San Antonio, Texas — All these Christian ladies are trying to do is get inside the Marriott. And yet outside, dark forces abound. On one side of the building, a cluster of women and children in calico are shouting on bullhorns about the “true Jesus.” Across the street, a group in red-cloaked hoods are re-enacting the Handmaid’s Tale to shame them about their anti-abortion agenda. Somewhere on the fringe, people in masks shout about Erika Kirk enabling pedophiles. “I’m not taking that,” says the young woman on the corner next to me as I examine the authentic-Jesus pamphlet. “It’s deception. That’s the devil.”
It’s a crazy world out here but these ladies are purpose-filled and here at the annual Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit for a good time. They won’t let their mood be dampened as they teeter in waves toward the conference center in espadrilles, in cowboy boots and Keds, in sensible wedges and sparkly summer slides, in billowing floral dresses and blouses, cheeks rouged, hair cascading down their backs in barrel curls. They make their way to the corporate safety of the automatic doors, which slide open with a mechanized welcome. Pop music plays as they are at last among thousands of other women who want to be the best, Christ-filled version of themselves.
