ESSAY: Hegseth's Holy Violence: MAGA's Most Dangerous Theology

Pete Hegseth isn't just a bad Cabinet pick. He's a theological project — and silence is no longer an option. As Secretary of Defense, Hegseth has publicly glorified violence, renamed the Department of Defense the "Department of War," and invoked the name of God to justify military aggression. This isn't political theater. It's Christian nationalism in power — and it belongs to a specific movement with a specific ideology, rooted in Doug Wilson's network out of Moscow, Idaho.   In this episode, retired evangelical pastor Pat Kahnke examines what Hegseth's actions reveal about the theology driving MAGA: a version of Christianity that prays for maximum violence against enemies, treats empathy as sin, and seeks to build an authoritarian Christendom — not by following Jesus, but by ruling in his name. This is what happens when Christian nationalism stops being fringe and starts running the Pentagon.