Lesson 9: Project 2025
I’ve received far more responses to this series than any other in 20 years. Almost everyone in the past week believes we must prepare for a very threatening future.
Indeed, a good beginning is trying to understand what is going on. Once we grasp that, we can ask how Jesus’ teachings guide us.
With that in mind, I read Project 2025. That is quite a task—over 800 pages detail precisely what the next conservative president should do in every executive agency and department. I came away convinced that Trump’s administration would attempt to implement this program and that this would indeed place us in difficult times.
Others think the project promotes Christian values. After all, it maintains that one of the primary roles of government is to strengthen the building blocks of the community, and one of these is the church. The first of the four principles permeating the project is to “restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.”
The document assumes this refers to the traditional American nuclear family: a mother, a father, and children. Early on, Project 2025 claims the father’s absence is the primary problem damaging our American society. All of the prescribed programs supposedly lead to restoring his presence in the family.
It is also evident that the project follows a MAGA pattern that seeks to return to the past by destroying elements of the present without offering creative ways to build the future. You strengthen the church by weakening the government. You restore the family by dismantling the administrative state. You recover fathers by canceling government programs that support single mothers, such as Head Start. You protect children by outlawing abortion and dropping courses that teach sexuality from public schools. Over and over again, the project defines its goal as defeating Woke Society.
The gist of the project is captured in a sentence calling for “eliminating the terms sexual orientation, gender identity, diversity, equity, inclusion, gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender sensitivity, abortion, reproductive health, and reproductive rights from all legislation for it removes the freedom of the Americans to their First Amendment rights.”
By the time you finish reading, you realize the entire document is really based on the fourth principle, “secure our God-given rights to live freely, what our constitution calls the blessings of liberty.” In this case, freedom assures every individual can pursue happiness however he chooses.
I used “he” because Project 2025 would not only allow male supremacy to reign but, in many ways, promote it. The bulk of responses I received last week were from women who detected their dignity was threatened. The project defines their primary role as mothers in the home. Too often in modern society, this makes women sexual objects, someone’s wife whose best quality is physical beauty. This berates the four out of the ten outstanding women in my weekly discussion class who never gave birth to children.
The first thing that jumps out at me when I use Jesus’ teachings to critique Project 2025 is the need to be realistic. Jesus opened his followers’ eyes to whom the powerful Roman Empire and Jewish Society oppressed, demonized, and ignored. His ministry was unsatisfied with the present but looked to create a better future rather than retreating into the past. He reached out to serve and protect those in need. He befriended the poor, the outsider, the widow and orphan, the single mother.
This challenges and inspires us to stand with and protect the weak and vulnerable threatened by Project 2025’s policies. Rather than eliminating programs that presently serve the needy, we should promote new ones that ensure all have enough and are treated with dignity.
Frontline Study is an online discussion of the scriptures, inviting you to share your comments and your reflections on each weekly topic. Simply click on the "Add Reply" text at the top of each post to see what others have posted and to add your thoughts.