Long before Pete Hegseth sat for his 2025 Senate confirmation hearings to become U.S. Secretary of Defense, his deep conservative evangelical religious commitments had already sparked public scrutiny and debate. Hegseth holds membership in the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a global denomination whose core theology is shaped by the 20th-century Christian Reconstructionism movement.
Many senior CREC leaders openly advocate for replacing secular governance with biblical law, building a theocratic state structured around Christian patriarchy. For the CREC, this theocratic model would be governed by a strict conservative evangelical reading of Christian doctrine. The denomination’s official website lists more than 160 member congregations distributed across North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.
Hegseth’s consistent use of explicitly religious language and public prayer in his official capacity has amplified questions about how his personal theological beliefs intersect with his leadership of the U.S. military, the world’s largest fighting force. Most notably, during a March 25, 2026 prayer gathering held amid the ongoing war in Iran, Hegseth delivered a public invocation that read: “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation.” He continued: “Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
As a scholar specializing in the study of American Christian right movements, I have closely researched the CREC, and unpacking the denomination’s history, doctrine, and controversial leadership is critical to understanding Hegseth’s public rhetoric and decision-making.
The CREC is a transnational network of evangelical congregations most closely linked to Doug Wilson, the influential pastor who founded Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. Christ Church functions as the CREC’s flagship congregation and de facto denominational headquarters, after Wilson co-founded the network in 1993. A third-generation evangelical who grew up in Moscow, Wilson has built an interconnected religious and educational ecosystem around the church: he founded Logos Schools (a network of private K-12 institutions and homeschool curriculum), Canon Press (a religious publishing and media company), and New Saint Andrews College, all based in the small Idaho town. Every arm of this ecosystem shares the core belief that faithful Christians exist in fundamental conflict with secular modern society.
While Wilson is not Hegseth’s personal pastor, he is the undisputed most influential voice within the CREC, and the two men have repeatedly expressed public approval of one another’s work. In February 2026, Hegseth invited Wilson to lead a prayer service for Pentagon personnel, where Wilson told assembled service members: “If you bear the name of Jesus Christ, there is no armor greater than that. Not only so, but all the devil’s R&D teams have not come up with armor-piercing anything.” In framing the conflict this way, Wilson tied U.S. military personnel’s safety and mission success to personal Christian faith, framing the nation’s enemies as literal agents of Satan.
As Wilson grew Christ Church into the CREC’s hub, he and his congregation have worked to transform Moscow into a model conservative Christian community, with the long-term goal of expanding the movement across the United States and beyond. “Our desire is to make Moscow a Christian town,” Wilson has stated publicly.
CREC doctrine explicitly rejects religious pluralism and political perspectives that diverge from its strict theology. The denomination’s official mission statement commits it to “maintaining its Reformed faith, avoiding the pitfalls of cultural relevance and political compromise that destroys our doctrinal integrity.” CREC congregations adhere to a highly patriarchal reading of Christian scripture: Wilson has publicly argued that in heterosexual sexual relationships, “A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.”
Politically, CREC theology rejects the dominant interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which requires a separation of church and state to protect religious freedom and bar state sponsorship of religion. As religion scholar Julie Ingersoll explains, within the CREC community, “there is no distinction between religious issues and political ones.” The denomination broadly holds that all government officials must be practicing Christians, and Wilson has gone so far as to argue that “Christians and only Christians are qualified to hold political office” in the United States.
To expand its reach, the CREC uses a “church planting” model that lowers barriers for new congregations to join the network. Religion scholar Matthew Taylor describes the movement’s core mission: “They believe the church is supposed to be militant in the world, is supposed to be reforming the world, and in some ways conquering the world.” While the CREC lacks the mainstream name recognition of large evangelical denominations or high-profile megachurches, it has built a significant footprint across the U.S. and around the globe through this planting strategy. Unlike traditional denominations that require centralized ordination and oversight for new congregations, the CREC provides core theological materials and guidance to independent groups seeking to join the network, allowing for rapid expansion.
As the movement has grown, it has faced growing national scrutiny and controversy. In 1996, Wilson published a book that offered a positive portrayal of chattel slavery in the American South, claiming the system cultivated “affection among the races.” The denomination has also faced national backlash over its handling of widespread sexual abuse allegations. Reporting from Vox’s Sarah Stankorb documented a pervasive culture of normalized sexual abuse and assault, particularly within marriages in CREC communities, leading to a popular podcast centered on survivors’ accounts. Wilson has denied any personal wrongdoing and has stated that abuse claims are referred to law enforcement.
Hegseth’s high-profile policy decisions shortly after taking office in 2025 have further drawn attention to his CREC affiliation. His order banning transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. military, and his decision to strip the name of gay rights activist and former Navy service member Harvey Milk from a U.S. Navy warship, aligned with the CREC’s conservative social views, prompting critics to question the influence of his religious beliefs on military policy.
Amid the Trump administration’s multiple ongoing military conflicts across the globe, Hegseth regularly invokes religious framing to justify U.S. military action. In a March 2026 speech to leaders from Central and South America, he defended U.S. intervention in Venezuela, the blockade of Cuba, and regional military strikes by appealing to a shared transnational Christian identity. He told the gathered leaders: “We share the same interests, and, because of this, we face an essential test – whether our nations will be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under God, proud of our shared heritage with strong borders and prosperous people, ruled not by violence and chaos but by law, order, and common sense.”
Hegseth has also leaned heavily on religious language to frame the 2026 war in Iran, with many of his references echoing the medieval Crusades, the series of holy wars waged between Christian and Muslim forces centuries ago. Hegseth bears three tattoos tied to Christian nationalist and Crusader symbolism: one reads “Deus Vult” (Latin for “God wills it,” the original rallying cry of the First Crusade), another is the Arabic word for “infidel,” and the third is the Jerusalem cross, a widely recognized symbol of Christian nationalism. He has also published a book titled *American Crusade* that lays out his ideological framework. Framing the U.S. military campaign in Iran, Hegseth argued: “We’re fighting religious fanatics who seek a nuclear capability in order for some religious Armageddon.”
As long as Hegseth leads the Defense Department, his affiliation with the CREC and consistent use of religious framing will remain a key lens through which to analyze U.S. military policy and conflict management at home and abroad. This analysis is written by Samuel Perry, associate professor of rhetoric at Baylor University.