By correspondent Rachel Clayton in Washington DC
13 hours agoPete Hegseth has been one of the chief spokesmen for the US's war on Iran. (Reuters: Kevin Lamarque)
By the time I arrived at Pete Hegseth's church, the entire block had been cordoned off by police officers and the National Guard.
Across the road, protesters screamed incoherent messages into megaphones directed at the brick building.
Sirens cut through the demonstrators as a convoy of seven black Suburbans pulled up, lights flashing.
The US secretary of defense, his wife and their seven children emerged from their vehicles and were whisked inside by Secret Service agents.
"You can go in now," an officer told me once the Hegseth family had disappeared.
I walked into Mr Hegseth's church, eager to better understand a belief system that challenges the legitimacy of democracy and key principles in the US constitution yet is shaping the man leading the world's most powerful military.
Inside, I looked down at my pants. Around me, every woman wore flowing floor-length dresses. Every man had his polo shirt tucked neatly into belted slacks. The children sat still.
Christ Church in Washington DC is inside a nondescript double-storey brick rowhouse. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan)
A security guard introduced me to someone in charge who had immediately sized me up as a reporter.
"We were expecting a journalist," he said to me with a smile. I could stay, he said, but no photos and no asking anyone any questions.
I was shown to a seat with a direct line of sight to the US defense secretary. To my right sat a young man. To my left, a young couple who clutched each other through the entire 90-minute service.
Outside, the competing drone of screaming megaphones persisted.
The pastor didn't ignore it. Instead, he told the crowd of roughly 185 people that if two people can make that much noise, the potential for those in the room to spread the message of Christ was infinite.
'Far outside mainstream American Christianity'
From the outside, the church is easy to miss; a double-storey brick rowhouse with mirrored windows, no steeple, no cross, and no open doors with a welcome sign.
But inside, those who frequent this place belong to a particularly hardline strand of conservative Christianity in the United States.
Pastor Doug Wilson has argued women's priorities should be "in the home" and laws against sodomy should be brought back. (AP: Lindsey Wasson)
Christ Church (also called Christ Kirk) lies opposite the Library of Congress in Washington DC. It is part of a network of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) founded by Doug Wilson, a pastor from Idaho who has spent decades promoting biblical governance.
"I do believe in the separation of church and state," Mr Wilson told the ABC. "But I don't believe in liberal democracy, and I want education to be privatised."
Some of the most contentious ideas promoted by church leaders relate to the role of women.
Mr Wilson said he believed their "priority is the home". They should submit to their husbands and fathers, and should "not ordinarily" hold political roles, he told the ABC.
Mr Hegseth has publicly backed some of these views in interviews and online.
Last year, he shared a CNN segment on social media featuring church leaders, including Mr Wilson, arguing that in an ideal society, women would not be able to vote. In the video, Mr Wilson also said America should outlaw sodomy. Mr Hegseth captioned it: "All of Christ for All of Life."
In a podcast interview, he said a "misreading of the First Amendment" had resulted in "progressives, communists, Marxists … removing God from the school system" in the 1800s.
The US "is a republic, not a democracy, and our education system pumps democracy down people's throats", he said.
It is not uncommon for US politicians to be outspoken Christians but Mr Hegseth stands out, said Matthew Taylor, a visiting scholar at the Centre on Faith and Justice at Georgetown University.
"What's different in the case of somebody like Pete Hegseth is just how extreme his ideas are, how far outside of what we could call mainstream American Christianity he is," Professor Taylor said.
Conservative religious beliefs become "extremely concerning", he said, when they are so publicly and unapologetically projected from a position of authority.
Prayers at the Pentagon
Mr Hegseth's branch of conservative Christianity has already filtered into policy, leadership, and expectations within the ranks.
In press briefings on the war with Iran, he characterised combat as preparation for the return of Jesus Christ and he prayed for US troops from the Pentagon's press podium.
"May his almighty and eternal arms of providence watch over them and protect them and bring them peace in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen," he said at one recent briefing.
Earlier this year, he began monthly Christian worship services at the Pentagon, which are broadcast on internal TV stations. He told military personnel and civilian employees that "every month it is fitting to be right here" at church service.
Mr Wilson, the church founder, led the February service. Mr Hegseth hosted it in March.
The Pentagon argues the prayer services "undoubtedly improve morale" and "are constitutionally protected".
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said attendees were not given special treatment and no-one was punished for not attending.
"We mostly do it [the monthly service] because I need it more than anybody else," Mr Hegseth told a recent meeting of Christian broadcasters.
"We hear a lot from the freedom-from-religion crowd. They hate it," he said. "The left-wing shrieks, which means we're right over the target."
'Tidal wave' of complaints
Since the war with Iran began, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has reported a "tidal wave" of about 200 complaints about evangelical messages being pushed in the military.
The organisation advocates for religious freedom for the 100,000 personnel across all branches of the US military.
Founder Mikey Weinstein said when Christian nationalism was pushed on people within "the most lethal organisation ever created by humankind" — the US military — "it's a national security threat internally to our country. And it's a planetary security threat".
Complaints to the foundation include officers telling their subordinates the Iran war was "all part of the plan of the Book of Revelation to … bring their version of weaponised Jesus back to the Battle of Armageddon", Mr Weinstein said.
"This stunned people. Superiors invited their subordinates to their homes for Bible studies. It's about as bad as it ever has been, and I'm sure it's going to get worse."
Last month, a member reported that a poster depicting Jesus Christ launching a mortar round was displayed in a command centre headquarters overseas.
A poster of Jesus holding a mortar that was reported as on display at an overseas US military base. (Supplied: Military Religious Freedom Foundation)
Professor Taylor said this crossed a line.
"The US Army should not be fighting on behalf of Christianity," he said. "It fights on behalf of the United States and in the interests of United States citizens.
"This conflation of America with Christianity … only threatens to turn this into a holy war."
Mr Hegseth's visible displays of his faith have been under scrutiny, too.
He was questioned during his Senate confirmation hearing last year about his tattoos, some of which show symbols that have become popular among the far right and some white supremacy groups. They include the Latin phrase Deus Vult, which means "God wills it", and the Jerusalem Cross.
A tattoo of the Arabic word kafir — used in Islam to describe an infidel or non-believer — has also been criticised as being Islamophobic.
Peter Hegseth has the Arabic word kafir tattooed on his right arm. (X: Pete Hegseth)
Mr Hegseth pointed out at the hearing that the Jerusalem Cross also featured on the program for former president Jimmy Carter's funeral, which he had recently attended.
A small church that could be underestimated
While only a minority of Christian Americans subscribe to the same denomination as Mr Hegseth, they "punch way above their weight", Professor Taylor said.
"They are some of the most ardent supporters of Donald Trump and view both Trump administrations as their vehicles for the re-Christianising of America," he said.
"If they can hold on to this very dedicated, die-hard [MAGA] group, then maybe they can thwart the rules of democracy and turn the United States more into an autocratic power.
"We write them off as hucksters or as conmen at our own peril."
The allegations Pete Hegseth faced ahead of his confirmation as defense secretary
When he was preparing to face the Senate confirmation hearing, Pete Hegseth claimed he was the victim of a media smear campaign.
Mr Wilson, the church's founder, told the ABC he wanted his congregation in DC to lobby politicians to help achieve the goal of a Christian nation.
But ultimately, he believed that goal would "be accomplished by planting churches and schools, evangelising, publishing books", he said.
On the war in Iran, Mr Wilson said he wished the US was "still under the older system where … the president was the executive of the war".
"But as a pragmatist, I believe that the Middle East is likely to be a lot more peaceful after this. God draws straight with crooked lines," he said.
He described his relationship with Mr Hegseth as "cordial and friendly", but said he did not advise him on policy decisions.
"That would be totally inappropriate," he said.
Topic: Explainer
Julie Ingersoll, a religious studies professor at the University of North Florida who has studied the decades-long movement of evangelical Christianity, said the church had never enjoyed such proximity to power.
"I think that we still underestimate the significance of this movement," she said.
"These folks … are 75 years into a long strategy, and they should not be dismissed because they're serious about it, they're committed to it."
Professor Ingersoll said followers of Mr Wilson's denomination did not think of Christianity "as a personal thing".
"It's public. They want the world to know their beliefs," she said.
"Everything is viewed through religion. They reject the idea there is anything not religious, so this war is about Christianity [for them]."
The Hegseth family is inducted
At the church service in downtown DC, I watched as hymns were sung, prayers were recited, and the congregation said "amen" and "thanks be to God" in unison at all the correct moments.
Then, Mr Hegseth and his family were called forward to be formally inducted into the DC congregation.
Joining a CREC church formally requires elder approval and often an official letter of transfer and release from your previous congregation. Mr Hegseth joined the church in 2023 in Tennessee.
Flanked by American flags, the family stood before the congregation. Mr Hegseth said "we do" to a series of questions about his family's commitment and allegiance to the church.
Professor Ingersoll said the pledge represented the family making "a covenant with the congregation", which puts new members under the authority of church elders.
A woman took notes as the pastor spoke about the duty to serve the "humble needy".
Christ Church is not easily recognisable as a church, but has at times attracted protesters. (ABC News: Bradley McLennan)
The service ended with a bowl passed for donations, a basket of bread and wine for communion, and a closing prayer in which members held their palms up to the ceiling.
Mr Hegseth did not stay long. A couple of handshakes, a few quiet words, then he was folded back into a convoy of black SUVs, a newly anointed man of a denomination that aims to transform the government he represents and works for.
After the September 11 terror attacks, US president George W Bush described the war on Al Qaeda as a "crusade" — a comment that sparked global backlash and was quickly walked back.
Professor Taylor said America's capacity for outrage had withered since then.
"Trump has worn people down. People are just really tired after 10 years of resisting, of reacting," he said.
"I think a lot of Americans just have accepted that extreme things are going to happen, and they don't really feel much power to do anything about it."
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