Pete Hegseth believes that Jesus guides Tomahawk missiles, even when they hit elementary schools.

I wrote about the roots of his militant faith - from the Crusades to the confederacy - and what they mean for the US and Iran today.

April 10, 2026 - 12:34 UTC

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Great piece
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Thank you Peter!
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A deep dive into that madness, everyone needs to read this to truly understand what we are up against.
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I remember Erich Fromm writing about how Calvinism influenced nazi ideology so seeing it properly referenced again is good
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Can you recommend a book/article? I’d be interested in learning more thank you!
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But also, Pete Hegseth is an idiot
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This is an outstanding, if terrifying and infuriating, piece.
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Interesting that he pivoted to religion literally right after he paid off someone accusing him of raping her.
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This move has to be right at the beginning of the pamphlet you get when you sign up for right-wing-ism.
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Thanks for this.
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Tax that grotesquely stupid, grotesquely corrupt cult!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Superb piece. This brand of Christianity cannot be dismissed as merely crazy. It is toxic and compelling to a wide range of people.
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This is really very, very well done.
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its literally this

blacksky.community/profile/did:plc:anffht7oifdgqqrvowc4jfej/post/3mj5fv3afj22v
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This is the most in-depth and alarming explanation of Hegsgeth's unfitness and how the church-state separation is being destroyed.
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Check out the New Apostolic Reformation. Once a fringe extremist movement among evangelicals, they believe God will give them magic powers if they turn America into a racist, Christian nationalist empire. They've hitched themselves to Trump and are rapidly growing in power and numbers.
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Read “C Street” by @jeffsharlet.bsky.social
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Amazing work. A must read. I’ve been saying since Day one this is not a war about oil but rather playing to the beliefs of Hegseth and his ilk who form a large part of the voter base for MAGA.
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Did Jesus guide him to alcoholism & alleged sexual abuse?
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Incredible and exhaustive reporting.
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What did Jesus do to deserve such a vile follower.
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Hegseth sounds like he believe the soldiers that died deserved it since god protects the righteous.
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He's a Christian like a junkyard dog is a Christian. In order to curb his drunk debauchery behavior, which I suspect will reappear with a vengence, he traded one addiction for another. His personal version of the medieval bloody variety is his current addiction. Damaged always shows itself.
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I don't think he believes any of it, I think he's riding the Jeebus power wave. This cult crap is all just an excuse to try and fulfill his empty dreams of being a real man, which he will never achieve because he'll always be an insecure little man child.
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I like how you tied this into Calvin. One only needs to look at Geneva under Calvin to see what the result of such religious heterodoxy. One important point is that radical adherents of Calvin emigrated to Michigan because of reforms in the Netherlands. Betsy DeVos (née Prince) & Erik Prince, who
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come from this tradition, also share this Calvinistic viewpoint which should explain their political worldview.
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He is a dangerous, broken little boy.
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had to share this: GW2 - Marianne Moore: "Poetry"
youtu.be/RlxCQQakQgA
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Funny how I heard countless stories from GWOT veterans tasked with training Iraqi and Afghani forces almost had a stock refrain along the lines of "Allah may choose to guide the bullet, but you can do your part and improve your aim."
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Outstanding article. The role of Christian Nationalism is so overlooked by most. And now we have a drunken zealot leading our military. God help us.
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Nicely done! I felt being on the verge of an anxiety attack reading this stuff.

Also: the artwork is really really great
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Searing, soaring piece.
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🙏🏽 thank you
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If you are a Christian, you should not be a Trump supporter.
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🙄💩🤡
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Excellent piece. This issue has, I think, been rather overlooked in the UK but Christianity - particularly the Evangelical brand -has maintained a stronger hold in the US. My only surprise is that the name of John Nelson Darby doesn’t appear.
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Great piece.
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A drunk being a religious zealot; the euphoria of alcohol and of evangelism the same stimulus to excess, disinhibition, recklessness, and bad judgment. Driving a car under the influence, he’d crash: Driving a war under the influence, he’ll crash us.
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William James (otherwise known as Bill) wrote that the early stages of alcohol intoxication are very much like the religious high induced by tent revival evangelism.

Hegseth is addicted to both.

A drunk is driving the most powerful engine of war in the world.
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OMG Julia the illustration
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I love the horse’s side eye
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With his Crusades tattoos, Hegseth's a religious fanatic in search of a holy war (a window that closed a mere thousand years ago).
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Yes Yes Yes. He was a mean motta skootah and bad go gettah. JFC. God bless America.
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@thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social
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Good time to remember that all Christians who brainwashed and stole the spiritual autonomy of generation after generation of their children share responsibility for theocratic sociopaths like Hegseth.

It's just a statistical guarantee that some of them are going to be extremist.
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And when Christian parents teach their children to shut off rational thinking and dismiss modern education to insanely believe Iron Age mythology is real life, it becomes that much more impossible to pull the Hegseths of the world out of their extremist insanity.

Great job, Christian parents!
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Nutbar
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The great thing about Christianity is that you can paint your own wagon any color you like. That’s why in Sunday school they hand out coloring books based on Jesus. They don’t furnish coloring books in medical school so you can see how serious this whole idea is and why Hogsbreath likes it so much.
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Hegseths brain is pickled from all his drinking. If Hod was going to champion anything it wouldn't be the delusional war making of a drunk killing children.
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how much is Jesus to be blamed for this with all his us vs. them hell vs. heaven theological bullying?
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You surprised the freemasons and CIA are doing this?? I'm not. The freemasons and evangelicals are extremist religions requiring ritual sacrifice. Traditional Christians don't....
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So we can save money on guidance systems for the missiles because Jesus made them redundant
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It means we have a terrorist lunatic in charge of the military!!!
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This was so well done Julia--I'm excited to be able to cite this piece, it's brilliant. Thank you for all your work!
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Thank you so much!!!!
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This article is impressive. It’s deeply researched and the writing is so clear in bringing together the strands of of right-wing Christian theology. Thank you.
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Knowing the dangers of alcohol abuse is half the bottle
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Seems very convenient for Hegseth, as the man in charge of bombing schools, that actually Jesus is responsible for bombing the schools. I'm sure this morality is applied fairly and evenly across the board.
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This is brilliant, thank you.
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Guy is just a turd.
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Pete is mistaken.
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Great piece.
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Excellent article. Thank you.
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So, if Jesus dictates everything, there is no sin, correct?
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How convenient...

... to absolve oneself of all responsibility for war crimes
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Scary factoid fm the article;

"...Christian nationalism is enjoying a strong baseline of support among Americans – about one in 3 are either sympathetic or strong believers in the idea of the US as a Christian nation,
according to a recent survey by the Public Religion Research Institute."
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I really hate that they're indoctrinating our troops with this christo fascist militant doctrine. Religion has no place in our government. It is unconstitutional and should not be drummed into their heads by Hegseth and others.
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This was so well done
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oh Brandy thank you so much that means a lot ♥️
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It really was!
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