Dear Friend,
Over a century after suffragists secured women’s right to vote, some religious extremists are suggesting the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution should be repealed.
Although the patriarchal theology of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) is undoubtedly still fringe, it has devotees in very high places. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a CREC church and, earlier this month, shared a video in which CREC founder Doug Wilson characterized women as “the kind of people that people come out of” and advocated for household voting.
Under this system, as Wilson explains it, “The vote is cast by the head of the household, the husband and father, because we’re patriarchal and not egalitarian.” CREC podcaster Joshua Haymes has said, “There is an incredibly strong biblical, historical, anthropological case for denying women the right to vote.” And another CREC pastor, Brooks Potteiger, insists this “is not some radical idea,” but the way things were “when the founders founded America.”
Of course, at that time, chattel slavery was also the way things were. Women couldn’t own property. Smoke enemas and mercury were medical marvels. And the lightbulb wouldn’t be invented for another century. To suggest this is either a time or electoral model the U.S. should return to is not only absurd but dangerous.
Wilson’s disdain for the 19th Amendment is not some tangential or overblown aside. Patriarchal, anti-woman beliefs are central to the theology he preaches and to the Christian Nationalist worldview. And we must remember the goal of religious nationalism is to codify these extreme beliefs into law and impose them on all of society.
Wilson’s influence on the federal government extends beyond Hegseth to “numerous evangelicals who will be present both in and around the Trump Administration,” including Russ Vought, a leading architect of Project 2025 and head of the Office of Management and Budget.
When pressed about Hegseth’s association with Wilson, the Secretary’s office neither denied it nor distanced him. Instead, they confirmed he “very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson’s writings and teachings.” And Wilson, too, took Hegseth’s repost as an endorsement: “He was, in effect… saying, ‘Amen.’”
That high-ranking cabinet members are comfortable openly aligning themselves with a person who calls women’s suffrage “a bad idea” should alarm civil rights advocates and everyone who values secular democracy. Religious misogyny — like other dogma-based bigotries — is no longer confined to church pulpits but seeping into the offices and laws that govern every aspect of our lives.
And for such an antiquated ideology, it sure seems to be trending. Earlier this week, Joel Webbon, another high-profile, CREC-affiliated Christian Nationalist, declared that women “shouldn’t be speaking [in public]. Period.” Around the same time, Charlie Kirk told newly-engaged billionaire pop star Taylor Swift: “Reject feminism, submit to your husband, you’re not in charge.” Even some women are echoing this rhetoric, including one candidate for Arizona State Senate who previously said, “I don’t know if a female should be in office.”
Because this ideology is cloaked in religious belief, criticism is all too easily dismissed as “anti-Christian.” But make no mistake: These calls to roll back women’s rights are not just personal or harmless theological musings. They are a direct threat to our democracy.
And it isn’t just women. Wilson and his acolytes don’t even pretend to support equality for any non-acolytes — not Muslims, Hindus, Jews, nor any non-Christians or nonbelievers.
That’s why American Atheists will continue exposing the extremists trying to drag our country and everyone in it backward. And we’ll keep fighting to defend the rights of all Americans. Because suffragists fought too hard, and this nation has come too far, to allow a fringe few to erase centuries of progress.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum,
Melina Cohen
Director of Strategic Communications & Policy Engagement
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