Straight White American Jesus Reign of Error 007: Birth Control, Bathrooms & Biblical Patriarchy: The War on Gender and Reproduction
Mar 5, 2026
Sarah Jones, an award-winning New York Magazine writer who covers religion and national politics, joins to unpack the assault on transgender rights and how laws rewriting IDs fit a long Christian right strategy. Short takes cover the rise of bathroom bans, anti–birth control rhetoric and pronatalism, spiritual warfare language in state politics, and the uneasy fusion of evangelical patriarchy with new-age conspiracism.
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Prayer And Misgendering As Political Spiritual Warfare
- Misgendering and 'we were holding you up in prayer' are expressions of spiritual warfare and hierarchical control within Christian right politics.
- Jones explains these acts function to shame opponents and affirm that legislators are doing 'God's' work in a vengeful eschatology.
Trans Rights Threaten Evangelical Gender Hierarchy
- Anti-trans politics functions as both a wedge issue and a core battle to defend a fixed, binary gender hierarchy central to evangelical power structures.
- Jones argues if gender is flexible, the theological and material basis for male dominance unravels.
Chipping Away Strategy Targets Marriage And Rights Long Term
- Anti-trans campaigns are part of a long-term strategy to eventually challenge gains like Obergefell by chipping away via 'common sense' policies.
- Posner and Jones link this tactic to earlier anti-Roe approaches that rebranded goals as practical concerns.
