Note: I had already prepared today’s blog post when President Trump announced yesterday his federal takeover of Washington, DC Metropolitan Police, in spite of the fact that crime is at a 30-year low there. Suffice it to say, this is a dangerous, unprecedented move by a U.S. President, and his threat to do the same in other cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago bears watching. His level of glee in yesterday’s press conference signal a much larger threat to our democracy than the substance of the event which lasted more than an hour.
Now, let’s move on to what I had planned for today’s post.
Beware of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his social media posts. He continues to associate himself with Christian Nationalist preacher Doug Wilson of Moscow, Idaho. Wilson cofounded the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).
As a member of a Presbyterian Church (USA) congregation, I find everything about this cringe-worthy. If you go to https://crechurches.org/story/, it will bring up a photograph of 12 white men. Other photographs on the website seem to celebrate families with at least four children.
I gather from the website that the CREC doesn’t like a modification to the Westminster Confession early in the 20th century by Presbyterians, but the website is vague about the group’s conflict with those changes. Several changes were made to the Westminster Confession in 1903.
The CREC website states, “The CREC emerged in the late 20th century seeking to recover a Reformed Catholic vision, emphasizing the importance of creeds, confessions, and liturgies.” I’ve never seen the term “Reformed Catholic” before, so I don’t know what they are saying.
I get the idea from the website that women are to keep silent and just do what men tell them or let them do. No thanks!
Back to Doug Wilson, the CREC Founder
Doug Wilson does not think women should have the right to vote. That’s pretty much all I need to know about him.
My thoughts on that: Why should ignorant, misogynistic white men have the right to vote?
Wilson advocates for a “classical Christian education” for everyone (or maybe just for boyss – I’m not clear on that.) He urges parents to remove their children from the public school system. He advocates for education based on the medieval trivium philosophy of grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
Back to Pete Hegseth
I’ve seen talk online that Pete Hegseth aspires to be the Governor of Tennessee, so pay attention, America. After he removes all the transgender (and will females be next?) from the U.S. Armed Forces, perhaps he can move on to the State of Tennessee. And who know where he’ll go from there?
Just remember this: The women of Iran used to have an education and careers and freedom to move about as they wished. They don’t any more. It could happen in the United States of America. Don’t kid yourself into thinking it can’t.
Want to dive deeper?
Here are a couple of links, if you want to know more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5444330-hegseth-church-women-voting/; and Pamela Brown’s CNN interview with Doug Wilson: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/07/politics/pastor-doug-wilson-christian-domination-trump.
Janet
Janet's Writing Blog 