The second-floor meeting room on Pennsylvania Avenue is unassuming, but it’s filling up fast when I walk in on Sunday morning. Young mothers in long floral dresses are assembling toddlers on the rows of seats, men (in suits and ties) chat near the doorway, coffee cups in hand. I am sitting next to a couple of other reporters, who take notes throughout the service.
The focus has never been on the church itself, but on Capitol Hill
The Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches worships using the traditional Presbyterian liturgy: the Lord’s Prayer, hymns accompanied by piano and a scripture reading. What is out of the ordinary – and why there is a standard procedure for media showing up on Sunday – is that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and family are regular attendees, and the congregation is under the authority of a pastor who openly refers to himself as a Christian nationalist. He has recently drawn media attention by reiterating his belief that the 19th Amendment – recognizing the right of women to vote – should be repealed.
Midway through the service a young couple comes to the front of the room to take vows of membership. Only the husband speaks the “I dos.” His wife nods along beside him. She gives an extra emphatic nod when he vows that he speaks on behalf of his “household.” This “household” language comes from the New Testament, when whole households baptized after receiving the gospel. It is the foundation of Doug Wilson’s belief that women should not be given a vote of their own. In marriage, the two become one, after all.
