Pete Wehner on Pete Hegseth, Iran, and Dangerous Biblical Interpretation

About this episode

Pete Wehner joins Curtis Chang to discuss the implications of violent Bible passages in modern political contexts, particularly regarding war and moral judgments.

Are Violent Bible Passages Being Used to Justify War? Pete Wehner, former White House official and writer for The Atlantic, joins Curtis Chang to examine how violent Old Testament "holy war" texts are being invoked in today's political and cultural debates, including by Pete Hegseth and voices tied to the Trump administration. Pete and Curtis explore the war in Iran, Bible interpretation, the character of God, and why Christians must read troubling Bible passages through the lens of Jesus and the cross before making life-and-death moral judgments. 02:37 - Holy War Texts and Public Policy 03:37 - Pete Hegseth and the Invocation of Holy War 08:32 - The Real-World Consequences of Misreading Scripture 17:21 - Wrestling with Disturbing Texts 22:28 - The Necessity of Disturbance and Christocentric Reading 31:07 - What Is the Historical Role of Allegorical Interpretation? 35:17 - Jewish and Rabbinic Traditions of Wrestling with Text 37:21 - Tim Keller: Christ's Character as Interpretive Key 42:58 - The Importance of Literary Reasoning 46:37 - Literal but Time-Specific Commands 52:15 - A Warning Against Overconfidence 54:04 - Debating for Truth, Not Victory 56:09 - The Real-World and…

People in this episode

Host: Curtis Chang

Guest: Pete Wehner

Topics covered

• Biblical interpretation
• Holy war texts
• Political debates
• Christian ethics
• War in Iran
• Character of God
• Allegorical interpretation

Keywords

• violent Bible passages
• holy war
• Pete Hegseth
• Trump administration
• Christocentric reading
• scripture interpretation
• moral judgments
• Old Testament
• political debates

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Atlantic, CREC

Books & works: Pete Wehner's article, Understanding Pete Hegseth's connection to Douglas Wilson

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