"As [Hegseth's pastor Douglas] Wilson said in the lead-in to his [Tucker] Carlson interview, 'there is no salvation without the shedding of blood. There must be a sacrifice. There must be a scapegoat.' ...

This is what Christian nationalism requires: a morality that is comfortable ending the world as we know it, so their sort of Christians get their day."

~ Sarah Stankorb

#Trump #Hegseth #DouglasWilson #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture
/1

https://sarahstankorb.substack.com/p/who-wins-in-a-moral-debate-between

Who Wins in a Moral Debate between Tucker Carlson and Douglas Wilson?

Not us

In Polite Company

"The rest of us, our rights, our lives, become collateral damage in this gruesome fantasy.

Christian nationalism and the Christian patriarchy that comes built in are direct threats to our basic freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom (for women) to vote, freedom for all of us to make basic choices about our own lives."

#Trump #Hegseth #DouglasWilson #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #misogyny #MaleEntitlement #MaleDomination
/2

"The right to live that life freely and safely gets swallowed by the fundamentalist state religion and its function as an arbiter of the nation’s will to power."

#Trump #Hegseth #DouglasWilson #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #patriarchy #misogyny #MaleEntitlement #MaleDomination
/3

"Do Christian nations rain down death and destruction all day long? Which part of Jesus’ ministry signals this sort of behavior is in line with his goals for his followers?

Violence, and the glorification of it, is a central cultural element of the Christianity of Christian nationalism."

~ Andrew Whitehead

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence
/4

https://andrewwhitehead.substack.com/p/would-jesus-condone-death-and-destruction

Would Jesus Condone "Death and Destruction from the Sky All Day Long"?

I guess this is a question we are being forced to ask in the current context.

American Idolatry

"In the context of the broader Christian tradition, however, other expressions of Christianity would consider it an idol. And an idol is whatever Christians place their hope and trust in rather than God."

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence
/5

"It feels patently ridiculous, but we have, you know, white Christian nationalists running the Pentagon. … They clearly haven't read the Bible because in Revelation, the people who start the war are the bad guys in that book. So it really does make you think a little bit how deeply they've thought this through."

~ Sam Osterhout

#Trump #Hegseth #MikeHuckabee #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture
/6

https://www.lincolnsquare.media/p/a-war-to-spark-armageddon-its-the

A War To Spark Armageddon?! | It's The End! ... of the Week with Sam Osterhout & Max Burns

It may very well be the end with the ways things are going in Iran.

Lincoln Square

Peter Wehner looks at Hegseth's "manosphere affect," "his delight in celebrating mercilessness, his talk of death and destruction raining down from the skies, his glee in 'punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.'"

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/7

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/03/pete-hegseth-briefings-iran/686260/?gift=_ZIU2b-u6NxEmt_0j2INZhTy61PDPqyziuCLgGDS-U4&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Pete Hegseth’s Moral Unseriousness

The defense secretary appears unable to approach matters of life and death with even the slightest bit of reverence or humility.

The Atlantic

For Hegseth, it's all about strutting and freeting his hour upon the stage, engaging in displays of belligerent performative masculinity designed to hide the smallness and emptiness of his core.

But:

"America’s 'secretary of war' doesn’t approach matters of war and peace, of life and death, with even the slightest bit of reverence or humility."

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/8

@wdlindsy

I still think, unlikely though it is to ever happen, R A Heinlein's thoughts made sense.
Any politician who calls for war should immediately be conscripted and sent to front line.
Part of the problem, that seems to have reached a crescendo with the current régime, is that those in charge think of war as if it's pretty much a video game.
I don't know of many ex service people clamouring for another illegal war.

#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #ChristianNationalism #armageddon #rapture #violence #PerformativeMasculinity

@Fragarach @wdlindsy
"Any politician who calls for war should immediately be conscripted and sent to front line."
I've been thinking exactly that recently.
@MostlyTato @wdlindsy @Fragarach and bring their families!

@Rickd6 @MostlyTato @wdlindsy

Please don't think I'm getting at you, and I know none of this conversation is overly serious, but it's so easy to trivialise things that are abhorrent.
I served for 15 years, and I really don't want to see anyone, including those I don’t know and will never meet, involved in a war situation.
When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, I genuinely believed that we were moving towards a better world. When the Good Friday Agreement was signed, I cried with relief.
But, as for those who drum up sentiments and language that lead people to hate other human beings, I hate, loathe and despise them.
Where the UK in particular has fallen down recently echoes another of Heinlein's views, that a successful army or navy is one that appears so fierce as to make any actual fighting unnecessary. It does rather lend itself to being used by autocrats, but that's always a risk.

/rant over, sorry.