The confirmation hearings for Pete Hegseth on Tuesday brought some major fireworks. Democrat senators hammered Hegseth for his position on women in combat, but they saved their sharpest daggers for accusations of adultery and trouble with alcohol.
Hegseth might easily identify with Cupid in the Outkast classic “Happy Valentine’s Day” — “I used to be a bad boy in my day” — but his story doesn’t end with the peccadilloes of his past. Instead, Hegseth’s story is one of redemption through faith in Jesus.
While Hegseth pushed back on any of the anonymous attacks on his character, he wasn’t shy about admitting his past problems. “I’m not a perfect person,” he said more than once, but he credited Jesus and his wife Jennifer with turning his life around.
“In recent years, Pete Hegseth has also demonstrated a commitment to his family, and to a traditional understanding of Christian morality and the role of that morality in both education and the larger society,” Dr. Albert Mohler said on his podcast on Wednesday. And those commitments to faith and family have changed the trajectory of his life and could set him up for the ultimate career move of his life.
Stories of redemption are as old as the Bible itself. Jacob was a deceiver. David was an adulterer. Jonah ran from God. Zacchaeus was a corrupt tax collector. Peter denied Jesus. Yet God used all of them.
I’m not necessarily saying that Hegseth is a special agent sent by God to lead the Department of Defense, though that could be the case. What I am saying is that Jesus redeemed Hegseth, and as a result, God has a purpose for him.
Recommended: Sunday Thoughts: The Symmetry of God’s Plan of Redemption
It’s not just Christians or conservatives who are noticing. My friend and boss Paula Bolyard brought to my attention a thread on X from Chris Cillizza, of all people, and it’s surprisingly encouraging.
“I have been on a faith journey over the last year,” Cillizza begins. “Which is why I was struck by Pete Hegseth, in response to Dems raising his infidelity, responding: ‘I have failed in things in my life, and thankfully, I'm redeemed by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.’"
Cillizza admits that his first reaction to Hegseth’s faith story was cynical: “Because, like, how convenient, right? Once Hegseth goes the I-found-God-and-now-my-life-is-different route, what else can you say? It’s sort of an argument-ender unless you want to publicly question his faith/conversion.”
It’s a valid point. After all, plenty of people have hidden behind a conversion story, only to behave in ways that fly in the face of sincerity.
4/ Except…what if Hegseth really did find God? And it changed how he views himself, women and relationships?
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) January 15, 2025
But Cillizza says he had an about-face in his attitude. Recalling conversations that he has had with people who told him their conversion stories, Cillizza says, “I have talked to lots of people about faith over the last 18 months who have recounted how they found God after a particularly bad period of behavior. How, at their lowest moment of depravity, they found grace.”
Cillizza admits to a judgmental attitude, but he finally concludes that “maybe just maybe, [Hegseth] actually means it.”
The Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah (in my favorite verse in the Bible), “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” The Apostle Paul told the spiritually curious men of Athens that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him" (Acts 17:26-27, ESV).
Pete Hegseth sought Jesus and found Him. Chris Cillizza is on a journey of faith, and I hope and pray that he finds Jesus as well. Jesus is in the business of redemption, and He alone can change lives like these.
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