It was this June that I first learned I had a friend — of nearly twenty years — who no longer believed American women should have the right to vote. Nor should they be tolerated as pilots, pastors, or other professionals. Such arrangements were against the Law of God and women’s nature. After all, “the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is man” (1 Cor. 11:3), women are not to speak in church (1 Cor. 14:34-35), wives must submit to husbands (Col. 3:18), women are too emotional for some tasks, and so on.
Any hope that he was joking to simply rile me — we always debate politics and religion, a sparring between an atheist on the Left and a religious conservative — drained, like the blood from my face, when he called a waitress over to explain his views to her. I watched as Stage 3 was reached. From a private belief one would never admit to something you’d perhaps whisper to a friend to something you say freely to a stranger, directly to the face of a person you would oppress. I would take away your equal rights if given the chance.
There’s a flashback in the third episode of The Handmaid’s Tale — to before rightwing fundamentalists take over the United States, establish biblical law, and obliterate women’s rights — where the female protagonist is in a coffee shop and is startled when a man eyes her and says the quiet part out loud. Horrific thoughts became horrific words, which later became horrific actions, the final stages. I thought about that scene for a long time after leaving that Kansas City bar, having suddenly lived in some version of it.
Equality, freedom, decency, and democracy, I tried to explain, require extending to others the rights you want for yourself. If a man wants to vote, let him favor the same for women. If a Christian or straight person wants to marry or adopt or be served at establishments or not be fired for who they are, extend this to gays. This is a big, diverse society where not everyone is Christian, I tried to explain. There are people of other faiths and nonbelievers. Laws should not be based on Christian doctrine because this country should be for all people, not just Christians. Principles so morally obvious, yet completely impotent in the face of fundamentalist faith.
Equality, freedom, decency, and democracy must simply be sacrificed on the altar of God. His decree is more important than such things. Who cares who’s crushed, if God wills it? Islamic extremists operate under the same rules. Only in 2015 could women in Saudi Arabia vote and run for office in local elections. When the Taliban retook Afghanistan in 2021, they barred women from most jobs and schooling, and established all-male governments. “Men are in charge of women,” after all, says Qur’an 4:34. Fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist Christianity have other obvious similarities as well, such as the oppression of gays and restriction of free, blasphemous speech (think of the Christians pushing for book bans of anything LGBTQ- or witchcraft-related).
Islamic theocracies, the Jewish state of Israel, Christian Europe for fifteen hundred years… Oppression is the natural outcome of religious states, because texts from Iron Age desert tribes call for much oppression. One wonders if slavery will be permitted as well. The New Testament also demands slaves submit to their masters, even harsh ones (Ephesians 6:5, 1 Peter 2:18, Titus 2:9-10). In Luke 12:47-48, Jesus uses the “lashing” and “flogging” of a “slave” (NASB language) to make a point in one of his parables. Why would restoring women’s subservience be ideal in a Christian nation, but not slavery? What’s the difference? Clearly, God wills it. (Whether not wanting to be accused of picking and choosing what to follow in the New Testament or sincerely believing an even more horrific thing, my friend told me that a gentle form of slavery would be acceptable, to replace the welfare state. Again, enslaving Christians or taking away their right to vote would be, one assumes, immoral and unacceptable.)
The encounter shook me in that surreal way that has grown familiar in recent times. A few years ago, an acquaintance of mine, seemingly a normal human being, turned out to be a QAnon nut. Remember how the Democrats were running a global pedophile ring out of a pizza shop? As with conspiracy theorists, you know people who oppose women’s political rights exist, vaguely, out there somewhere — Ann Coulter, Candace Owens, the #RepealThe19th Twitter posters, and so on. Then the moment of horror: No, they’re your friends and family.
I felt a rare pang of despair. That such poison would spread on the Right. That the excesses of the Left may bear some responsibility, extremes stoking and worsening each other, an ideological Newtonian Third Law. Yet most Americans — and most Christians — would be aghast at the idea of abolishing women’s voting or professional rights, if not other things. And despite many recent setbacks, this is an increasingly liberal, secular society. That in itself may evoke a backlash (note that eliminating female voters would ensure Republican rule, another motivation here), but is a trend likely to continue.
We’ve seen recently how democracy survives only if people care more about democracy than remaining in office, than power. Equality and freedom survive only if we care more about them than things like the awful edicts of ancient holy books.
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