Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation - Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

By Kristin Kobes Du Mez

  • Release Date: 2020-06-23
  • Genre: U.S. History
4.5 Score: 4.5 (From 160 Ratings)

Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America.

Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked 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 acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might 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 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.

Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.

Reviews

  • Timely

    5
    By timcoe001
    I was raised in the environments discussed in Jesus & John Wayne. I grew up steeped in purity culture and post-9/11 evangelicalism. This book is incredibly timely. Whether you grew up in this environment and looking to reconcile your post or you are a person of faith looking for ways to counter the prevailing evangelical narrative on sexuality and culture, you should give Jesus and John Wayne a read! I do not think you will be disappointed.
  • Amazing book

    5
    By nqobile2
    This book was extremely helpful in highlighting where the origins of things I felt that didn’t actually match the Bible came from in American Christianity and Reformed circles. This was an essential read and has shaped my view going forward allowing me to scalpel out things that have no basis in my faith and whose origins were based out of trying to prevent threats to unbiblical patriarchal power.
  • Christianity has been hijacked

    5
    By dpetrie
    A great read detailing how militant masculine nationalism has hijacked evangelical Christianity.
  • Best book I’ve read in a while!

    5
    By Dennis Bud
    Incredibly poignant, thorough, and convicting. Much work is ahead for those who refuse to let the cult of Christian nationalism claim the banner of faith in Christ.
  • What a joke Jesus was a Men not a weak boy like you

    1
    By 1980man
    This dude apparently DOESNT KNOW Jesus

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