How Evangelical Women Found a False Savior in Trump

She does not believe that there are families without financial safety nets or access to the same resources she has. She is taught that every gift, including financial solvency, comes from God, and that God is merciful and just. Proverbs 31 reminds her to “look well to the ways of her household,” and she does. Therefore, any real financial struggles must come down to an individual’s lack of responsibility, accountability, and resourcefulness. She, like all her friends, worships at the altar of good housewifery and frugal stewardship.

Even if she wanted to, she has little freedom to move beyond the confines of her prescribed life. She’s been raised in the prescription, steeped in it. If she becomes discontented with housework and raising wholesome children, she is reminded of the scripture that urges, “Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart,” which can be translated, “If you’re unhappy, it’s because you’re not focused enough on God.”

If she is unsatisfied with her marriage, she is warned against allowing any messages from Hollywood (Fifty Shades of Grey, Magic Mike, the Twilight series, even Pride and Prejudice) to affect her opinion of what her husband should be, and she is told repeatedly to pray for him and be satisfied with him. Her husband is a decent man, a good man. She has said these words frequently, to herself and in confidence to her friends, throughout her marriage, especially when she’s frustrated by his distance, his lack of demonstrated feeling toward her. She occasionally attends women’s Bible studies where everyone has the same story, where each woman is frustrated by her decent, distant husband, by his belief that his role is solely to provide, that she should need little beyond that.

She wants greater intimacy, but she knows God didn’t make men that way, and that He made her this way so that she would seek greater intimacy with Jesus, rely on Him for her emotional needs. She tries not to need more from her husband, but ultimately, it is the topic of nearly every argument they have, and she rarely wins, so those arguments have decreased in frequency over the years. Sermons of submission from American pulpits have been replaced with one-liners: “Let your husband lead your family.” “Wait on God and trust His timing.” “Be a warrior, not a worrier.” She is angry with women who abandon their post, because she cannot.

Proverbs admonishes that “favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain.” She knows this is true, but only in heaven. She compares herself constantly to the women around her. This is reinforced by the misogyny of American culture. On Earth she’ll never meet the standard. But, unlike unsaved women, she has been given the answer, the medicine, for her gaping self-loathing wound: Jesus. Hillary Clinton’s pride in her own accomplishments, her self-confidence, makes her unrelatable to the white evangelical woman.

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