Since Saturday of last week, the drumbeat of dissatisfaction within the Republican Party has been growing steadily louder. The level of astigmatism in the Republican Party is nothing less than spectacular, they really need to see a physician about it. No one could have foreseen a slightly fascist sociopath speaking on camera of his caddish treatment of women – which essentially amounted to sexual assault – it would seem.
There were varying reactions, attempts to explain it away or justify it, of varying degrees of patently ridiculous excuse-making. They ranged from “it was ‘locker room talk’ from 11 years ago” (I don’t remember the guys I went to school with casually talking about sexual assault) to “women like a firm hand on the tiller” (I presume this came from men either recently divorced or about to experience their next one). Or, even worse because this might have come from women, “all men talk like that when women aren’t around” (yeah, my minister talks like this all the time when we’re discussing who’s handling the communion table).
None of these excused an act that would cause one to need the services of urgent care if they were to try it on my wife. I’m reduced to confusion as to why any man would excuse, much less defend, these comments. Any married man or the father of a daughter should be demanding the Republican Party to withdraw all support for this candidate and allow the chips to fall where they may, whether that man was a Christian or not. It would be better to lose an election with honor than to lose an election having completely destroyed your credibility on family and marriage policy. You either lose the ability to affect legislation for four years or you lose it for four decades. These guys obviously never played Risk.
And when I say ‘guys’, I mean, the men of the Republican Party. Because in the last 48 hours, we’ve started seeing something interesting start to form, a revolt coming from the Double-X-Chromosome Wing of the Republican Party. From the absolutely phenomenal tweet storm of conservative activist MaryBeth Glenn to the remarks of Christian author Beth Moore, the number of conservative women who are demanding accountability from conservative men is steadily increasing.
It shouldn’t shock us. These men have forgotten the Scriptures that illustrate that women are often called to be the example of honor, integrity, and purity for men, to either encourage – or yes, even shame – them to be better people. When Apostle Peter was writing about how women of God should conduct themselves, he knew there were going to be women out there who would follow the Gospel, even if their husbands didn’t. So, he suggested that women simply live their lives as an example of purity and respect for God, behaving in a manner that suggests poise, wisdom, unflappable grace, and the resolve of a solid mountain (1 Pt. 3:1-7). This conduct would serve as not just an example to strangers she would meet, but also to her own husband, who was busy living a life outside of God.
Why did Peter do this? Because Peter was well aware of the tremendous power and influence a woman holds within her household. There is no misery a man dreads more than discord within the home, because even after a hard day’s work…he still has to go home.
It’s not like women have changed much since that was written. Or men, either.
Consider it this way, you’re a husband and you’ve done something absolutely and profoundly stupid. Something you know your wife is going to object to in no uncertain terms. Men would much rather have a wife who explodes with wrath than one who quietly registers her disappointment and internalizes her hurt and anger, because he will never know from one day to the next if his wife still thinks he is capable of leading or even capable of trust. Worse, he’s going to have to live with a walking, talking example of what he should have done to begin with until he realizes his mistake and does whatever he has to do in order to remedy it. Until he does that, he will never know if he’s been forgiven. He will never know if she doubts or trusts him. He may not care, but if that’s the case, his marriage isn’t going to be successful anyway. Any man with a shred of self-respect or the slightest instinct of self-preservation is going to do whatever he has to do restore his wife’s confidence in him because his simple capacity to lead his home is now in question and the very people who should have rock-solid confidence in him are now in doubt.
That is happening to conservative men in the Republican Party as we speak. The women of their ‘house’ have lost their confidence in the ability of the men to lead. They haven’t been strident, they haven’t been crude, they’ve stood up and said, “you have forsaken us.” For years, conservative women have leapt to the defense of men within their party when they have been unjustly accused of sexism and misogyny, and now they can’t. For the sake of political expediency, conservative men have tossed the concerns and the dignity of the women who have stood by them to the side of the road. I’ll make it up to you, honey, I swear.
I challenge them to look to the wisdom and example of the women around them before their ‘house’ loses all faith and confidence in them and decides to leave.
The Dented Vessel 