Readers are assuming that this is a historical reconstruction akin to what one might read in a history book this would include interviews, dealing with the worldview of those involved as they themselves would articulate it, clear signifiers when conjecture and opinion are inserted, and an evenhanded approach that is fair.

I decided to write about her book because she gets to the ‘truth’ by non-traditional means of analysis. This ‘trade’ began at the beginning of the 20 th century and, according to Du Mez, is the reason why Donald Trump was a natural ‘next step’ for evangelicals. The main argument of her book is that (white) evangelicals traded traditional notions of Christianity for a violent, patriarchal, nationalistic and masculine faith, a false faith. It is the first serious look at evangelicalism and its alignment with Donald Trump. She is a Calvin professor and her book has caused quite a stir. 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.I am almost finished with, Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.

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.Ĭhallenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 20 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. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. 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. 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.”Īs acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism.

Jesus and john wayne book