not only held by people in power, but quickly gaining traction,” Hale said. “And this harmful theology that’s being used to infiltrate our politics and culture is only going to become more mainstream if we don’t push back against it now.”
She believes Wilson’s messaging enforces gender hierarchy, condemns entire groups of people for simply existing and promotes authoritarianism ― viewpoints she sees influencing our laws, culture and the way people view faith.
“What people need to wake up to is the fact that this ideology is no longer confined to church walls,” Hale said. “We are seeing it spill over into policy, schools, and our everyday lives.”
Levings agrees the movement’s influence is growing and shifting in troubling ways.
“CREC and adjacent versions of Christian patriarchy prefer the Old Testament to the teachings of Jesus, who they often identify as weak. There are echoes of this perspective in the top levels of the administration,” she said, pointing to comments from Hegseth and Donald Trump Jr.
Levings described Wilson’s movement as co-opting mainstream Christianity by utilizing its language, while beneath the surface, adherents’ beliefs and behavior are far removed from Jesus and his core values of love, service and kindness.
“This is not evangelicalism by saving souls and bringing believers to them. This is declaring that members are part of the Christian elect, predestined to be saved and vanquishing their enemies without taking prisoners,” Levings explained.
Each year, Wilson celebrates “this extreme crusade to wipe out opponents” in his militant posture with an annual campaign he calls “No Quarter November,” Levings added. He is strategic in his pursuit of spreading his Christian nationalist vision ― which survivors of his movement have spoken out against.
“For those who felt ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ was too close to the truth to be fiction, it’s because of theonomist men like Wilson,” Levings said. “He adopts a false humility when he talks about his ‘corner of the vineyard,’ and the long-term reach he hopes to have, but in reality, he just opened a new church in Washington, D.C. He has influence in the White House and Congress.”
At the same time, more mainstream evangelicals have platformed Wilson and allowed him to warp the narrative of what it means to be Christian in the U.S.
“It really shouldn’t be up to secular society to watch out for religious extremes in Christianity, but so far, American denominations have done a poor job of holding him accountable,” Levings said. “If we don’t start understanding this threat seriously, it will soon be too late.”
