Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pastor has been caught up in a bizarre chat surrounding a Democratic star in an appearance on a religious podcast.
Evangelical pastor Brooks Potteiger appeared on the Reformation Red Pill podcast last week. Potteiger has been called Hegseth’s closest spiritual adviser, while the defense secretary has appeared on four episodes of the extreme Christian nationalist podcast.
The episode, titled “James Talarico Believes Christians are Idiots. Is He Right?” is hosted by Joshua Haymes, a previous intern at Potteiger’s Pilgrim Hill church.
Talarico, 36, is a Presbyterian seminarian whose profile has risen after he defeated Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary election earlier this month.
That has led to Republicans digging through his previous comments on religion, including his 2021 comment that “God is nonbinary.”
In the 18-minute podcast, Haymes and Potteiger react to clips from Talarico, who has been open about his Christian faith, talking about religion.
The footage includes the Democrat discussing how being pro-choice is “absolutely consistent” with Christianity and defending the transgender community in Texas as “something we have to do every day.”
The pair compare Talarico, who is running for Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s seat in the upper chamber, to various predatory animals, with Haymes calling him a “demon” and a “snake”, while Potteiger says he is a “wolf.”
“He is presenting himself as a Christian in order to distort what Christianity is and to lead people away from Christ towards the teachings of demons,” Haymes adds.
After commenting on more videos of Talarico, the pair then end their podcast with Haymes saying of the Democrat, “First and foremost we pray that a man like this would be cut to the heart.” He said he puts Talarico in the category of “public enemies,” or those you “are not called to love.”
Haymes continues, “I pray that God kills him. Ultimately, that means killing his heart and raising him up to new life in Christ.”
“Right. Right. We want him crucified with Christ,” Potteiger adds.
“I want him to be I think Saul of Tarsus,” Potteiger adds, referencing the religious figure also known as the Apostle Paul, who initially persecuted early Christians before converting to Christianity. “Talerico of Tarsus. Yes. That’s what I want.”
“Yes, we want death and new life,” Haymes says. “And if it would not be within God’s will to do so, stop him by any means necessary.”
A spokesperson for Potteiger’s church told the Daily Beast that “Pastor Potteiger did not ‘call’ for his death,” instead claiming that, “he prayed for his conversion. That’s what ‘crucified with Christ’ means biblically.“
They describe Talaraico of Tarsus as “a man who formally pursued murderous desires who was changed by Jesus. In Talarico’s case, he uses the word of God to promote the right to murder babies in the womb. We desire that God would change that desire in him.”
The church also said Potteiger “was a pastor of Mr. Hegseth” and that referring to him as Hegseth’s closest spiritual advisor “is not appropriate.”
In the podcast, the pair discuss Talarico’s increasing media profile, especially after his victory this month, with Haymes noting, “The fact he has ascended, the fact Stephen Colbert and all the other late-night hosts were pushing him as the new rising star and he is far more radical than even some of the radicals of their party right now.”
Potteiger, who was a model before becoming a pastor and woodworker, shared a lengthy X post to clarify his inflammatory comments on Talarico.
Titled, “Praying the Imprecatory Psalms Like Christians,” his post ends, “Some folks got quite pearl-clutchy when I said I desire that James Talarico would be crucified with Christ - that the Lord would kill his desires to promote child sacrifice through abortion and the trans-ing of our nation’s children. “
The pastor said his comments on Talarico were “not a desire for personal, violent vengeance against the man” but his prayer to God “to do what He’s already promised to do in the Psalms: namely, to destroy His enemies.”
He added, “And my preference and prayer is that He’d do so, first and foremost, by making them His friends through the cross of Christ before more harms comes to our nation’s children and the final Judgment comes for them, which is most certainly coming (Matthew 25:31–46)."
