Christian Nationalism’s First Item on the Agenda: Repeal Women’s Right to Vote
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.
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.
“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,” Webbon said.
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.
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.
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.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/11/29/christ...-suffrage/
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.
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.
“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,” Webbon said.
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.
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.
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.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/11/29/christ...-suffrage/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
