Podcast host Joshua Haymes voices range of extreme views and says liberalism a greater threat to US than neo-Nazism

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has repeatedly endorsed the Reformation Red Pill podcast, and has appeared on four episodes. But the former pastor who hosts the show, and who attends Hegseth’s theocratic church, has voiced a range of extreme positions in recent months on issues including Ice raids, capital punishment, the racist “great replacement” theory, adultery and neo-Nazism.

The revelations come on top of recent media reports focused on Hegseth also boosting a video of Douglas Wilson and other Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) pastors arguing that women should lose the vote in the United States. They also follow previous revelations about Hegseth’s links to or apparent sympathies for Christian nationalist positions.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Fascism is a far-right, ultranationalist, and authoritarian political ideology that emerged in early 20th-century Europe, characterized by a totalitarian, one-party state, a charismatic leader, a fixation on national decline, and the suppression of individual rights and opposition groups. It combines elements of militarism, economic self-sufficiency, and mass mobilization, often through propaganda and violence, to achieve a vision of national purity and power.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Let me guess, he’s not for public executions of criminals from the reich wing, but imagined “criminals” who are only committing “crimes” in his mind.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 hours ago

      Hey! If he has to see two dudes holding hands, it’s gonna make him remember all those times that he thought a boy in his class was cute and then what’s he supposed to do?!

  • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    Leviticus 19:33-34

    When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God

    Exodus 22:21

    Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.

    Deuteronomy 4:2

    Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

    Seems pretty straightforward to me.

    • smeenz@lemmy.nz
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      8 hours ago

      It’s quite a leap to assume that any of these people have actually read the bible.

    • Geobloke@aussie.zone
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      10 hours ago

      Surprised you didn’t mention Jesus and his family fleeing Judea to save him when Herod ordered all male children killed

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Matthew 5:17-20

        17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

        Jesus himself literally says follow the law (of Moses, OT shit) until heaven and earth fucking die, and anyone that doesn’t follow it won’t see heaven.

          • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            Check out Deconstruction zone and DZDebates on YouTube. Guy was a Christian for 20 years, went to seminary, learned greek and biblical Hebrew so he could read the Bible in the original languages, and through his study became an atheist. He is the least “debate-lord” atheist I’ve seen and has genuinely engaging conversations with people when they’re polite. When they’re belligerent though he roasts them with Bible verses.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        I love how they pull that nonsense, when it’s convenient. But then want the “ten commandments” put up on public land, etc…derrrrrrrp.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          I enjoy asking people to name all ten commandments whenever they bring that shit up - they can never do it. “Uhhhhhh … do not cover thy ass?”

        • WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
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          9 hours ago

          It’s almost as if they don’t have any actual beliefs and the rest of you should stop treating them like they do.

      • Rekhyt@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        I’d respond that the parable of the Good Samaritan is specifically showing a “foreigner” (eh, nuance is hard) as the only person who helped the injured man, but that requires critical thinking and some historical context, so basically useless…

  • asg101@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    16 hours ago

    Their own bible condemns all of these so-called “Christians” into “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

    Matthew 25:40-45

    40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

    41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

    42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

    43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

    44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

    45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

    • But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Don’t say “Christians” as if these people aren’t real Christians, they are. These are the dregs of Christianity, these people are one of the endpoints to that antiquated belief system. They are every bit as Christian as the rest, own it and fix it, don’t brush them under the rug and pretend they’re not real

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    16 hours ago

    Gotta love these followers of Jesus doing and saying exactly all the things Jesus said to never do… Not that it matters, all religions are imaginary, but leave it up to Christians to always posture about how pious they are while going 100% against their own rules and just act like giant narcissistic assholes.

    I hate Christians

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      It’s the same way the conservatives, including and often most especially the True Conservatives ™, always blather on about things like freedom, rights, the Constitution, America, etc., as if they are the ones that own those things wholesale.

      When they never meant any of that shit, ever. They don’t give a flying fuck about the Constitution any more than they do about “the” bible.

    • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
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      14 hours ago

      Christianity is a religion fundamentally about escaping consequences for your actions. Instead of having to face consequences, all you have to do is believe Jesus paid the consequences for you.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Online he has claimed that liberalism is a greater threat to the US than neo-Nazism, and that the Bible is “pro-Ice raids”. On X, he has also advocated for capital punishment for adultery and abortion, and appeared to call for the drowning of LGBTQ+ Pride marchers.

    So by the transitive property of conservative accusations to conservative confessions, we can safely assume that this guy is a violent, NAZI adulterer who has paid for multiple abortions and also likes sucking the occasional immigrant cock.

  • compostgoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    18 hours ago

    The man in charge of the largest military in the world (who is currently testing the limits of his ability to deploy the military for domestic law enforcement) thinks I should be publicly executed for being a gender traitor. How fun and cool.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      I cannot tell you how many people, most especially people from the Enlightened Center, who said it was being so very mean and how people like me should mind my tone when I talked of Gilead states in the immediate aftermath of the corrupted conservatives on the corrupted “supreme” court overturning 50 years of law.

      They said the same thing about the risks of letting the cons back into power, including Taco. That it was ridiculous and that he was only trying to help America, and same for his supporters.

      BULL.

      SHIT.

    • Typhoon@lemmy.ca
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      15 hours ago

      And there are people who still thinking standing on the street corner with a sign, or voting in the midterms is going to stop it.

      • compostgoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        14 hours ago

        I’d sure like us to stop it one way or the other. I’m less concerned with exactly how we get there, as long as I don’t end up publicly executed.

  • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    18 hours ago

    Obama’s old pastor said “god damn America” for exactly this sort of thing. Republicans threw a fit.

  • blattrules@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    In like five more years, I’m sure there are going to be a bunch of churches that don’t even preach religion anymore, you just go there and hear the pastor parrot right wing news outlets. That whole “be nice to others” is inconvenient so they’ll just do away with it and still go to church to seem morally superior to everyone else.

    • turmacar@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      I mean it is a religion, and they are zealots. There have been schisms before over both more and less (purgatory / indulgences, ‘not my pope’) than “is empathy important to Christianity”.

      “Religious” is not a synonym for “good” or “kind”. It’s about adherence to a belief system, which may conditionally include aspects of those attributes.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        In my anecdotal experience, it’s been a lot longer than that. They didn’t have Faux until 30 years ago, but they had pamphlets and John Birch meetings and other ways to spread the crazy.