How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate’s staunchest supporters? These are among the questions acclaimed historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez asks in Jesus and John Wayne, which delves beyond facile headlines to explain how white evangelicals … evangelicals have brought us to our fractured political moment. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Donald Trump in fact represents the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values.Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism, or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the role of culture in modern American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals may not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex–and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical popular culture is teeming with muscular heroes–mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done.Trump, in other words, is hardly the first flashy celebrity to capture evangelicals’ hearts and minds, nor is he the first strongman to promise evangelicals protection and power. Indeed, the values and viewpoints at the heart of white evangelicalism today–patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community–are likely to persist long after Trump leaves office.A much-needed reexamination, Jesus and John Wayne explains why evangelicals have rallied behind the least-Christian president in American history and how they have transformed their faith in the process, with enduring consequences for all of us.
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Politically, Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s new book, Jesus and John Wayne, offers an extremely important―and underrated―insight into why white evangelicals have fallen so deeply in love with Donald Trump. Personally, and for all of us who lived through this history, the book surfaces deep continuities between different people, events, movements, and trends that we may not have noticed. It is a scholarly work of history, but it is so well written that it promises to be popular with a wide audience. Highly recommended, especially at this critical moment in religious, cultural, and political history.
Read 8.29.2021
GREAT. GOOGLY. MOOGLY.
A very good friend of mine [who grew up, as I did, in an evangelical church, but as a PK] saw this book, sent me the link and then DARED me to read it. Being the radical that I am, I took her up on that challenge and then spent five days remembering why I left the church and re-remembering the trauma I [and many others that I know] have suffered at the hands of men within the church who were just “asserting their God-given dominance and putting me in my place”. THIS part of the reading experience was not fun at all, but it was a good reminder as to why I left the church and why I was so adamant in my non-support of the Big Orange Idol[even when people told me I was going to hell because of it and when people within my own church called me a heretic and blasphemous]. The book really delves into the history of the church preaching the toughening up of men, the making of Jesus into an “ass-kicking” man and how emotion and empathy are best left to the womenfolk, as feeling the feels can only “lead to a life of homosexuality” [insert HUGE eye roll here]. It shows how they took John Wayne [in reality, not a very nice person] and made him [and others after him] the poster-child of what masculinity is supposed to be [regardless of his lifestyle and actual belief system] and just built on that over the years, to the point that masculinity became misogyny and abuse and the church is left bereft and the very sad thing is that they are so very unaware of it. They are so busy defending why they are doing what they are doing [and so busy both trying to hide the scandals that continue to plague them and keep moving pastors around without disclosing truths to the new congregations about previous issues], that they have become completely blind to the Pharisee behavior they have now 100% adopted. They think God will be so proud of them for standing up for Flag and Country and have missed how God must be weeping at the complete ignorance of it all.
To see just how far back this all goes is what really blew my mind [though, since I was a teen in the 80’s, I shouldn’t have been surprised] and just how the misogyny and the encouragement of said misogyny and patriarchal domination [to the point of women being told it is their fault if their husband strays <--YES, this happens. A very good friend of mine, who's husband was a pastor addicted to porn, was told that he wouldn't have that problem if she was being a better wife and meeting his needs in the bedroom. Didn't matter that he's had that problem since he was a teen - LONG before they knew each other. It is always easier to blame the wife than to look at the actual problem head-on - this book brings that out over and over and so much of those sections broke my heart over again in remembering things from the past] and the encouragement of abuse of wives when they don't toe the line [I'm looking at you John Piper] doesn't just exist in today's evangelical church, but flourishes and thrives. Which is extremely disheartening. Then there is the blatant Nationalism that has invaded the church as a whole - one of sections in the book talking about this quoted a pastor [I don't remember which one, but when I buy the book and reread it {BECAUSE THAT ABSOLUTELY HAS TO HAPPEN, WITH A PEN AND HIGHLIGHTER}, I will add the name to this review] saying that it wasn't nationalism, it was CHRISTIAN nationalism and that made a HUGE difference [I may have sprained my eyes at that one]. Ummm, no? No it does not. If anything, it makes it worse. Because you have taken something and made it your God and completely taken Jesus out of the equation [and I am not E V E N going to go into how 98% of evangelicals don't use their Bible as a tool to teach them about Immigration, hence then being able to be AGAINST refugees...smh]. This was a tough read on so many levels. I know that not *ALL* churches are like this. But I can say that a good majority of people who are in church in my town think this way [including the church I have been in since I was 8 years old] and I watched churches defy Pandemic protocols, fight both the vaccine and mask mandates [regardless that we are told explicitly in the Bible to love our neighbors as ourselves], loudly proclaim that Donald Trump had the election stolen from him and hold rallies proclaiming just that [AT THEIR CHURCHES], that the flag and national anthem mean more than Black Lives - I could go on and on and on. I don't think I will ever go back to church, even though I miss so many aspects of it. I miss the fellowship and the true teaching of Jesus and the gospel, the love and caring of others [I was so blessed to be in an amazing church during my time in NY and I will never forget all I learned there - being there helped me grow as a person and in what I believed and helped me gain the strength I need now to stand against those who would continue to shun me and call me names simply for believing people matter and that the church was never meant to be political] and just being in a place that often brought me so much peace. But I learned that that place also brought great pain and that I could find the peace at home. So that is where I stay. I can find God here just as well as I could in any "church" building, but that doesn't mean I don't miss what I have known for my whole life. My faith has not changed, but my belief system that the church has set up and how it was drilled into me from the time I can remember has and I have finally realized that I have complete peace about that. I can now worship and believe and love Jesus and be free in that. This book made me realize that. So maybe all the pain I am feeling from what I read is going to be worth it after all.