Cases where pastors called out a particular sin, but then engaged in it, or allowed it when convenient were common. This was an unsettling read. The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth, White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America (A Ferris and Ferris Book), The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism, A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism, Socialists Don't Sleep: Christians Must Rise or America Will Fall. We’ve been waiting for this book. Part of what DuMez is pointing out in Jesus and John Wayne is the relationship between exaggerated gender roles and the embrace of authoritarianism. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free. The movement to save America (yes Christian Nationalism is a component of the book), has been a reactive one. New York: Liveright, 2020. When things baffle me, I seek more information. In an interview with Religion & Politics, the author discusses how she … “One way or another all religions are magical thinking. It is first of all just a really good, easy read. Is it just to sucker other liberal cultists to buy their books? Princeton, like all institutions, does not like complicated history. With brilliant analysis and detailed scholarship, Kristin Kobes Du Mez shows how conservative evangelical leaders have promoted the authoritarian, patriarchal values that have achieved their finest representative in Trump. All of this culminates in the election of Donald Trump as President--and far from being out-of-left-field, the author makes a compelling case for Donald Trump being the epitome of the aggressive and militant masculinity the white evangelical population of the USA was clamouring for. 5 stars for enter. Jesus and John Wayne stands far from that temptation. It brings together so many elements of the mid-to-late twentieth century. We’d love your help. Also, she misrepresents many historical events to make her points. However, all of this was in the air and now I know where it came from and how intentional it all was. The rest of us already know (or suspect) most of this. But it does matter that we seem to have adopted an idea that the means of accomplishing our ends are unrelated to the ends themselves. Fortunately my sectarian upbringing meant we didn’t. Please try again. 5 stars for entertainment and convincing arguments. Because culture has embraced the individual macho man, whether it is John Wayne as the soldier or cowboy or the behind the scenes savior like Jack Bauer or James Bond, or the father with a very particular set of skills that will pursue his daughter's kidnappers in Taken. As a child of the 90s that grew up close to the evangelical community (with VeggieTales, Adventures in Odyssey, Focus on the Family, and Wild at Heart), the Christian culture that Dr. Du Mez analyzes was a consistent "background noise" in my life. I've been left unaware of the historical roots of this type of Christian nationalism, and so was completely blindsided by the eager support of Donald Trump from many within my community. Gaither Vocal Band - Official Video for “Jesus and John Wayne (Live)", available now!Buy the full length DVD/CD ‘Country Bluegrass Homecoming Vol. That’s at least part of the reason we’re not evangelicals. Unable to add item to List. Evangelicalism especially, but the Christian church in the US since the mid-20th century has attempted to use mass marketing tools, not just for evangelism but also for discipleship. And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate’s staunchest supporters? If you are or have been affiliated with evangelical church/culture in any form, I highly recommend reading it with a friend. Are we actually believing what the Bible says or our own cultural amalgamation of what men want it to say? Where we go wrong is in our ability to discern what is actually good and what is not. What struck me most as a reader is how the progressive embrace of each of these steps was generally about either Evangelism of men outside of the church (because part of the emphasis was that if you evangelize men, you will get the rest of the family as well) or Christian renewal efforts inside the church. He was the reincarnation of John Wayne, sitting tall in the saddle, a man who wasn’t afraid to resort to violence to bring order, who protected those deemed worthy of protection, who wouldn’t let political correctness get in the way of saying what had to be said or the norms of democratic society keep him from doing what needed to be done. I don’t know. But a politics defined by opposition to abortion and homosexuality was at least equally important for our parents’ generation. June 23rd 2020 I was taken aback by the Evangelical response to President Obama. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, New York: Liveright Publishing, 2019, 304 pages, (356 with appendices). It’s called Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, by Calvin University history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Was the content unbearable at times, so cringey that I wanted to quit? Are we actually believing what the Bible says or our own cultural amalgamation of what men want it to say? Glaude rightly notes that "Who and what we celebrate reflects who and what we value." Usually I will stay away from books on religion. DuMez does not understand how we think or why we overwhelmingly supported Trump and the Republican Party in 2016. Nothing was particularly new or eye-opening for me, but to read the numerous examples and details tended to rile me up. Mateo Askaripour is a Brooklyn-based writer whose bestselling debut novel, Black Buck, was published in January. For ease of use, I’m just going to refer to them as. I’ve already discussed the problems of levelling any kind of normative critique without an appeal to the Bible. If anything, it shows the need for books like Jesus and John Wayne more. But the problems that are being pointed out by DuMez were caused by people trying to disciple Christians, not ignoring of discipleship altogether. One star. We finally have the distance to see the impact of the reaction to the women’s movement and masculine Christianity. “When Rachel Held Evans and Jen Hatmaker ran afoul of conservative orthodoxies related to sexuality and gender. There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. There was much that I really enjoyed. Part of what Ignatius points out in his discussion of spiritual growth is that the repression discussion of sin and temptation can empower it. I would start out saying that I think her critique is valid on how as a culture American evangelicals prize "manly men" a la John Wayne and accept all the sexism, racism, etc. There was much that I really enjoyed. Du Mez introduces a whole host of major "evangelical" and conservative figures who have exerted considerable influence on the American church and American politics in the past 75 years. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2020, 356 pages. “Christian nationalism—the belief that America is God’s chosen nation and must be defended as such—serves as a powerful predictor of intolerance toward immigrants, racial minorities, and non-Christians.”, “Evangelicals hadn’t betrayed their values. the book is great and provocatively argues that evangelicals’ early support of Trump wasn’t transactional but predictable and in line with the path of the entire movement, which has always supported coarse and oppressive white male leaders with roots in the entertainment industry. The main focus of Jesus and John Wayne is the gendered conception of leadership and the way that the emphasis on exaggerated gender role divisions has distorted Christianity. It stirred me up to read the particulars behind the philosophy of millions of evangelicals. Part of this identity was theological: the inerrancy of the Bible, which for most of us entailed young-earth creationism, was the critical plank. I don’t remember the author describing what un-corrupted faith means, for comparison, just so we know. There certainly were more details provided than I knew, but the end of the book pulls out the characters of the story that had been told up until that point, and one after another lays out their falls from grace. The end of Jesus and John Wayne was the most important chapter in the book for me. We finally have the distance to see the impact of the reaction to the women’s movement and masculine Christianity. A scholar of American Christianity presents a seventy-five-year history of evangelicalism that identifies the forces that have turned Donald Trump into a hero of the Religious Right. 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. This is a well-documented and powerfully written book. The introduction tells us white evangelicals’ choice of and enthusiasm forTrump isn’t pragmatic or transactional, rather results from their inherited culture of militant masculinity that elevates Trump in all his Trumpy-ness—because of it, not in-spite of it. It would be easy to try to create a program to get every Chrisitan into spiritul direciton and create a movement to shepherd Christians into growth. The author has done a tremendous amount of research and capably cast a spotlight on the politicalization and militarism that has distorted and misrepresented true Christianity, Interesting and recommended reading for all Christians and those who want to know how American Christianity for so badly off the rails. Insightful, challenging, and thoroughly well researched, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2021. Alternative subtitle: How Jesus/ Christianity was abused to promote white patriarchal rule in America. The author explores previous elections and presidents along with more current ones. It's been a Read with Jenna... To see what your friends thought of this book. I don’t really care about the Iowa part, but I expected more insight into the corrupted faith and fractured nation bit. The book is also accessible; one doesn’t need to have been steeped in the subject matter to understand it. The reliance on a particular style of male leadership both in the Church and the political realm is examined carefully to show how it has had a toxic effect on the American culture as a whole. There was almost no movement or group detailed in the book that I was completely unaware of. 4 stars? This is a highly disturbing–and informative–book. However, as DuMez illustrates here, Trump should be an unsurprising outcome for those who have observed how the evangelical right wing has morphed and grown in the 21st century. For a title like Jesus and John Wayne, I broke my rule. Looking at the list of examples on p. 7, have you participated in any part of this evangelical consumer culture? Whether it is communism (they are atheists, so the US needs to add 'Under God' to the pledge), or feminists (so we need to emphasize complementary gender roles and patriarchal authority), or loose sexual morals (so we emphasize purity and 'kiss dating goodbye'), the point is that the Christian church in the post World War II era has not created a positive message of Christianity so much as looked at culture and done the opposite. This was an unsettling read. Born and raised in Iowa with brief sojourns in Tallahassee, FL, and Ostfriesland, Germany. There is a great deal of information here that evangelicals should know about their own history and philosophies and practices, especially as it relates to contributing to today’s political divide. that comes along with that. The sub-title doesn't fit. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! 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.”. It’s a genius title, and it makes a compelling and challenging argument, especially after we watched a gang of mainly Christian insurrectionists storm the Capitol to save the presidency of Donald Trump. First, it is an excellent read. Du Mez introduces a whole host of major "evangelical" and conservative figures who have exerted considerable influence on the American church and American politics in the past 75 years. Watching the last four in particular led me to question many things about how and why others vote as they do. I’m genuinely interested in a new take on the mental gymnastics some of my evangelical friends must do daily. I learned some things about people whose names I'd heard in the past, but hadn't paid much attention to. Discipleship is about a relationship with God, not information. Please try again. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope. Lost has been the discipleship around nuanced differences that take into account created differences or differences as the result of sin (trauma, rape, etc.). Besides the interview on Morning Edition, in part it was the teaser introduction shown on my Kindle that led me to buy the book. While there were many Christians that were highlighted that were hypocritically applying their ideas to others and not themselves (especially around sexual purity), I think virtually all of the leaders highlighted thought they were teaching rightly and were trying to serve Christ, even if they were also at times clearly serving their own needs as well. The distortion of the church has happened in part because it hasn't take seriously the whole body of Christ in developing its theology and orthopraxy. I also think that when there is a lack of checks and balances in an organization and women aren't involved in leadership that becomes a breeding ground for potential abuse. Here was an avowed Christian who was excoriated by white Evangelicals, a family man who represented the masculinity that I was raised in except in one way, his skin tone. has been added to your Cart. The author explores previous elections and presidents along with more current ones. I am surprised Ms. Kobes duMez is a professor in a Christian university. Part of what is outside the scope of Jesus and John Wayne, but has been explored in books like James KA Smith's Desiring the Kingdom, or Mather's Having Everything, Possessing Nothing or many others, is that discipleship can't be mass-produced. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Free returns are available for the shipping address you chose. Was her research five star? 3 stars for bias and missing pieces. But more than that, the subtitle was intriguing— “How white evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a nation”. He was a hero for God-and-country Christians in the line of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Oliver North, one suited for Duck Dynasty Americans and American Christians. It is eminently readable, but there have been scholarly virtues traded for popular appeal. One of the main targets of Jesus and John Wayne is a “patriarchal” vision of masculinity. This is a really helpful insight into American white Evangelicalism. Emotionally Healthy Discipleship: Moving from Shallow Christianity to Deep Transfor... Who Is The Holy Spirit? I was raised in a conservative Evangelical household. He was the latest and greatest high priest of the evangelical cult of masculinity.”. Not being a terribly "political" person, I haven't paid much attention to elections until the last 12 years. Something went wrong. It is eminently readable, but there have been scholarly virtues traded for popular appeal. The event was based on Kobes Du Mez’s book entitled “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.” This book left a very bitter taste in my heart and soul. As a Calvinist, I think that if we are just looking at the positive aspects of our tradition, that could be dangerous because we know that we are all fallen and that our institutions and our traditions also reflect our limitations. 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. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. Things I think Jesus and John Wayne got wrong. Highly recommended. I feel I grew up in the best of white American evangelicalism but as I look around, I fear the worst has won out in the end. I feel pretty confident saying it is. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. If you want to know how we got here (as in 81% of white evangelicals voting for Trump in 2016 and continuing to support him, all the way to what happened on January 6, 2021...) this is a good book to read. Everyone’s passions overtake their judgment, facts are few, fleeting and ignored, and no minds are changed in the reading. This book has really helped clarify this dissonance. (One example of several.) The 'when it hasn't' is also important. Difficult to pick a rating! Many outsiders were shocked at evangelical Christians' embrace, and continued support of, Donald Trump, by all accounts a vulgar and uncouth man who seemed to go against the "values voter" and "moral majority" image they worked for years to cultivate. Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2020. How very novel. The frustration is that those who need to read this probably won’t. From this book it seems like she doesn’t know what the gospel is, what the Bible is all about, and what it means to be a biblical Christian. . Unencumbered by traditional Christian virtue, he was a warrior in the tradition (if not the actual physical form) of Mel Gibson’s William Wallace. Part of why I am training to become a Spiritual Director is that the history of the practice has been designed to help individuals seek God's will, listen together to God's direction to develop a shared discernment and to appropriately individualize discipleship in a way that takes seriously being uniquely created by God. For many men who struggle to reconcile America's "rugged individualism" with the gentle servant heart of Jesus, this book connects a lot of dots. It was often eye-opening to see what your friends thought of this before a righteous anger the Christian president evangelical... 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