Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth’s “Pastor’s” View on the Civil War and Emancipation Part 1

Doug Wilson is not someone many Americans had heard of before 2025. I had done some research on him as an advocate for racist immigration laws, but apart from people like me and some far-rightwing church believers, he was pretty much unknown to the average American. That is until this year.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is a member of Doug Wilson’s religious movement, the  Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC). Wilson made his name as a minister operating out of Moscow, Idaho at a church he built into a model for conservative Protestants. Over the last eight months he had given long interviews with major news outlets like CNN. The interview with CNN focused on the marginalized role of women in Wilson’s hoped for theocracy in America. He discusses the repeal of the 19th Amendment for the good of the family. This set off a fair amount of controversial attention. What really had not received much attention are his views on slavery and race and the Civil War.

Douglas Wilson and his disciple Steve Wilkins wrote a small book on the Civil War and the Emancipation of African Americans called On Southern Slavery As It Was in 1995. I will post using the book to illustrate Doug Wilson’s views on slavery and African Americans.

Doug Wilson has degrees in philosophy and classical studies. Wilson’s co-author, Steve Wilkins, is someone Wilson says “it is a great privilege to be his friend.” He said that after Wilkins had been accused of plagiarism. Wilkins is the pastor of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church/Church of the Redeemer located in West Monroe, Louisiana. Wilkins is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. Wilkins had a B.A. in pre-law and a Masters in Divinity. He holds no degree in history.

I recently read Wilson and Wilkins On Southern Slavery As It Was and wondered why two churchmen would even write about this subject from this point of view. Even those who adhere to the “Lost Cause” don’t say they want a return to enslaving African Americans. Yet here is what Wilson wrote:

“The South has long carried the stigma of racism and bigotry. The fact that slavery ended abruptly because the South lost the War serves to reinforce this common stereotype. For this reason, most Southerners take little pride in their nation’s role in the War Between the States.” [p. 6-7]

Note that Wilson uses the “Lost Cause” designation of the Civil War conflict as “the War Between the States.”

Wilson explains that modern white Southerners are handicapped in their understanding of the Civil War. He wants Southerners to defend the cause that their ancestors fought for:

“The only thing they can boast about is how well they fought—but they are not allowed to defend the cause itself. They have been told that they cannot talk of principle or speak of righteousness. The institution of slavery has so blackened the Southern position that nothing about the South can be viewed as good or right. Slavery is considered to be such a wicked practice that it alone is sufficient to answer the question of which side was right in that unfortunate war. The fact that the South practiced slavery is enough to cause many moderns to feel they do not even have to listen to the various biblical and constitutional arguments that swirled around that controversy. Consequently, to have a closed mind on this issue is to be cloaked in virtue.” [p. 6-7]

Wilson says that the modern ideology of judging slavery as “evil” condemns the Confederacy and Southern whites. He says that modern Southerners ask:

“How could men have supported slavery? The question is especially difficult when we consider that these were men who lived in a pervasively Christian culture. We have all heard of the heartlessness—the brutalities, immoralities, and cruelties—that were supposedly inherent in the system of slavery. We have heard how slave families were broken up, of the forcible rape of slave women, of the brutal beatings that were a commonplace, about the horrible living conditions, and of the unrelenting work schedule and back-breaking routine—all of which go together to form our impression of the crushing oppression which was slavery in the South. The truthfulness of this description has seldom been challenged.

The point of this small booklet is to establish that this impression is largely false.” [p. 6-7[

Wilson says that while some slave masters were abusive, and some state laws did not protect the slaves, the justification for keeping slaves in the South was approved by the Bible. He starts off by acknowledging these abuses:

“It is important to note, however, that the impression is not entirely false. The truth is, Southern slavery is open to criticism because it did not follow the biblical pattern at every point. Some of the state laws regulating slavery could not be defended biblically (the laws forbidding the teaching of reading and writing, for example). One cannot defend the abuse some slaves had to endure. None can excuse the immorality some masters and overseers indulged in with some slave women. The separation of families that sometimes occurred was deplorable. These were sad realities in the Southern system.”

But Wilson quickly responds that while some slave masters were abusive, most were not:

“Our purpose here is not to defend any such practices— where and when they occurred. We have no interest in defending the racism (in both the North and the South) which was often seen as the basic justification for the system, and we do in fact condemn it most heartily. But the question still needs to be asked, “How widespread were these instances of unbiblical and ungodly treatment on the part of Southern slave holders?” We have condemned such abuses, but were they commonplace or exceptional?” [p. 7]

Wilson says that slavery was central to the Southern worldview, but that modern Southerners have been so deceived as to the nature of slavery that they unhesitatingly condemn it: