The Daughters Will Rise Up

why the current feminist backlash fuels my hope for the future

Lately, I’ve been reading

Tia Levings

’ memoir A Well Trained Wife, which is both horrific and oddly nostalgic for someone raised in evangelical culture. There are so many moments I recognize, relate to, and remember. Much of the violent theology she describes is etched in my memory, and haunts me as I watch it unfold through the chaotic political upheaval that is happening now.

Like Levings, I was raised within a dominionist worldview — a subsect of Christianity which openly craves the power to bend government to the will of God as part of a righteous crusade. They want the law to reflect their interpretation of biblical living, and there is a frightening amount of money funneled toward training young men to enter politics with dominionist end goals in mind. When Christians with dominionistic beliefs say they want America to turn back to God, they don’t mean by choice or through democratic processes. They mean by enforcing a theocracy by any means necessary.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

My grandmother has a handwritten note on her refrigerator that reads: When there is moral rot within a nation, its government topples easily. But wise and knowledgeable leaders bring stability. - Proverbs 28:2. Beside it, she has taped a printout photograph of President Trump. To her, this Bible verse and man go hand in hand — though not in the glaringly obvious way.

For many evangelicals, especially dominionists, the toppling of government isn’t something to be avoided but celebrated. It is the step that must happen in order to elevate the “wise and knowledgeable” to their rightful positions of power. The destruction of democracy does not matter to dominionist Christians, so long as they are the ones who get to fill the void with their own leaders; patriarchs who will bring us back to being “one nation, under God.” All of this is part of their plan.

The breakneck pace of democratic erosion is dizzying, but the fact that Trump and co. are making good on their terrible promises is not a surprise. These past few weeks of government toppling have been a gut punch, but they’ve also been a long time coming. The movement to take our nation back to God by force has been in the works for decades, as

Kristin Du Mez

outlines in great detail throughout her book Jesus and John Wayne.

In it Du Mez unearths the theology of R.J. Rushdoony, a prominent evangelical who advocated for strict adherence to biblical law in the 1960s and 1970s and believed in America being founded as a Christian nation (which is the old dog whistle dominionists use to justify retaking the US government by force). Rushdoony wanted to see a world where ‘once independent and feminist women’ would be humbled and ‘seek the protection and safety of a man.’ Make no mistake: Rushdoony was not an outlier then, and he is not now.

While there is a lot of (well-deserved) focus on the broligarchy takeover, the dominionist aims of Project 2025 are marching forward unimpeded as well, urging us not toward the past but a future far worse than many of us would dare to dream. It will not be enough for them to strip women of their autonomy: to outlaw abortion and birth control, to remove us from higher education, to strip away no-fault divorce, to force us from the job market. They want women to be punished, humbled, cowed into submission.

It’s a terrifying prospect, but not one which has thrown me into complete despair.¹ I know the submission they desire is impossibly far from their reach. I see how the immoveable barrier of female rage stands in their way. Do I think horrible things will come to pass? Unfortunately, yes. But do I think dominionists will succeed in achieving their goal of complete cultural overhaul? Not by a long shot. Not even close.

I think this is their last golden moment, and it will be fleeting. The reins of power will slip from their greasy hands, not only in government but in their own homes as well. Because these are not wise and knowledgeable leaders — these are men who know in their fearful hearts that their days of authority are numbered. Men who are too proud and ignorant to realize that the death knell will be tolled by their daughters, the ones they cannot force into submission despite their desperate shows of force. I know this because I’ve seen the daughters rise up time and time and time again. I know because I am one of them. And so are many of you.²

Even in their own twisted theology, these small angry men know that submission cannot be forced. Hierarchical submission is supposed to be given freely and joyfully — and the more they try to “train” submission into us, the further they drive the nail into their own coffin. Not all women will rebel, certain that the rewards of heaven are worth this hell on earth — but many of us will. Many of us have. Religious extremists are turning the tide on themselves, birthing the very people that will ultimately destroy them.

A friend of mine (who wasn’t indoctrinated into patriarchal Christianity) recently noted that some of the most progressive people she knows were raised in the church. “As far as I can tell, it’s the most direct pipeline to radical feminism.” I laughed because she was right: in some ways it’s easier to stumble into feminist rage in the church, because it doesn’t try to hide its disdain for women.³ Our subjugation is the point. They shine a spotlight on inequity like it’s a beautiful work of art. God’s design. A masterpiece.

Patriarchal Christianity’s inability to see why we don’t find their vision of the future appealing is part of why church membership continues to sharply decline en masse, despite the “quivers full” of children being born within extremist religious families. Even when patriarchs batten down the hatches with homeschooling and homesteading and near-complete removal from the secular world, the mere knowledge that there exists another way of life is enough to plant the seed of hope. Of rebellion.

I do not want to dismiss the damage that will be done by dominionist men, only to say that it will not be lasting. It will not be the end. This moment of feminist backlash is a swing of the pendulum, brutal and breathtaking but readying us to return with a force that will bowl them over. This is not our end. It is the beginning of theirs.

1. Make no mistake, despair and depression are clawing at me still. Executive function is at an all time low! I cried yesterday because I can’t get myself to make the damn bed. I am not all fight, all the time, but I refuse to let the bastards grind me down completely.

2. I would very much like to know if this phrasing made you sing next part of the “Father Abraham” song in your head. Or if I am the only truly broken one here…

3. Scroll to the bottom of this post for a screenshot of my actual 6th grade diary when I was attending my evangelical Christian school