Influential author and Pastor Douglas Wilson was in the spotlight this week, after CNN profiled the self-described Christian nationalist. CNN’s Pamela Brown visited Wilson in Moscow, Idaho, to ask about his beliefs, his movement, and his goals. The journalist was visibly surprised by some of Wilson’s responses, including his description of women as “the kind of people that people come out of.”
Last month, Wilson added to his growing number of Christ Church congregations when one opened in Washington, D.C., three blocks from the U.S. Capitol. In attendance was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose children attend a Christian school in Tennessee that is part of Wilson’s extensive educational network.
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Wilson’s Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) has more than 130 congregations in the United States and another 25 across the world. It also operates more than 400 classical Christian schools, New Saint Andrews College, and Canon Press.
During the interview, Brown asked Wilson about his controversial views, conservative influences in America, and the country’s future. Wilson, 72, said he and his network’s pastors are “pioneers,” noting it will probably take another “250 years” to turn America into a Christian nation.
Douglas Wilson: ‘Every Society Is Theocratic’
Douglas Wilson, whose influence grew during the pandemic, told reporter Pamela Brown he wants to put Christ “in the public square,” peacefully turning the world into a Christian theocracy to facilitate the Second Coming. “Every society is theocratic,” said Wilson, though the identity of the “Theo” varies. “In a Christian republic, it’d be Christ.”
The result would be much more liberty for everyone, Wilson told CNN. “Because we are living under an oppressive, tyrannical state that wants to…regulate how much water comes out of my shower head,” he said, echoing some of Trump’s common talking points. “They want to regulate what kind of light bulb I can have. They want to regulate all kinds of stuff.”
During President Trump’s second term, Wilson said he wants the U.S. Supreme Court to repeal Obergefell, which legalized same-sex marriage. The pastor called Trump “the wrecking ball” and “the wild card,” acknowledging that “nobody really anticipated” him.
As for his new congregation in the nation’s capital, Wilson recently wrote that the goal isn’t to meet politicians and VIPs but is “that the important people in D.C. will be reminded that God is the important one. What matters is his favor.”
When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared Wilson’s CNN interview on X, he wrote, “All of Christ for All of Life”—a phrase prominently used by Wilson and his Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho—Wilson said he is encouraged by how Hegseth has “owned” his beliefs, such as by bringing prayer services to the Pentagon.
When asked about Hegseth’s past—including allegations involving infidelity and heavy drinking—Wilson said, “His past is pretty raggedy,” but now “Peter Hegseth is living like a Christian man ought to live.”
Douglas Wilson Addresses Controversial Stances
While walking with reporter Pamela Brown through Moscow, Idaho, Douglas Wilson was booed by a resident of the college town. He wasn’t fazed, saying that type of reaction isn’t uncommon. “Everybody laments the fact that we don’t have community anymore,” Wilson said, “and then as soon as you start to have community, people start calling them names like a ‘cult.’”
