{"id":2395552,"date":"2025-01-27T11:39:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T16:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/guardian-hegseth-smear-proves-media-are-theologically-illiterate\/"},"modified":"2025-01-27T11:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T16:43:07","slug":"guardian-hegseth-smear-proves-media-are-theologically-illiterate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/guardian-hegseth-smear-proves-media-are-theologically-illiterate\/","title":{"rendered":"Guardian Hegseth Smear Proves Media Are Theologically Illiterate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fguardian-hegseth-smear-proves-media-are-theologically-illiterate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2395552&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Pete Hegseth, recently confirmed as President donald\u2064 Trump&#8217;s Secretary of Defence, faced a smear campaign prior to his confirmation, especially from outlets like The\u2062 Guardian. The day before\u2064 the Senate vote, \u2064The \u200cGuardian published an article alleging that Hegseth endorsed extremist Christian doctrines, using recordings from\u200c a podcast he participated\u2062 in, \u2063which were released long before his nomination.\u200c The\u200c article highlighted Hegseth&#8217;s criticisms of cultural Marxism and public education but failed to provide ample evidence for its extremist claims.<\/p>\n<p>It noted \u2063that the podcast was\u200b hosted\u2064 by someone from Hegseth&#8217;s \u200bchurch and \u200cfocused on his book\u200d &#8220;Battle for the American Mind.&#8221; Critics assert that Hegseth\u2019s \u2062views align with theocratic beliefs, a classification based on interpretations from\u200c academic \u2064sources. \u200cThough, the argument\u200d of the piece relies heavily on vague associations and \u200boverlooks widespread Christian beliefs \u200cabout\u2063 God&#8217;s sovereignty over all aspects of life.<\/p>\n<p>Despite \u2062attempts to label him \u2064as undemocratic or extremist, Hegseth&#8217;s confirmation process upheld constitutional procedures, suggesting a commitment to democratic principles. His critics appear more interested in discrediting\u2064 him than addressing his qualifications and contributions. Ultimately, Hegseth&#8217;s stance and personal faith are presented as humbly rooted in christian values, contrasting with the negative \u2062portrayals in the media.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump&rsquo;s secretary of defense pick, was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/24\/senate-confirms-pete-hegseth-as-americas-next-defense-secretary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">confirmed<\/a> on Friday by a Senate vote of 51-50. But in the weeks leading up to his confirmation, he faced a smear campaign peddled by a propaganda press eager to undermine and distract from his qualifications for the role.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Yet another attempt to drag Hegseth&rsquo;s name through the mud came the morning before the Senate vote when The Guardian decided to play the role of theological scholar under the misleadingly doomerist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jan\/24\/trump-pete-hegseth-extremism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">headline<\/a>: &ldquo;Revealed: Trump Pentagon nominee endorsed extremist Christian doctrine on podcast.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In the article, The Guardian&rsquo;s Jason Wilson claims that in &ldquo;recordings&rdquo; &mdash; which were, as Wilson himself notes, published almost a year ago&nbsp; &mdash; &ldquo;Hegseth rails against &lsquo;cultural Marxism,&rsquo; feminism, &lsquo;critical race theory,&rsquo; and even democracy itself.&rdquo; Wilson also notes how Hegseth, &ldquo;for much of the over five hours of recordings,&rdquo; &ldquo;castigate[d] public schools&rdquo; for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/welcome-home-matt-hundreds-join-matt-walsh-to-demand-parental-rights-in-loudoun\/\" title=\"\u2018Welcome Home Matt\u2019: Hundreds Join Matt Walsh To Demand Parental Rights In Loudoun\">pushing radical ideology<\/a> on children.&nbsp;(So far, this sounds similar to most conservative Christians who consider God&rsquo;s Word inerrant.)<\/p>\n<p>Notably, Wilson waits until the 14th paragraph to note that the podcast series in question was &ldquo;recorded for Pilgrim Hill&rsquo;s Reformation Red Pill show,&rdquo; which is hosted by a pastoral intern for the church Hegseth attends in Tennessee. Released ten months ago &mdash; long before Hegseth was tapped by Trump to lead the Pentagon &mdash; the episodes featuring the now-defense secretary largely focused on his 2022 book co-authored by David Goodwin, <em>Battle for the American Mind<\/em>.&nbsp;According to the show notes from the first <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PRBdpe7NV8c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">episode<\/a> in the series, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mark-levin-aiming-to-be-back-on-air-for-debate-following-injury-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"Mark Levin aiming to be back on air for debate following injury - Washington Examiner\">host &#038;ldquo<\/a>;Joshua Haymes and [then] Fox News Host Pete Hegseth discuss[ed] the desperate need for Christians to ensure that their children receive a Christian education.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Guardian hit piece claims Hegseth &ldquo;expresses agreement&rdquo; with the &ldquo;theocratic and authoritarian doctrine of &lsquo;sphere sovereignty,&rsquo;&rdquo; which Wilson defines as &ldquo;a worldview derived from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-fiery-explosive-challenge-to-navy-admiral-for-recommending-critical-race-theory-book-for-every-sailor\/\" title=\"WATCH: Fiery, Explosive Challenge To Navy Admiral For Recommending Critical Race Theory Book For Every Sailor\">extremist beliefs<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christian_reconstructionism\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christian reconstructionism<\/a> &hellip; and espoused by churches aligned with [a] far-right Idaho pastor.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Wilson seems to largely base his definitions of &ldquo;sphere sovereignty&rdquo; and Christian reconstructionism on Julie Ingersoll &mdash; &ldquo;a professor and director of religious studies &hellip; who has written extensively about Christian reconstructionism and Christian nationalism,&rdquo; and therefore must be qualified to judge Hegseth&rsquo;s personal views.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sphere_sovereignty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sphere sovereignty<\/a>, as Ingersoll explains to The Guardian, was originally developed by 20th-century Dutch theologians, most notably by Abraham Kuyper. The <a href=\"https:\/\/rlo.acton.org\/archives\/110941-sphere-sovereignty-and-limited-and-legitimate-government.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">framework<\/a> asserts that aspects of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/pastor-twists-himself-in-knots-to-claim-being-pro-ivf-is-pro-life\/\" title=\"Pastor Twists Himself In Knots To Claim Being Pro-IVF Is Pro-Life\">human life &#038;mdash<\/a>; family, government, the church, etc. &mdash; fall into separate spheres of influence, each with its own hierarchy and structure. These spheres interact with each other, but all of them owe their authority and sovereignty to the rule of God.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When these guys say they believe in the separation of church and state, they&rsquo;re being duplicitous. They do believe in separate spheres for church and state, but also in a theocratic authority that sits above both,&rdquo; Ingersoll told The Guardian. &ldquo;These folks are not particularly committed to democracy. They&rsquo;re committed to theocracy.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The piece also bashes Hegseth for potentially drawing influence from conservative Idaho pastor Doug Wilson, noting how the church Hegseth attends is part of an organization co-founded by Wilson. It also mentions that Hegseth&rsquo;s co-author, David Goodwin, is &ldquo;the serving president of the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS),&rdquo; which is &ldquo;closely associated with [Doug] Wilson;&rdquo; Hegseth&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">children apparently attend schools &#038;ldquo<\/a>;affiliated&rdquo; with ACCS. The piece also highlights the oh-so-disturbing fact that Hegseth once said he was reading a book Doug Wilson recommended on a podcast. How dangerously extreme of him!&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The view that God is sovereign over all facets of human life and that various areas of life have their own natural limits is not in itself an extremist belief. It is a Christian one, notably present throughout all of Scripture, and among various denominations &mdash; not solely in Kuyper&rsquo;s theological framework. (See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Job%2038-42&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Job 38-42<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew%2010%3A29-31&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Matthew 10:29-31<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Romans%208%3A28&amp;version=NIV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Romans 8:28<\/a>.)&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But the apparently all-knowing Professor Ingersoll told the outlet that &ldquo;the version&rdquo; of sphere sovereignty circulating &ldquo;in churches influenced by Wilson descends directly from &hellip; theocratic Christian reconstructionism.&rdquo; For The Guardian, Hegseth&rsquo;s membership at such a church, his alleged affirmation of &ldquo;aspects&rdquo; of certain theology, his critique of Marxist ideology in schools, and analysis from random sources are apparently enough to label him an &ldquo;extremist.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Despite The Guardian&rsquo;s lazy efforts to &ldquo;reveal&rdquo; the contents of publicly available podcasts, none of these cherry-picked details, irrelevant quotes, or vague connections ultimately prove that Hegseth is a theocrat who is &ldquo;not particularly committed to democracy.&rdquo;&nbsp;In contrast, Hegseth submitted to the process of Senate confirmation after he was selected by a president who won the popular vote, including all seven swing states. Such a reality hardly suggests he is &ldquo;not committed&rdquo; to the democratic processes laid out in the Constitution.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is not the first time in recent weeks Hegseth has been attacked for holding so-called &ldquo;extreme&rdquo; Christian beliefs. But the truth is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/nov\/15\/trump-cabinet-pete-hegseth-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Guardian<\/a> &mdash; and the other corrupt, Democrat-run media <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/21\/nbcs-latest-hit-piece-against-pete-hegseth-is-even-dumber-than-you-think\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">outlets<\/a> that have relentlessly <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/21\/nbcs-latest-hit-piece-against-pete-hegseth-is-even-dumber-than-you-think\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">smeared<\/a> Hegseth &mdash; never cared one bit about his religious convictions or alleged impropriety. All they cared about was distracting Americans from the qualifications of a nominee who promised &mdash; and is now enabled &mdash; to enact election-mandated change within a severely floundering government agency.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While Christians can and should debate and critique the validity of theological frameworks &mdash; while they should call out <em>evident<\/em> arrogance and corruption &mdash; they should also promote the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel. And that is exactly what Pete Hegseth has done.<\/p>\n<p>In the face of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/pete-hegseth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anonymous, unsubstantiated, and debunked attacks<\/a> on his character, conduct, and convictions, Hegseth has spoken with humility regarding his leadership &mdash; repeatedly coming back to the claim that he is a human <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=GsVWTjn5Azo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">redeemed<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5Mp9uX7v8sU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Christ<\/a>. This is a testimony to which Americans and Christians from all backgrounds can relate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Maisey Jefferson is a staff editor at <i>The Federalist<\/i>. She graduated from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gordon.edu\/\">Gordon College<\/a> in the greater Boston area with a degree in English and Professional Writing. She has previously served as an editorial intern at The Federalist as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the <a href=\"http:\/\/thegordonreview.com\/%E2%80%9C\"> <i>Gordon Review<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Trump&#8217;s defense secretary amid smear campaigns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2168,"featured_media":2395554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-24-at-6.14.48%E2%80%AFPM.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[26302,45173,4188,32715,49270],"class_list":["post-2395552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-guardian","tag-hegseth","tag-media","tag-smear-campaign","tag-theological-illiteracy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Screenshot-2025-01-24-at-6.14.48%E2%80%AFPM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395552"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2395561,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395552\/revisions\/2395561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2395554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}