It is Christ who is sovereign over all. It is He who claims ownership over everything. “The earth is the Lᴏʀᴅ’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). Kuyper does in this sense defend a kind of theocracy, the rule of God over all things. But it is God who rules over all and not any human person or institution, Christian or otherwise, who does so in his stead. In this way Kuyper elaborated on sphere sovereignty as a principle of liberty and diversity.

Pete Hegseth was sworn in as the Secretary of Defense on Jan. 24 after a close vote for his confirmation by in the Senate—a vote that required Vice President J.D. Vance to cast the tie-breaking tally. One angle of criticism that resonated throughout Hegseth’s confirmation was a familiar one: Hegseth’s brand of Christianity represents a dangerous threat to American democracy. As Daniel Darling has articulated well on these pages, the persistent claims from the anti-Christian nationalist-industrial complex have started to strain credulity.

As a nominee for a cabinet-level position leading American armed forces, Hegseth has become a kind of litmus test for concerns about Christian nationalism in the Trump administration. From his tattoos to his religious rhetoric, Hegseth has been criticized as an extremist and a zealot. One remarkable example of journalistic malpractice in this vein appeared in The Guardian, which ran a piece with the breathless headline, “Revealed: Trump Pentagon nominee endorsed extremist Christian doctrine on podcast.” What was this “extremist” Christian teaching? None other than “sphere sovereignty,” which, according to Jason Wilson, is “a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR) and espoused by churches aligned with far-right Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson.”

Read More