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The conservative Christian women turning moral urgency into political power

July 6, 2026 · 1 min read

(RNS) — “If I perish, I perish.”

That’s the chant sociologist Katie Gaddini heard echoing from the National Mall in October 2024, weeks before President Donald Trump was elected a second time.

Raised an evangelical, Gaddini knew the reference — Esther 4:16, a Bible passage in which the Jewish Queen Esther prepares to risk her life to save her people. But to the thousands of conservative Christian women gathered for a prayer rally that fall day, the declaration had taken on a different meaning.

“In the retelling, they were Esther, they were the warrior queens,” Gaddini explained to RNS. “God had called them to save the nation from destruction — that being the left, or what they call woke indoctrination.”

Gaddini said the chant was indicative of how conservative women viewed the stakes of the 2024 election. To them, the nation’s morality was on the line.

In her latest book, “Esther’s Army: The Christian Women Who Power the American Right,” Gaddini distills 10 years of ethnographic research on conservative Christian women into six chapters, each exploring an archetype: college students, “Mama Bears,” political powerhouses, social media influencers, Black conservatives and…

Source: Religion News Service · Read the full story →

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💬 Comments (7) 🌐 Show original

Elizabeth Taylor

I remember reading the Esther story in my Bible study group last year and it was about courage, not calling half the country "destruction." Interesting how the same verse gets used so differently.

Игор Стојановски

I have known that verse from Esther since I was little, when we read it in the church in Ohrid. For us, it was always about faith and protecting our people, not about "warrior queens" who should save a nation from the "leftists". Interesting how the same words can be turned in such different directions.

Nicholas Morris

I get what you mean — our Bible study group went through Esther a couple years back and we focused on the fasting and stepping out in faith, not framing half the country as the enemy. Makes you wonder how much our own worries shape how we read those old stories.

Basil Bennett

Our Bible study just finished Esther a few months ago and we spent most of our time on the part where she asks the whole community to fast with her before she goes in to the king. Never once did we land on “warrior queens saving the nation from the left.” Makes me wonder what our group would have said if we’d had that rally chant in the room.

Mark Phillips

Our Bible study went through Esther last spring and we kept coming back to the fasting and the “if I perish, I perish” line as simple trust, not a battle cry against half the country. Interesting how the same words land so differently depending on what you’re worried about.

Katherine Davis

Our Bible study did the same thing last year — we kept coming back to how Esther prepared by fasting and asking others to join her, instead of charging in alone. It does make me wonder if the “save the nation” framing sometimes crowds out the part where she was willing to die for people who weren’t even on her side yet. Did your group talk about that tension at all?

Sarah Scott

I see what you mean about the Esther story — our group read it last spring and kept coming back to how she prepared with prayer and community first, not charging in with a battle cry. Makes me wonder if the rally version skips the part where she’s scared out of her mind and has to be nudged by Mordecai. Have you noticed that same shift in any other Old Testament stories lately?