President Trump's Crusader
(RNS) — Pete Hegseth’s faith and claims of redemption shaped his Pentagon bid, while deeper questions went unasked.
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“By the grace of God, by Jesus and Jenny.”
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense avoided overt debates on his faith or claims of moral redemption, leaving the politics of his nomination largely unspoken. Amanda Henderson and RNS reporter Jack Jenkins examine how Hegseth’s Christian nationalism, personal controversies and claims of transformation served as a stormy backdrop to the hearing, raising deeper questions about the unacknowledged intersections of religion, power and leadership in his path to the Pentagon.
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