As of today, Trump is ahead in four key battleground electoral states that will determine the presidential election regardless of the popular vote. Unless something changes, we may well be saddled with another Trump presidency that will likely be rife with indecent behavior, corruption, revenge seeking, unscientific and unsound public policies as well as a loss of basic civil rights and constitutional freedoms for millions of people based on White Christian nationalism, xenophobia, homophobia, racism, misogyny and a distain for education.
Someone said that even if Trump were to lose in 2024, he will again claim that he won and with Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House, he might well be successful this time in stealing the presidency. That will be the end of our democratic republic and help usher in the theocracy that Mike Johnson and many Republicans desire. Before anyone casts a ballot next November, citizens must understand that the Christian right wants to enshrine several cultural and legal changes that align with their interpretation of the Bible.
First, and foremost, they want their views and values to become the law. Having spent a good amount of time in a white evangelical church when it started to become politically active, I know their values, mindset, and distorted interpretations of the Bible and the Constitution. I recall vividly how Bill Jones, a prominent church member, introduced the notion that this was a “Christian” nation, founded by Christians and for Christians escaping religious persecution. He kept saying that there was no such thing as a separation of church and state and how it was made up by people who hated God. We all discounted his ideas as ridiculous and began to view him as a political fanatic. But fast-forward forty years, and we have the new Speaker of the House and several Republicans saying the very same thing.
In this series, I will reveal some of the values, mindsets, and interpretations of the Bible they wish to force upon the American people through political power, culture wars, and violence if necessary. At the center of their mindset is the role of women in relation to men.
The views of the evangelical church place men in positions of authority above women. They characterize women as lesser beings who are weak, indecisive, emotional, irrational, and in need of supervision and protection. The role of women is to get married and to be a submissive and supportive wife and mother. Her God-given duties are limited to that of sex-slave wife, homemaker, and sacrificial mother. She helps make his ambitions possible as his “help meet” and any personal ambitions she has are confined to narrow lanes that further serve the family and never conflict with her husband’s ambitions.
I learned firsthand that women were expected to overlook, forgive, pray for, and suffer through the cheating, the laziness, or even the mental or physical abuse of their husbands. For a time, my self-esteem was wrapped up in being the perfect wife, mother, and homemaker. But unlike most of my white female church friends, I not only had a college degree, but I grew up in a family filled with strong independent working women. So, with my working mother’s insistence and my husband’s approval, work outside the home was an option for me that I often opted for. However, even when I worked full-time, none of the home responsibilities and childcare were shared by my husband.
I don’t think it is a surprise that an educated, confident, and capable woman will eventually reject this lifestyle when her husband proves unworthy. And I was one of them. The first time my husband cheated with our housekeeper, the pastor told me to forgive him, saying he felt threatened by my job and so it was really my fault. The second time, a different pastor advised me forgive, not only the ongoing infidelity, but the STD that came along with it. It was only when my unrepentant husband decided that he wanted to stay married and continue his affair that I decided independence was far better than the subservient doormat I had allowed myself to become under the guise of being a good Christian wife and mother.
As an educated woman with work experience and self-esteem, I had the luxury of making the choice to leave. Many do not. I recall reminding my pastor that I had read for myself that divorce with the prospect of remarriage in the case of infidelity was acceptable according to the Bible. I was free and after I filed for divorce, I left that church and its oppressive teachings behind. I vowed to never again marry under the same conditions. And I didn’t. The words, “obey” were deleted from my marriage vows the second time around. Instead, I opted for a partnership among two rational adults, and it works great because we respect each other and are faithful to each other. Support is no longer a one-way street.
This past week, I found it suspicious when Speaker Mike Johnson made an excuse for the absence of his wife by saying that she was tired from being on her knees in prayer for the past few weeks. I thought someone probably needed to do a wellness check on her. And then I heard her childlike voice in an interview and recognized the tone I associate with the perfectly submissive wife. The wives of these evangelical white nationalists like Mike Pence and Governor DeSantis all behave and sound the alike. The men are strong and confident having absorbed the will, energy, intellect, and ambition from their submissive wives to feed their egos. These are the same men who seek to control women across the country through their anti-abortion legislation. They are also against birth control.
I am convinced that their ultimate goal is to trap women into submissive marriages and motherhood through a process of cultural brainwashing and laws surrounding the reproductive process. They will eventually outlaw sex outside of marriage and censure media portrayals of it as indecent. The banning of books is a preview of their agenda. They will eliminate any social safety nets that provide single mothers help with food and childcare, forcing marriage, adoption, or extended family support as the only option for survival and once again labeling unwed mothers as immoral social deviants.
I already see young men and young women who have been taught in their Christian schools or homeschooled flooding social media with their message on the traditional role of men and men. These young men unapologetically claim their desire to find a good woman who will have their babies and obey them without question. These young women gleefully claim they just want to be protected, to be mothers, and “not have to think”. They vehemently argue against anyone who presents the notion of marriage between equal adult partners. The culture war is in full force on social media while the political war that will determine the legal status of women hangs on this next election.
It’s not a coincidence that the Republicans want to eliminate the Department of Education and that they are constantly attacking public school teachers as immoral people with a “WOKE” agenda. They need uneducated females much like the Taliban in Afghanistan need uneducated females to feed their egos and enable their personal ambitions.
The 2024 election is our opportunity to reject this white Christian nationalist agenda. It is up to us to ensure the civil liberties of women in this country, so each one can decide for herself the lifestyle she wants to live, whether submissive or independent.