Republicans placate an evangelical base that’s getting nastier with sexism — even if costs the party women’s votes
“Stand where he tells you to stand, wear what he tells you to wear, and do what he tells you to do.”
This is the wedding night advice offered to brides by Josh Howerton, a senior pastor at Lakepointe Church in Dallas, Texas. Lakepointe, according to the Dallas Morning News, is one of the biggest megachurches in Texas, with over 13,000 people a week attending its main location. The church itself cites a number over 40,000 a week, between its six campuses and online services. Howerton opened Sunday morning services on February 25 with this paean to sexual coercion.
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It’s not just the assault on abortion rights, which they can’t seem to hold back from, despite the resounding unpopularity of the anti-choice stance. It’s that the MAGA base is getting ever more vitriolic with its misogyny. Part of that is due to the more secular dirtbags of the Joe Rogan/Elon Musk variety, who have become such a loud part of the Republican coalition under Trump. But this escalation of boldly misogynist rhetoric is also coming from the evangelicals. Republicans can’t win without keeping those people happy, since the Christian right is where the GOP’s organizing power still mainly resides.
I once heard someone make an argument that has stuck with me (as someone who very much grew up in that world) the Religious Right’s ideas about gender roles is a kink. The whole wives being submissive to husbands, and dressing a certain way, etc. Which would be fine if they didn’t force their kink on their kids, and everyone else. But instead they have decided that their kink is the only right way to live, and insist that anyone who doesn’t share it is sinning and must be made to conform.