This week, debates about Christian nationalism and the First Amendment received fresh attention after Idaho Pastor Douglas Wilson delivered a brief sermon at the Pentagon and progressive Christian and U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico appeared on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” for an interview that never made it to live television.
Douglas Wilson Preaches at the Pentagon
On Tuesday (Feb. 17), Douglas Wilson delivered an address at the Department of Defense’s monthly worship service, sparking conversations about Christian nationalism, an ideology for which Wilson openly advocates.
Wilson is the pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, and cofounder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a denomination of which Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth is a member. Wilson is a controversial figure for various aspects of his theology and leadership, which include allegations he has overlooked abuse and his arguments for the virtues of antebellum slavery.
In his address, Wilson said that “many American Christians need a Copernican revolution in their hearts and minds when it comes to their relationship to God and his Son, Jesus Christ.”
“We are all familiar with the wording of the conversion prayer, where we ask Jesus into our life,” Wilson continued. “But strictly speaking, we don’t have any life to ask him into. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And we were dead in our transgressions and sins. The gospel is the place where Christ invites us into his life.”
“We are looking to God to provide us with what we desperately need in a desperate hour. The promises of God are a shield and a buckler, protecting you,” Wilson went on to say. “The promises of God need absolutely no protection from us. We are called by God to stand up in the promises.”
Nevertheless, Wilson said, “One of the central characteristics of Spirit-filled Christians is boldness.”
“There are other gifts. There are the gift of teaching and the gift of administration and the gift of tongues,” he added. “But the great gift that is given to the body of Christ that shows that something drastic, dramatic is afoot is the gift of boldness.”
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“What would be the evidence that the Spirit has determined to bless us with such a grace? The followers of Christ, filled with the Spirit, will stand firm, and they will always speak the word of Christ with boldness, never ashamed of one bit of it,” he concluded.
