Christian Nationalism's First Item on the Agenda: Repeal Women's Right to Vote
(For all those (in the physical world and online) who have insisted that those of us pointing this out these last years have been overreacting. WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO!!!)
(important, lengthy, disturbing, enraging, article)
Christian Nationalism’s First Item on the Agenda: Repeal Women’s Right to Vote
PUBLISHED 11/29/2024 by Emma Cieslik
Trump supporters’ calling for an end to women’s suffrage may be the canary in the coal mine for further drastic changes to the electoral system.
John McEntee, director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office under Trump, departs the White House on Dec. 12, 2020. (Al Drago / Getty Images)
Right after the election, Pastor Joel Webbon, president of the Right Response Ministries, said that half of his vote was stolen from him by the 19th Amendment—that would be the 1920 amendment that enshrined women’s right to vote. As Webbon noted in his podcast, he does “allow” his wife to vote so that half of his “stolen” vote can be returned to him. “My loving, wonderful, godly wife—what we’re practicing is not hypocrisy, what we’re practicing is restitution—my loving wife said, ‘Wicked people stole half of your vote, husband, and I would like to give it back to you.’” Webbon was in fact one of several influential Trump supporters who expressed disdain for women and women’s rights this month. Most of the others threatened women’s bodily autonomy, including at least one threat of rape. But even before the election, one of Trump’s former aides—co-founder of the conservative dating app The Right Stuff, John McEntee—posted a video in which he said, “I guess they misunderstood. When we said we wanted mail-only voting, we meant male: M-A-L-E.”
Webbon and other Christian nationalists’ argument against women’s suffrage is part of a broader picture of how Christian nationalism uses Christian theology to change the entire election process itself. Even before the election, Trump touted changes to the election process, and with Christian nationalism among his platform, women’s suffrage may be the canary in the coal mine for further drastic changes to the electoral system. Nearly a year ago, Webbon went on right-wing Christian podcast The Standard and explained in greater detail why Christian nationalism opposes women’s right to vote:
“If we had a Christian nation tomorrow, and women did have the right to vote, we would not have a Christian nation within 50 years because the husband has been appointed by God as the head of his home. In a 2024 episode of his own podcast Theology Applied, Webbon argued that the repeal of the 19th Amendment is actually “not [about] trying to take away the female vote, but it’s trying to say, no, there’s a family vote,” and that he believes this because “that is the Christian position.”
In fact, more than a hundred years earlier, a member of the Christian Reformed Church used the same argument that the Bible opposes suffrage, and taught that society consists of families, not individuals. On the same episode of The Standard, Webbon uses the same argument that late 19th- and 20th-century anti-suffragists used: that women’s right to vote is a moral issue in that it impinges on men’s rights and interferes with women’s predestined roles as wife and mother. Webbon and others rely on misogynistic themes that they argue are rooted in the Bible. Two years ago, Webbon tweeted that “women are more easily deceived than men,” alongside his argument that the 19th Amendment was a “bad idea.” Anti-suffragists used the same argument that women neither have the knowledge nor the minds to serve as well-informed voters; that tending to their families and households prevented them from staying updated on politics.
Opponents of woman suffrage effectively employed imagery of a petulant little girl in this postcard. (Courtesy of Oregon Historical Society)
Anti-suffragist posters and pamphlets use strikingly similar language and visuals to that used today by Webbon and others. Anti-suffragist movements were also closely associated with early 20th century Christian nationalism (which also had its fair share of xenophobic, racist and antisemitic elements). At the crux of this White Christian nationalism was the protection—often through violent means—of white women’s purity. Women’s suffrage is only the beginning as Project 2025—a far-right transition plan for Trump’s second presidency, undermines additional voting rights and democracy more broadly under the banner of Christian nationalism. The agenda outlines allowing aggressive prosecution of voters and election officials as federal offenders, ending federal efforts to provide context for online misinformation and threats and allowing federal access to state and local voter rolls—which would make it easier for the federal government to disenfranchise voters.
Proponents of woman suffrage used heroic illustrations to drive the movement to success. Shown here is the Official Program – Woman Suffrage Procession, Washington, D.C. March 3, 1913. (Library of Congress) (This event is one of the major events in "SUFFS: The Musical" )
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https://msmagazine.com/2024/11/29/christian-nationalism-project-2025-women-right-to-vote-suffrage/