Podcast of Hegseth church network airs far-right and Christian nationalist views

CrossPolitic has in recent weeks hosted pastors who have opposed liberal democracy and pushed authoritarian ideas

The flagship podcast of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), the Christian denomination that claims US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, as a member, has functioned as a platform for the promotion of Christian nationalist and other far-right positions.

CrossPolitic, whose hosts are close associates of Idaho-based pastor Douglas Wilson, has in recent weeks hosted a theocratic Canadian pastor who has called for his country to be absorbed by the United States, and a self-styled “patriot professor” who has backed the rise of Russia and China and the decline of liberal democracies and endorsed the criminalization of homosexuality in Uganda.

The podcast’s themes and guests, and the prestige of its hosts in CREC circles, raise further questions about the extent to which Hegseth’s views on US foreign and defense policy have been shaped by a religious movement that directly opposes liberal democracy and democratic principles including individual women’s suffrage.