Astronomy and Politics Through the Lens of Epistemology
How do We Know What We Know?
What is Our Method of Evaluating Truth?
Christian Epistemology
Has Hegseth's Morals Changed?
Why I support Pete Hegseth by Bill Anderson January 4, 2025
1-An overwhelming chorus of the main-stream media in mid-December is declaring that Trump’s nominee, Pete Hegseth, for Secretary of Defense, is Dead On Arrival (DOA). When I was still watching Fox News daily, Pete struck me as the most informed military experts at Fox. Yet, the mainstream media are pronouncing his candidacy as DOA. That is well before the senate confirmation hearings even begin. Not to mention the fact that Trump has not yet assumed the office of president and will not until January 20. So what gives and WHY? The search for SCANDAL is the inevitable political end-game here.
2-Yet one thing that I have to specify up front in this blog is that I am a student of the Bible. But the Bible does not convey God’s will simply in verses or legal ordinances. One of the major ways God teaches us there is through stories like the story of the Exodus. For that reason, I believe that both Bible believing Christians and Jews should communicate their values through stories of both scripture and life - indeed, testimonies. That being the case, my defense of Pete Hegseth here will be my view of his personal story.
3-The origins of my story really begin when I was a kid who loved astronomy but raised in the Southern Baptist Church. When I finally learned of the scientific evidence that the universe had a beginning, I knew for a fact that the arguments for a creator were virtually inescapable and thus His constant influence became a reality in my life personally.
4-It was around that time, that what is now known as the Jesus movement became a huge social movement in the US recently portrayed in the movie Jesus Revolution. https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/jesus-revolution. To any reader of this blog, I would really suggest you watch the Jesus Revolution to gasp my meaning. That movie portrays the social movement quite well, to the point being quite real in my experience and memory. The movie is centered on the first Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa and Pastor Chuck Smith and the associated youth based social revolution.
5-But I was not involved directly there although I did make multiple trips to Calvary Chapel during that time. My experience was in a parallel youth movement here in Tucson at a independent college ministry called The Vineyard. After my astronomy revelation regarding the beginning of the universe, it was at the Vineyard that my real spiritual walk with God began.
6-What was so striking about the early Vineyard days were the testimonies and stories of the individuals coming to faith from what some would consider horrific backgrounds. Prostitution, drug and alcohol addiction, promiscuous sexual perversion of every conceivable type. Many of these detailed stories, if they had been told in conventional churches, would have caused many traditional church membors to recoil in horror.
Yet, these stories, for the participants, became a sort of right of passage to prove to themselves and others, the miraculous nature of God’s work in their lives. And that was over 50 years ago! Yet I know and remember many of those individuals today whose lives were, in fact, transformed permanently.
7-That is part of the reason why many of those Vineyard people, who subsequently moved on to other ministries over the years, have recently started returning to what is now, The Vineyard Christian Community. That is because many of the older members of the Vinyard now still remember the same events and the role the Vineyard played in their
early lives, in overcoming their often very dark pasts. And I was a previously church trained witness of those dramatic social upheavals. I was so joyously moved to see the stunning transformations in their lives, which was a reflection of what the church taught was possible. In Hippie lingo, "WHAT A RUSH"!!! I well remember the words of the evangelist Billy Graham at that time, "I believe in the Jesus movement because...........
From the old archives of Christianity Today
8-This is where the origins of my support of Pete Hegseth begins. Like many of the older members at the Vineyard in Tucson, Pete has a dark past. A very dark past with alcohol and a very dark past with women. I was really taken back with reservations about Pete’s character by Megyn Kelly’s first very frank and confrontive interview of Pete at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9uCJdV2qsI.
A word I do not know if Pete would think is legitimate, but a philanderer would not be too far off. According to an email leaked to the New York Times, between divorce #2 and wife #3, Hegseth’s mom sent him an email to confront him with his sin. YEA-MOM, I say! Yet to complete the political scandal, the New York Times has found and has made that email quite public so as to defeat his nominated position in the new Trump administration.
9-There have also been accusations of a rape by Hegseth resulting in a police report. However, a uniquely peculiar feature of this report is that it does not advance any substantiated evidence to confirm the charge. Moreover, no charges have been publicly made. Megyn Kelly has read the entire report and cites numerous inconsistency problems. Therefore, with respect to this police report, this pursuit of scandal is still a question of justice, either truth or fallacy. What remains as a legitimate question, is whether or not Pete Hegseth is the same man today as he was in 2017.
10-So, did Pete become a transformed disciple of Christ since his mom wrote that scathing email? There is no way for us to confirm that with any certainty, because we cannot discern the heart of any individual like God can. But we can determine whether or not that is at least a possibility by the Bible’s standard of “You will know them by their fruit” (Matt 7:16, 20). To even begin to make such an evaluation, one would have to listen to both Pete and his mom today, not just the one time event of her original email. So I will itemize the links which will serve that purpose on a wide range of issues below.
11-First is a direct interview with Pete Hegseth by independent reporter, Megyn Kelly. Megyn does confront him directly on all the personal and divorce issues already mentioned. There Pete acknowledges his bad behavior among women among other issues. Pete goes further to mention how his pastor has brought out that Christianity is often mis-understood by a distance of 12 inches, which is the distance between the brain and the heart. In other words, intellectual ascendancy versus repentance of the heart and mind. With regard to Judaism, the sequence of repentance is similar. First, one is illuminated and inspired by the Word of God, the Torah (what Christians call the Old Testament). Then that illumination (hopefully) redirects the heart through repentance which changes how one lives life!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x8sHK_eVJk (12 minutes)
The second is an interview of Pete’s mom by Steve Doocy of Fox and Friends (17 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4o3k0T10F8
The third is an interview of Pete Hegseth by Christian actor Kirk Cameron (19 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz4QMzqDXPA
12-Now, did I give all these links to prove that Pete Hegseth is a genuine Christian? No, I gave these links to explain why a Christian could support Pet Hegseth as Trumps’s Secretary of Defense. That is why I support him in that role!
13-Now, I cannot finish this blog because I know there are people who have quite a problem with the perceived association of conservatism with Christianity. For that point of confusion, I must submit my own writing on the relationship of conservative thought with the values of either the Jewish TANAKH or the Christian Bible. https://www.christianepistemology.com/about-3