Name it irony or name it hypocrisy, CNN’s The State of affairs Room was awash with it throughout their Wednesday newscast when the pro-choice outlet’s Pamela Brown clutched her pearls over Christian ladies selecting to place being a mom and a spouse above their careers. Brown parachuted right into a “patriarchal Christian communit[y]” she fishing for tales about home abuse. She seemed on in confusion, horror, and disgust as a lady defined why she wished to be a keep at dwelling mother and be “submissive” to her husband.
In a continuation of her smear marketing campaign towards Christians from the day prior to this the place she framed them as radicals and a risk to the nation, Brown mentioned she “embedded with a good knit conservative church neighborhood in southeast Texas” to gawk at how they lived.
She opened the phase by warning that Secretary of Warfare Pete Hegseth was follower of a pastor who taught his followers to stick to “particular gender roles, the place wives undergo their husbands and make being a mom and homemaker their main position, whereas the husband acts as the pinnacle of the family and makes the chief selections for the household.”
Sitting down with the identical McIlwain household she highlighted within the first tease for her “particular venture” to air over the weekend, Brown was hung up on Sierra McIlwain placing her profession apart to boost a household:
Sierra McIlwain left her fight position within the Military to undertake a lifetime of submission to her husband, Andrew, a bit over a yr in the past.
They dwell on this conservative, faith-centric neighborhood in Taylor, Texas. She’s now within the Reserves and says she’s nonetheless transitioning to this new lifetime of being a keep at dwelling mother to her three youngsters and permitting her husband to be the pinnacle of the family.
(…)
And what has that been like for you, Sierra? As somebody who’s an authority determine within the navy however is now making an attempt to learn to be submissive to your husband?
Pamela Brown launched one other tease of her Christian bashing documentary for CNN. This time, she clutches her pearls over Christian lady selecting to be keep at dwelling mothers and households comporting to conventional gender roles:
“Effectively, pastor [Doug] Wilson leads a rising community of… pic.twitter.com/d1Uf6IQkXI
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 18, 2026
The parts of the report the place they had been sitting across the McIlwain’s kitchen desk had been full of judgmental appears to be like from Brown (pictured above).
With Brown continually harping on the phrase “submissive,” Andrew appeared to catch her off guard when he defined that he did in reality take his spouse’s opinion into consideration (Click on “develop”):
BROWN: And she or he’s additionally taking over this position to attempt to be, you understand, to be submissive to you because the husband. How has it been?
A. MCILWAIN: We decide and, you understand, Sierra will say one factor and I would say one thing totally different. We speak about it. You understand, most, more often than not. You understand I – You understand, I would like Sierra to be – and our household, to be comfortable. You understand I would like pleasure to reign supreme in our family. I would like the love of God to move out. I would like there to be, you understand simply peace and Christ-filled dwelling. I am submissive to Christ after which Sierra is submissive to me
BROWN: And it is attention-grabbing as a result of I do know Sierra, you’ve got needed to actually regulate to this concept, however it seems like Andrew, you are additionally making an attempt to determine –
A. MCILWAIN: Oh yeah!
BROWN: -what does it imply to be the pinnacle of the household, and for my spouse to be submissive to me.
Sierra additionally appeared to confound the CNN co-host by explaining that her husband trusted her. “He trusts me in our dwelling. Like he’ll go away to work. Everytime you’re dwelling with the youngsters, I will belief you to steer our dwelling whereas he is gone at work. Our youngsters elevating them up within the admonition of the Lord,” she mentioned.
At one level, Brown appeared to look on in disgust as Sierra was explaining how she personally wasn’t getting achievement from her profession within the navy, however being a keep at dwelling mother was (Click on “develop”):
Yeah, I had simply promoted to captain crying in my automobile, and I felt like a chunk of me was dying and I simply prayed. I used to be like, ‘Lord, what is that this? Why do I really feel so damaged?’ I like my household. My youngsters are one thing I might have by no means imagined for myself. I do not know methods to clarify it. When you’re a mother, you most likely perceive.
How can these two issues, how come I am unable to have each? How can they be so separate? However that is like what made me who I’m. After which my youngsters, then again, are like, what’s making me who I’m changing into? And I like each of them, however I am unable to have each of them.
I discovered like this: There was a season that was passing and it does not imply that these issues within me go too.
Brown’s face is full of confusion, horror, and disgust as Sierra explains how pursuing a profession within the navy wasn’t fulling and he or she’s been feeling higher within the transition to a keep at dwelling mother: “All the navy stuff, the medical stuff that I used to be pursuing, all of… pic.twitter.com/X7Zqb3HHnQ
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 18, 2026
Since issues weren’t as abusive as she hoped, Brown spoke with the Kirby household and pressed spouse Kynleigh on what would occur when there was a battle. After all, Brown emphasis on her husband Jonah forcing his will on her:
BROWN: What about are you able to say no? Like, I do not need to do this or I need to go do that, and also you would not need her to. How does that work?
Ok. KIRBY: Finally the buck does cease with him. And there have been moments the place I’m hesitant or I’ll query like, ‘what are we doing? Ought to we predict this by?’ And that is a part of my job, a part of my job because the helpmate is to verify we now have considered all that we will consider, however in the end, he’ll make the chief determination.
It was clear that Brown was fishing for nightmare tales of home abuse as a result of after they had been pivoting to a brand new subject, she teased Thursday phase which she mentioned would cowl “a darker aspect” of “patriarchal Christian communities” and spotlight the “brave ladies” who left them.
Issues are going to worsen throughout tomorrow’s tease.
Brown says she’s going to hammer on the “darker aspect” of “patriarchal Christian communities.” pic.twitter.com/Tzqeprfuz9— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 18, 2026
The timing of Brown’s “particular venture” was suspicious because it was the primary week of Lent.
The transcript is under. Click on “develop” to learn:
CNN’s The State of affairs Room
February 17, 2026
10:37:01 a.m. JapDOUG WILSON: It is a very nice privilege to be talking to you immediately, and I do thank God for the chance. As well as, I am very grateful to the secretary of conflict, Pete Hegseth, each for beginning this assembly and for inviting me to be right here with you immediately.
[End soundbite]
PAMELA BROWN: That pastor you simply heard is Christ Church senior pastor Doug Wilson. He presided yesterday over a prayer service on the Pentagon, a voluntary occasion applied final summer season by Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth. Hegseth himself is a follower of Wilson’s and praised him for the service. Yesterday. The Division of Warfare’s fast response account posted a picture of them along with the caption, “we’re one nation beneath God.”
Effectively, pastor Wilson leads a rising community of conservative Christian church buildings and preaches a strict biblical interpretation of varied points. His followers are taught to observe particular gender roles, the place wives undergo their husbands and make being a mom and homemaker their main position, whereas the husband acts as the pinnacle of the family and makes the chief selections for the household.
For my upcoming documentary, I embedded with a good knit conservative church neighborhood in southeast Texas that belongs to Wilson’s community of church buildings. The ladies there instructed me they’re flourishing of their position as submissive wives.
[Cuts to video]
SIERRA MCILWAIN: I am not used to the spouse and the mom position that I’m getting into.
BROWN: Sierra McIlwain left her fight position within the Military to undertake a lifetime of submission to her husband, Andrew, a bit over a yr in the past.
[Singing hymn]
BROWN: They dwell on this conservative, faith-centric neighborhood in Taylor, Texas. She’s now within the Reserves and says she’s nonetheless transitioning to this new lifetime of being a keep at dwelling mother to her three youngsters and permitting her husband to be the pinnacle of the family.
S. MCILWAIN: I am studying methods to be a spouse and a mom as I am doing it, and so being coming alongside different ladies in households who’re already doing it and have been for years, helps me.
BROWN: Yeah, I imply, you are studying. And it is distinctive as a result of Andrew she has been a pacesetter within the navy, proper?
ANDREW MCILWAIN: Yeah.
BROWN: And she or he’s additionally taking over this position to attempt to be, you understand, to be submissive to you because the husband. How has it been?
A. MCILWAIN: We decide and, you understand, Sierra will say one factor and I would say one thing totally different. We speak about it. You understand, most, more often than not. You understand I – You understand, I would like Sierra to be – and our household, to be comfortable. You understand I would like pleasure to reign supreme in our family. I would like the love of God to move out. I would like there to be, you understand simply peace and Christ-filled dwelling. I am submissive to Christ after which Sierra is submissive to me
BROWN: And it is attention-grabbing as a result of I do know Sierra, you’ve got needed to actually regulate to this concept, however it seems like Andrew, you are additionally making an attempt to determine –
A. MCILWAIN: Oh yeah!
BROWN: -what does it imply to be the pinnacle of the household, and for my spouse to be submissive to me.
A. MCILWAIN: Yeah that is precisely proper. I am simply, you understand I learn scripture and I learn these passages and I am like, ‘what does that imply?’ So I, you understand, I’ve to – I defer. You understand that is why we go to the church we do, as a result of they do not shrink back from what scripture says. They get proper into it and it is extra so a factor the place it is like we do not favor what tradition says or what traits say. And we have to have the other and actually lean into what scripture is saying. After which, we’re morally corrupt. It isn’t scripture. So we’d like there’s one thing incorrect with us and we have to regulate ourselves to what the phrase of God says.
BROWN: However I am certain it may be arduous day-to-day to know the place that line is.
A. MCILWAIN: Oh yeah!
S. MCILWAIN: Oh yeah, we figuring it out daily. Like each – I imply, to reply the primary. Like plenty of belief. He trusts me in our dwelling. Like he’ll go away to work. Everytime you’re dwelling with the youngsters, I will belief you to steer our dwelling whereas he is gone at work. Our youngsters elevating them up within the admonition of the Lord.
BROWN: And what has that been like for you, Sierra? As somebody who’s an authority determine within the navy however is now making an attempt to learn to be submissive to your husband?
S. MCILWAIN: Yeah, I had simply promoted to captain crying in my automobile, and I felt like a chunk of me was dying and I simply prayed. I used to be like, ‘Lord, what is that this? Why do I really feel so damaged?’ I like my household. My youngsters are one thing I might have by no means imagined for myself. I do not know methods to clarify it. When you’re a mother, you most likely perceive.
How can these two issues, how come I am unable to have each? How can they be so separate? However that is like what made me who I’m. After which my youngsters, then again, are like, what’s making me who I’m changing into? And I like each of them, however I am unable to have each of them.
I discovered like this. There was a season that was passing and it does not imply that these issues within me go too.
BROWN: How have you ever managed that transition and what are the challenges been?
S. MCILWAIN: All the navy stuff, the medical stuff that I used to be pursuing, all of these items, these challenges, these arduous issues which are troublesome to perform that I put my foot – my effort towards. They’ve been difficult they usually have been rewarding. None of them have even come near how difficult and rewarding being a spouse and a mom is. Submitted beneath Christ.
[Prayers]
BROWN: Kynleigh and Jonah Kirby dwell in the identical conservative Christian neighborhood and have 4 youngsters. They welcome the patriarchal hierarchy of their marriage.
KYNLEIGH KIRBY: Finally, me trusting in him and trusting in his management is trusting in God.
JONAH KIRBY: In search of to dwell how God has designed you to dwell, how he has designed marriage, how he is designed female and male in a wedding. I believe that is probably the most releasing factor. Once you attempt to combat that, you invite plenty of issues and trials.
BROWN: What does that imply by way of expectations for each of you?
Ok. KIRBY: He’s a supplier. If he is the supplier, he would supply our dwelling, present our meals, present our means. And my job of glorifying it’s creating an attractive dish or making a, you understand, an attractive place to sit down and luxuriate in that dish, or a contented aroma of a house with my very own angle, and our youngsters’s angle, and simply to sort of glorify what he’s offering.
BROWN: What about are you able to say no? Like, I do not need to do this or I need to go do that, and also you would not need her to. How does that work?
Ok. KIRBY: Finally the buck does cease with him. And there have been moments the place I’m hesitant or I’ll query like, ‘what are we doing? Ought to we predict this by?’ And that is a part of my job, a part of my job because the helpmate is to verify we now have considered all that we will consider, however in the end, he’ll make the chief determination.
[Cuts back to live]
BROWN: So, Wolf I used to be actually grateful to those ladies for sitting down with me, letting us into their dwelling, sharing their views about marriage and patriarchy. So usually I believe folks hear about these communities and make their very own judgments. And so, I hope that this may shed a light-weight for folks and to higher perceive how they dwell.
In actuality, the ladies I spoke with there in Taylor had been welcoming, and as you heard them say, they honestly imagine the position of a homemaker is their God given function. Tomorrow I am going to discover one other aspect of the image. The brave lady I sat down with who’ve left patriarchal Christian communities, telling me they skilled a darker aspect.
