When a fascist wannabe tells you who they are and what they want to do, it behooves you to listen and then respond accordingly to prevent them from carrying out their authoritarian style plans. Take Chris Rufo for example who parlayed white grievance against diversity into a campaign against critical race theory which he said was “an existential threat” against “core American values” – by which he meant a threat to white supremacy and white privilege – that must be stopped. (1) Christofascists like Speaker Mike Johnson, a proponent of the New Apostolic Reformation and enemy of democracy, have made it clear that a theocracy is what they want to see in the United States. Thank goodness for the first amendment.

A part of this intended Christofascist hellscape is the strict adherence to the so-called Biblical principles of so-called heteronormative manhood and the “appropriate roles” for women, i.e. “the patriarchy” which seeks to control women and foist all men into a narrow gender essentialist/heterosexual box. To that end, Christofascist Southern Baptist William Wolfe tweeted a well worn formula that he claims would restore America to greatness by remaking the American family. It appears to be lost on Mr. Wolfe that Jesus of Nazareth did not put a lot of store in the so-called family unit (see: Matthew 12:46-49; Mark 3:31-35; Luke 8:19-21) and that family structures, society, and life expectancy in the Ancient Near East were all vastly different from those things in our own time and place. What Wolfe and those of his ilk want is control over women as can plainly be seen in the screenshot of his tweet below.

Take the first item on Wolfe’s list – “no fault divorce”. These laws draw the ire of misogynists like Wolfe because a woman can file for divorce for any reason whatsoever, as can a man. That means a married woman can easily walk away from an unhappy marriage without being forced to say married. No longer can the patriarchy warriors trap women in abusive marriages thus holding them against their will much to the chagrin of people like Steven Crowder who complained about this very thing when his wife filed for divorce. This loss of control according to Wolfe is undermining the American family. Nonsense. It protects people, and in particular women.

Wolfe’s true motivation, controlling women, is clear with the next two items on his list. He wants to make abortion illegal while also reducing contraception. One would think that logically speaking someone who actually cared about the number of abortions would want INCREASED access to contraception, but no, these androcratic authoritarians simply want to control what women do with their bodies. This list tells me that William Wolfe wants to force women to be pregnant and to stay at home as 1950s style homemakers.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while and Wolfe almost does with his next point. Generally speaking, a man should provide for his progeny. The caveat however is that sometimes women, such as those in lesbian relationships and marriages, and other people capable of pregnancy consciously choose not to include the inseminator in the pregnancy, birth, and rearing of the child. Lesbian couples, whom Wolfe would like eradicated, don’t figure into his social vision so he didn’t bother thinking of them at all. The decision about finances should remain the prerogative of the human being who gestates the baby. That person should also have recourse for receiving financial support if they so choose because it does take two people to create a new human life. The agency should go to the pregnant person though and not William Wolfe.

Ending sex education in schools is purity culture nonsense. There is no good that comes from this kind of puritanical thinking. Teens have been having sex since there have been teens and there’s literally a book of erotic poetry about young unwed lovers in the Bible – The Song of Songs, yet proponents of purity culture ignore all of that. Eliminating sex education doesn’t protect kids from sex, it’s simply another measure of control over education which is another big goal of Christofascists. If schools can’t teach sex ed, they can’t teach about LGBTQIA sexuality, or contraception, or sexually transmitted diseases, or consent, or sexual assault – a huge issue in conservative Christian circles. According to the American Society of Pediatrics, sex education helps kids to develop a safe and positive view of sexuality, “to build healthy relationships, and to make informed, safe, positive choices about their sexuality and sexual health.” The AAP also notes that comprehensive sex education actually reduces sexual activity and instances of risky sex. (2) People like William Wolfe want to eliminate this for purposes of control not because it is in the best interests of kids.

The final item on Wolfe’s fascist agenda is to overturn the SCOTUS decision that legalized same-sex marriage. This again is about patriarchal control and gender essentialism. It is about foisting Wolfe’s narrow minded, scientifically illiterate, religious bigotry onto everyone else. Doing so is unconstitutional because it both privileges conservative Christianity over all other faiths which is forbidden by the Constitution, but it also takes away the religious freedom from people whose faith or lack thereof says that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being LGBTQIA and getting married. Consenting adults, regardless of gender or sexuality, should not be subjected to an Iron Age litmus test to be seen as legitimately married.

People like Wolfe are actively doing all that they can to undermine any semblance of American democracy and raze it to the ground. Given free rein, the Christofascists will take over at the local, state, and national levels while turning America into a Christofascist theocracy where the golden rule, love of neighbor, care for the least of these, and the teachings of Jesus in general are thrown into the garbage in favor of white male control. This should make every decent human being shudder and prompt us all to take action to stop this Christian extremist madness that looks absolutely nothing like Jesus.

(1) https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-inquiry/how-a-conservative-activist-invented-the-conflict-over-critical-race-theory

(2) https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/adolescent-sexual-health/equitable-access-to-sexual-and-reproductive-health-care-for-all-youth/the-importance-of-access-to-comprehensive-sex-education/