We’ve all heard this argument before. Whenever the religious right — the fringe of the Republican Party — speaks to their exclusive vision for this country, they claim this position is based on the Bible, on a divinely mandated morality.
This was on full display during a recent CNN interview with the self-described Christian nationalist Douglas Wilson, a pastor of a Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) congregation in Moscow, Idaho.
Explaining to the CNN reporter why there are no women in leading positions in his denomination, Wilson said that it’s because “the Bible says not to.”
Even more grotesquely elaborating on his supposedly biblical position, the pastor said, “Women are the kind of people that people come out of.”
This is not an inconsequential statement from some powerless fringe. Wilson has ties to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who attends a CREC church in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, and has publicly supported Wilson. Hegseth even shared the CNN clip on social media, though he later deleted it.