AI Is A Gateway To The Welfare State
October 6, 2026 |
Keith Giles
The name “Jezebel” has always been more than a story. It’s a weapon. For centuries it’s been the church’s favorite curse word for women who refuse to submit, for queer folks who disrupt the system, for anyone who dares to speak with power.
In the Hebrew Bible, Jezebel was a foreign queen married to Ahab. likely she was a pre-teen, given by her father as a prize in a peace treaty or land exchange. Yet, as a young girl in a foreign country, in which she did not know the traditions, religion and societal norms, she politically skilled, religiously committed, fiercely loyal to the people of her lineage, and unafraid to stand her ground. For the men who wrote the story, that was enough to make her dangerous. By the time the dust settled, Jezebel had been recast as the seductress, the idolater, the ultimate enemy of God.
But here’s the thing: Jezebel’s actions were no worse than those of the men around her. Male kings made alliances, pushed their own gods, consolidated power — and the text treated them as flawed leaders at worst. Jezebel did the same, but as a woman, she was written into history as a demon.
That ancient smear campaign didn’t stop in Scripture. The church carried it forward, turning “Jezebel” into shorthand for any woman who threatens male control. In U.S. history, the word became a racist stereotype used to justify the exploitation of Black women, labeling them as hypersexual and dangerous.
And today? The word still circulates in pulpits and pews. Women in leadership are called Jezebels. Queer folks with a prophetic edge are branded Jezebels. Anyone who challenges “God’s anointed” men risks being labeled a witch, a seductress, or a destroyer.
Let’s be honest: the cry of “Jezebel!” has always been a cover. A way to silence women who speak. A way to gaslight communities when men in power abuse them. The church says, “Don’t touch the Lord’s anointed” – and in that silence, women are scapegoated, men are shielded, and abuse festers in the shadows.
And in the governmental sphere, women are considered sidelights and props. Have their rights being stripped day-by-day by men who have openly admitted they want women back in the kitchen, having multiple babies, and eschewing higher education and kitty cats.
This isn’t just about one ancient queen. It’s about the women who have been exiled from pulpits, the queer leaders who have been branded as dangerous, the survivors who have been told their protests are demonic. Jezebel’s ghost haunts every church that would rather blame women than confront its own corruption.
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The Jezebel archetype doesn’t just target women in leadership or feminists in politics — it fuels the way many churches talk about trans people today.
Trans women especially are cast as “deceptive,” “seductive,” or “out of order,” echoing the old Jezebel script. To exist openly as trans is to be accused of “corrupting God’s design.” To transition is to be labeled as rebellion against male control.
In sermons and policy debates alike, you’ll hear it: Trans people are Jezebels. They’re painted as infiltrators, destroyers, a threat to “family values.” This is not new. It’s just the same fear of difference, the same need to scapegoat someone who won’t bow to patriarchy’s rules.
Jezebel has become a code word not only to keep women silent, but to erase queer and trans people from God’s image. And in that erasure, real harm is justified — violence ignored, laws passed, lives cut short.
Reclaiming Jezebel, then, is not just about women. It’s about freeing every body and every soul accused of being dangerous simply for existing outside the empire’s script.
And here we are again. Politicians, pastors, and pundits telling us women belong back in the kitchen. Back to making babies. Back to Bible college — not for an education, but to find a husband.
The same fear of Jezebel — fear of women’s autonomy, fear of women’s wisdom, fear of women’s leadership — is alive and well in America’s Christian nationalism.
Reclaiming Jezebel’s story matters because it forces us to confront the ongoing marginalization of women and queer people. If Jezebel is always the villain, then male power is always unquestioned. If Jezebel is always the seductress, then men’s violence is always excused.
But what if Jezebel’s so-called curse is actually a mirror — showing us what patriarchy cannot control, what empire cannot contain?
Jezebel still matters. Because every time her name is hurled like a weapon, it reveals just how fragile male power really is.
This is the political edge of a much bigger story. On my Substack, I’ve written about the spiritual side — including a blessing for today’s Jezebels. And on Evangelicalish, we’re sitting down to wrestle through how Jezebel still shapes the church today.
