Christian Nationalism: Men Work; Women Mother
Project 2025 makes patriarchal gender roles the bedrock of the conservative Department of Labor (Scroll to the end to listen)
Last week, paid subscribers took a deep dive into how Christian Nationalism facilitates patriarchal gender roles by learning more about my early trauma. This week builds upon that early Christian Nationalist programming.
Today, we dive into Project 2025โs Department of Labor section to expound upon those Christian Nationalist talking points. Because Project 2025โs labor foundation is the Christian Nationalist definition of a family.
+ One man
+ one unrelated woman
+ as many children as God gives them
= A FAMILY
Jonathan Berry authored Project 2025โs Department of Labor Mission Statement.
For background, heโs a lawyer who clerked for Samuel Alito, lover of throwing his wife under the bus for flying far-right flags outside their homes and spewing Christo-fascist talking points to undercover reporters. Berry served as Chief Counsel in 45โs transition, as well as several other high-profile roles during 45โs administration. And he worked on the team that saw Neil Gorsuch confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.
Project 2025, page 581
MISSION STATEMENT At the heart of The Conservative Promise is the resolve to reclaim the role of each American worker as the protagonist in his or her own life and to restore the family as the centerpiece of American life. The role that labor policy plays in that promise is twofold: Give workers the support they need for rewarding, well-paying, and self-driven careers, and restore the family-supporting job as the centerpiece of the American economy. The Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis, has always recognized fruitful work as integral to human dignity, as service to God, neighbor, and family. And Americans have long been known for their work ethic. While it is primarily the cultureโs responsibility to affirm the dignity of work, our federal labor and employment agencies have an important role to play by protecting workers, setting boundaries for the healthy functioning of labor markets, and ultimately encouraging wages and conditions for jobs that can support a family.
Letโs break down the Christian Nationalist elements of each highlighted phrase.
Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life.
Christian Nationalists believe the Bible defines distinct marital roles for men and women.
The husband is the head of the home. From the Focus on the Family website (not linking to them): โThe husband holds the role of spiritual leader. Heโs called to initiate spiritual investments and is overall responsible for the spiritual health of his family. Husbands are called to be servant leaders, which means they make the welfare of their wives and families a priority.โ
Wives must submit to their husbands. Again from Focus on the Family (again not linking to them): โA wifeโs role, on the other hand, is to respect and honor her husband. Sheโs meant to work alongside her husband to make their marriage succeed while allowing him to take the lead, especially when the two are in clear conflict.โ
This is the only definition of a family that Project 2025 and Fascist Republicans recognize. When they talk about restoring the family, they mean THIS kind of family.
Give workers the support they need for rewarding, well-paying, and self-driven careers, and restore the family-supporting job as the centerpiece of the American economy.
The family-supporting job.
Not family-supporting job(s) plural. Because in the world of Christian Nationalism, men work family-supporting jobs; regardless of their talents or ambitions, womenโs role is to support the family not through a profession, career or bread-winning job. First and foremost, they are to submit and have as many children as God gives them.
Fascist Republicans underpin their labor policies with the Christo-fascist notion that men work outside the home, and women stay home and mother children.
The Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis, has always recognized fruitful work as integral to human dignity, as service to God, neighbor, and family.
Berry references these verses in Genesis without citing them directly:
Genesis 1:26 KJV
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis 1:28 KJV
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 2:15 KJV
And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
The Judeo-Christian tradition Berry references builds as follows:
Man is given dominion over every living thing; woman is not mentioned in relation to dominion.
Even after God creates Eve and grants dual dominion (reinforcing this as specifically biblical), Christian Nationalists interpret Genesis 1:28 as male dominion. The womanโs role is to have and mother children.
In the world of Christian Nationalism, God gave the man charge of tending the Garden of Eden. Work and providing for his family were male jobs.
Jobs that can support a family.
The entire Department of Labor section of Project 2025 is built upon the idea that the man works a job to support his family, while the woman stays home, has children, and mothers those kids.
As we dive further into Project 2025โs Department of Labor proposals this week, we will return to its Christian Nationalist underpinnings. Where men work and support families. Woman stay home, submit to husbands, and mother as many children as God gives them. Welcome to the world Fascist Republicans want to force on every American.
For newer readers, todayโs Monday Refresher (on Tuesday today due to the Labor Day break) links to other newsletters that cover economic and labor topics:
Calls to Action to Keep P2025 From Ruining YOUR Life
Check your voter registration or register to vote: I Will Vote
Support Democratic campaigns directly in competitive races: Blue24
Support earlywormโs 2024 Giving Guide: earlyworm
Report a Project 2025 incident: Not On Our Watch
Mail postcards to swing-state voters: Postcards to Swing States or Activate America
This is a particularly good example of where understanding their language makes a difference (which of course is what you are here to translate for). It's always a two track message; Christian Nationalists know exactly what they mean when they say these things, but there's room for plausible deniability to everyone else, to claim that it's really just a 'normal', 'mainstream' message. Although they cite the bible so heavily that deniability is not quite so plausible in my opinion. That's why we point to their actions in government; those demonstrate what the words mean such that there should be no doubt.
I'm no expert on the Bible or what gets termed "Judeo-Christianism," but I do know a bit about translation, and the King James version is known to have fallen into some traps. For example, the words "man" and "mankind." Everett Fox did a "literal" translation of the Pentateuch about 30 years ago (Schocken Bible). He translated the passage in question as:
God said:
Let us make humankind, in our image, according to our likeness!
They shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, animals, all the earth, and all crawling things that crawl about on the earth!
There's a big difference between the ambiguous "man" and "humankind." In the latter reading "they" refers to both men and women. Not that Judaism paid much attention to such fine points, a minyan consisting of the requisite number of men. Don't get me started on Orthodox Judaism.
Then there's the matter of "dominion." I don't know the Hebrew (Fox certainly does), and I have no idea what the word actually meant when originally written. Translating ancient texts is tricky, first because you can't ask the authors what they meant, and second because we are trapped in our own language habits. A lot of mischief can be done in the space between the two.