Project 2025's War on Women
A personal story from my upbringing in Christian Nationalism (Scroll to the end to listen)
For those who’ve never experienced the world of Christian Nationalism, this week may have seemed hyperbolic. Surreal. Too much.
I wish.
Many American women have lived in a world where anything was possible, especially if they’re around my age. Once Roe became law, women were told they could get educations. They were encouraged to go for their dreams. The feminist movement assured women they could have a fulfilling career while being a good mom.
That world may have been happening for women in the 1970s and 80s, but I didn’t grow up in that world.
Not to brag, but I graduated at the top of my Christian high school class. Multiple recognizable universities tried to recruit me. I was always an ambitious, motivated student who enjoyed learning, but nobody in my Christian Nationalist orbit encouraged me to pursue a career-track degree.
People in church and school leadership positions did take time to mentor me. While cleaning out old papers recently, I found a letter from a former pastor. In it, he pointed out my gift for piano and encouraged me to pursue the study of music so that I might be a helpmeet to my future pastor husband in his ministry.
My youth pastor repeatedly told me the only worthwhile thing to pursue in college was full-time Christian service. And the only place for a woman to obtain an advanced degree was a Christian college, because there I would find the “strong Christian husband” who could “handle” me.
I won an award from the local Rotary Club for being class valedictorian. My parents’ response: “You know we don’t expect YOU to be anything, Andra.” My mom had to guilt my dad into attending the banquet. When we met my principal outside, he said, “Don’t expect anyone in there to be impressed with you. These people hate our church.”
Every accomplishment that did not lead to me marrying a Good Christian Husband and producing as many Good Christian Babies as God gave me was met with admonitions, guilt trips, and raging disapproval.
Maybe those injustices built the backbone I have today. But I don’t want other American girls to be forced to build their backbones this way. I know how many times those backbones break under the crushing weight of unattainable Christian Nationalist expectations.
I’m not sharing stories from 100 years ago. It was the mid-1980s, not the dark ages. But this is the world Christian Nationalist Republicans are determined to drag women back to. Many red state women and girls already wake up in this world, even if they haven’t realized it. Or maybe they have but don’t grasp how Christian Nationalists have weaponized religion to flip the script of their lives.
I’m Childless Because of a Far-Right South Carolina Church by Andra Watkins at Newsweek - from June 2023
In closing, I reshare one of my first somewhat viral Substack notes. I talked about how contraception was viewed in my Christian Nationalist orbit and what that did to me.
That is a heart-rending account, Andra. You make it real for people who have never experienced that reality. I'm so glad you've come out healthy -- and angry -- from the ordeal. I do have a question, which you are under no obligation to answer: Are you able to maintain a relationship with your parents?
Ok, I get this and I am going to offer a perspective or some comments that are sort of in the theme at least in the theme of the project 2025 plan for women. JD Vance is talking about keeping women in the home, out of the professional workforce, taking care of their families, having children, etc. Yet I note that his particular family organization departs dramatically from that. His wife is an accomplished woman, she has a law degree, and until this summer when she resigned, she worked for a prestigious law firm. Also, she was a registered Democrat until he ran for the Senate in 2022. I think when JD Vance goes out on the stump and when he is interviewed by reporters, he needs to be asked about that. He needs to be asked why his family doesn’t square with the picture he is painting of what the American family should be looking like in the future, the family that looks more like the family of 100 years ago. Any thoughts?