Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s association with the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Church buildings – usually known as the CREC – drew consideration even prior to his affirmation hearings in January 2025. Extra not too long ago, media experiences highlighted a Pentagon prayer led by way of Hegseth and his pastor, Brooks Potteiger, during which they praised President Donald Trump, who they stated was once divinely appointed.
As a student of the Christian proper, I’ve studied the CREC. Hegseth’s club in a church that belongs to the CREC drew consideration as a result of outstanding contributors of the church establish as Christian nationalists, and on account of its positions on problems relating to gender, sexuality and the separation of church and state.
The CREC is most simply understood via 3 major portions: church buildings, faculties and media.
What’s the CREC?
The CREC church is a community of church buildings. It’s related to the congregation of Doug Wilson, the pastor who based Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. Wilson grew up within the the city, the place his father was once an evangelical minister.
Wilson co-founded the CREC in 1993 and is the general public determine maximum related to the community of church buildings. Christ Church operates because the hub for Emblems Faculties, Canon Press and New Saint Andrews School, all situated in Moscow. Emblems is a suite of personal faculties and homeschooling curriculum, Canon Press is a publishing area and media corporate, and New Saint Andrews School is a school, all of that have been based by way of Wilson and related to Christ Church. All espouse the view that Christians are at odds with – or at struggle with – secular society.
Whilst he isn’t Hegseth’s pastor, Wilson is essentially the most influential voice within the CREC, and the 2 males have spoken approvingly of each other.
Pastor Douglas Wilson leads others at a protest in Moscow, Idaho.
Geoff Crimmins/The Moscow-Pullman Day-to-day Information, CC BY-SA
As Wilson continuously grew Christ Church in Moscow, he and its contributors sought to unfold their message by way of making Moscow a conservative the city and organising church buildings past it. Of his fatherland, Wilson it seems that states, “Our desire is to make Moscow a Christian town.”
The CREC doctrine is hostile to spiritual pluralism or political issues of view that diverge from CREC theology. On its web site, the CREC says that it’s “committed to maintaining its Reformed faith, avoiding the pitfalls of cultural relevance and political compromise that destroys our doctrinal integrity.”
CREC church buildings adhere to a extremely patriarchal and conservative interpretation of Scripture. Wilson has stated that during a sexual dating, “A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.”
In a broader political sense, CREC theology contains the conclusion that the status quo clause of the Charter does no longer require a separation of church and state. The most typical studying of the status quo clause is that freedom of faith precludes the set up of a state faith or spiritual assessments to carry state administrative center.
The CREC extensively asserts that the federal government and somebody serving in it must be Christian. For Wilson and contributors of CREC church buildings, this implies Christians and most effective Christians are certified to carry political administrative center in america.
Researcher Matthew Taylor defined in an interview with the Nashville Tennessean, “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.”
Whilst the CREC won’t have the identify reputation of a few huge evangelical denominations or the visibility of a few megachurches, it boasts church buildings throughout america and across the world. The CREC web site claims to have over 130 church buildings and parishes unfold throughout North The us, Europe, Asia and South The us.
Like another evangelical denominations, the CREC makes use of “church planting” to develop its community. Plant church buildings don’t require a centralized governing frame to ordain their founding. As a substitute, the ones focused on beginning a CREC congregation touch the CREC. The CREC then supplies fabrics and literature for folks to make use of of their church.
CREC faculties, domestic faculties and faculties
The CREC’s growth additionally owes a debt to Wilson’s entrepreneurship. Because the church expanded, Wilson based an related Okay-12 college known as “Logos” in September 1981, which since then has grown right into a community of many faculties.
Together with its enlargement, Emblems develops and sells “classical Christian” curriculum to personal faculties and home-school households via Emblems Press. Classical Christian Faculties purpose to expand what they imagine a biblical worldview. Along with spiritual research, they center of attention on vintage texts from Greece and Rome. They’ve grown in reputation lately, particularly amongst conservatives.
Emblems’ classical Christian curriculum is designed to assist folks “raise faithful, dangerous Christian kids who impact the world for Christ and leave craters in the world of secularism.” Emblems press frequently asserts, “education is warfare.”
Consistent with the web site, Emblems faculties join greater than 2,000 scholars throughout 16 nations. Emblems additionally has its personal press that provides the curriculum to all of those faculties. At the heels of Emblems’ good fortune, Wilson based the Affiliation of Classical Christian Faculties in 1993 as an accrediting frame for like-minded faculties. The ACCS now boast 500 faculties and greater than 50,000 scholars throughout america and all over the world.
Moreover, Wilson based New Saint Andrews School in Moscow, Idaho. New Saint Andrews is a Christian college that takes the classical Christian option to schooling championed by way of Wilson into upper schooling.
The New Saint Andrews School is in line with different CREC establishments. It considers secularism a weak spot of different universities and society extra normally. Its web site explains: “New Saint Andrews has long held a principled and clear voice, championing the truth of God’s word and ways, while so many other colleges veer into softness and secularism.” The college is ruled by way of the elders of Christ Church and does no longer settle for federal investment.
CREC media
Along with the Emblems Press, which produces the CREC college curriculum, Wilson based Canon Press. Canon Press produces books, podcasts, a YouTube channel and various products together with attire and guns, similar to a flamethrower. The YouTube channel has over 100,000 fans.
Books revealed by way of Canon come with youngsters’s image books to manuals on masculinity. Quite a lot of books proceed the theme of battle.
The politics web page of the click comprises many books on Christian nationalism. Christian political theorist Stephen Wolfe’s e book “The Case for Christian Nationalism” is likely one of the hottest amongst books on Christian nationalism. The web site has dozens of books on Christian nationalism and media devoted to the development of a Christian executive.
Creator Joe Rigney, a fellow of theology at New Saint Andrews School and an affiliate pastor at Christ Church, warns of the “Sin of Empathy.” Rigney claims that empathizing with others is sinful as it calls for compromise and makes one inclined within the struggle in opposition to evil.
CREC controversies
Pete Hegseth at his affirmation listening to in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14, 2025.
AP Photograph/Alex Brandon
Because the church community has grown, it has drawn consideration and scrutiny. Wilson’s 1996 e-newsletter of a e book undoubtedly depicting slavery and claiming slavery cultivated “affection among the races” drew nationwide consideration.
Hegseth’s movements as secretary of protection relating to gender identification and banning trans folks from serving within the army, along with stripping homosexual activist and flesh presser Harvey Milk’s identify from a Military send, have introduced extra consideration to the CREC. I consider that given Hegseth’s function as secretary of protection, his association with the CREC will most likely stay an issue of dialog during the Trump presidency.
