How does Doug Wilson, Christian Nationalist, feel about Catholics?
Wilson wrote a book named Papa Don’t Pope. Reviewers tell us that the book is an easy read. If you want to know specifics in the difference in doctrine, history, faith, and leadership between Catholics and Protestants, one reviewer says this is the book for you. The focus is apparently on whether Scripture has authority over the church or the church has authority over scripture. The subtitle is Why I’m Not a Roman Catholic (and Why the Future is Protestant). Protestants one, Catholics zero.
Why spotlight a book I haven’t read? Doug Wilson is a self-proclaimed powerful voice in Christian Nationalism, as well as serving as pastor to Pete Hegseth. Wilson has taken positions against public Catholic displays such as processions in public such that they should be prohibited as ‘idolatry’. Since the public space belongs to Christ, Muslim mosques could no longer display minarets. Public worship has to align with his Protestant “theocratic” framework.
Just who is Pastor Doug Wilson? Wilson is a strident biblical patriarchist who would like to see the United States to morph into both a Christian and a patriarchal nation.
He’s interested in preventing “public vice” – he defines this to include the elimination of same sex marriage and prevention of gays from adopting children; he believes homosexuals should be ‘punished’. He’s against saying prayers in congress. He is a young earth creationist (i.e. the earth is 6,000 years old). He thinks there should be ‘male only’ spaces. There are no public schools in his future ideal society. No fault divorce would be eliminated. Capital punishment would be applied to adultery convictions. His theology equates the obstruction of a fertilized egg from implanting as the same thing as murdering an adult. Wilson thinks evangelicals today are “too wishy washy”. He brags that he is a post millennialist . When asked what happens to non-Christians, Christians who are not ‘correct’ believers, as well as atheists on Judgment Day; according to Wilson, they are ‘lost’ and will not go to paradise.
He advocates the repeal of the 19th Amendment (so that married women no longer have the right to vote) and believes that women should “submit” to their husbands and be restricted from leadership roles in the military and the church. One vote is allowed per household, and the husband represents the household, so he gets to vote. He thinks men and women are different and we should let “Scripture and natural revelation” inform us. This view is one he would like to enforce on everyone.
Wilson describes himself as a ‘Paleo-confederate’ -- his view is that the Confederate States of America were right, regarding constitutional and cultural issues; their principles were correct and righteous. Wilson and Steve Wilkins wrote “Southern Slavery, As It Was” which has been characterized as a defense for slavery. Yet, he claims that he does not support white supremacy. Wilson justifies his position (that one could be a good Christian who owned slaves), with biblical reasoning, using both New Testament and Old Testament verses regarding slavery. (He even believes that slavery is baked into the ten commandments’ instructions.)
Because Wilson believes that in the last five years we began to be a low trust society, he brands Democratic Secularism as a failed project. Wilson believes that both individuals and nations are moral agents; his position is that we must adopt his Christian moral standard. He claims that the immigration debate has “slopped over” into this moral debate. His is a crusade to achieve his style of Christian ‘domination’ in America because he does not believe you can separate morality from governing and living corporately.
His brand of bible interpretation is harsh and rigid. He has gained notoriety by making outlandish statements. We should all be informed about Wilson and Christian Nationalism as this fringe right wing conservative evangelical political philosophy is gaining recognition and traction within the Republican Party.
Want to listen to interviews with Doug Wilson?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFeIO0ZjdF8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y0fTaMBESs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRQ6Tcw9maM
Marylee Raymond Diamond, 4/11/26