There’s an archetype in our cultural memory that has long been the target of much comedic ridicule: the church lady.

The image that comes to mind is a judgmental, nagging, uptight, hard-nosed woman who lacks a certain fashion sense. She works in the church nursery, teaches Sunday school, and is constantly wringing her hands about what kids these days are up to. She is overly concerned about tattoos, purple hair, spaghetti straps, and rock and roll. She is a wet rag about anything that seems trendy, exciting, or fun.

The church lady trope has appeared in television shows, Hollywood movies, and even had a recurring appearance on Saturday Night Live.

While there is no doubt that women like these do exist, the church lady figure presented in popular culture is ultimately a caricature. It is the unsympathetic portrait of sturdy, scrupulous Bible-believing women constructed by an unbelieving, leftist entertainment industry.

The church lady knows that fashions are fleeting, and that trendiness is a poor foundation on which to make wise decisions or build a happy, healthy life.

Behind a sometimes stern facade, real-life church ladies can possess a great deal of wisdom. The church lady knows that fashions are fleeting, and that trendiness is a poor foundation on which to make wise decisions or build a happy, healthy life. Their concerns with rock and roll and purple hair are not with drumbeats and hues, but rather the anti-authoritarian, self-worshiping dogmas that sometimes lurk behind them.

Going back further, church lady concern has been justified on several fronts. Church ladies were right to question the wisdom of receding hemlines, unsupervised teenage parties, and Elvis Presley thrusting his hips at crowds of screaming girls. These women saw the trajectory of the culture and were correctly alarmed. These phenomena were the beginnings of the Sexual Revolution that has had pernicious consequences for American life: fatherlessness, nihilism, irresponsibility, and the like.

If it’s true that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, then our nation needs many more church lady hands, as well as the faithful churchmen that help form them. Future generations hang in the balance.

In addition to bestowing caution and wisdom, church ladies have birthed, fed, and clothed generations of Americans. They have prayed countless prayers, baked innumerable pies, and educated millions of children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and His created world.

After French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville famously journeyed through America to discern the source of America’s power and prosperity, he concluded that the magic was in its church ladies. In Democracy in America, he wrote:

As for me, I shall not hesitate to say it: although in the United States the woman scarcely leaves the domestic circle and is in certain respects very dependent within it, nowhere does her position seem higher to me; and now that I approach the end of this book where I have shown so many considerable things done by Americans, if one asked me to what do I think one must principally attribute the singular prosperity and growing force of this people, I would answer that it is to the superiority of its women.

De Tocqueville formed this perception during the height of the Second Great Awakening, an era of fervent Protestant belief and robust church attendance.

In present-day America, the church lady is a vanishing species. In 2022, 29% of Americans said they had no religion, up from 5% in 1972. In 2020, less than half of Americans belonged to a church, down from the 70% figure that held steadily for decades.

“Our new belief system is a blend of left-wing political orthodoxy, intersectional feminism, self-optimization, therapy, wellness, astrology, and Dolly Parton.” This belief system is no recipe for happiness or health. . .

In the place of Christian convictions, many women today are under the influence of something else entirely. As one writer put it, “Our new belief system is a blend of left-wing political orthodoxy, intersectional feminism, self-optimization, therapy, wellness, astrology, and Dolly Parton.” This belief system is no recipe for happiness or health, but it is one that leads purple-haired preschool teachers to coach children on how to choose their gender identity. Modern religion’s emphasis on non-judgment has created a generation of women lacking in sound judgment.

If it’s true that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, then our nation needs many more church lady hands, as well as the faithful churchmen that help form them. Future generations hang in the balance.