Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith & Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
(Format used for this book: Audiobook)
The past few years I have been deconstructing ALL KINDS of things in my life.
Most of which I didn’t even know I NEEDED to deconstruct, analyze and rebuild until I got started.
But here is the thing….
Once you START to tear down a wall, you realize how many bricks there really are in it’s composition.
And once that first brick comes down, and then the second, and then the third…. you are able to see the entire wall that is standing in the way of a complete panoramic and holistic view of things.
I was able to see that I wasn’t really SEEING things as they TRULY were (and are) AT ALL.
I was just seeing the wall that was intentionally created and presented to me.
The wall was presented as ONLY what I SHOULD see….
When really there is SO MUCH MORE beyond it.
I wouldn’t even exclusively call the process I have been doing “deconstructing”…I think it’s also fitting to say that I have been “dissecting” as well.
Not only breaking down certain ideas or beliefs, but also busting them open, pulling them apart, layer by layer.
The area I have been doing this the MOST is in regards to my faith…..my Westernized white American Christianity.
The factual and foundational history of the American church is rooted in racism, white supremacy, misogyny and patriarchy…..and I seriously had NO CLUE for YEARRRRSSS.
For most of my faith life so far, I was completely blind and ignorant to how these things have poisoned and distorted the message and image of Jesus.
And white evangelicalism……..ooooooweeeeeeee, yall.
Talk about hitting allllll and EVERY type of -ism there is.
I grew up attending a Methodist church and then was “born again” as a young mom in a Southern Baptist church. I have years of experience in that world….years of VBS, youth group meetings, women’s bible studies, retreats, worship rallies, Sunday school…and yet am only now seeing the full reality of hard truths (that are really untruths at their core) of this culture.
I am only just now seeing the huge damaging impact the harmful foundations of white conservative evangelicalism can carry– not only into church member’s hearts and minds, but also can seep out of the church doors and into American culture, government officials, and national policies as a whole.
The damage and destruction reaches far and wide….all “in the name of Jesus”. (the white Americanized version of Jesus let’s be clear)
This book opened my eyes, enraged me and broke my heart at the same time.
Here is the official summary:
“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.
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 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.”
While reading this book, it became so vividly clear the history of the intentionality of Scripture manipulation to keep white men in power and authority over others in the white evangelical church.
Patriarchy and and white supremacy aren’t just part of Evangelical Christianity….they are FOUNDATIONAL to it.
The destruction that has ensued for many years and continues today is astounding…because like I said above it does not JUST contain the damage within church walls….it pours out into the streets of American culture as a whole.
The author is able in these pages to discuss theology, history, politics and culture in a way the reader can see their overlapping connections and effects on each other.
If you are wondering how Donald Trump personified the ideal image of a leader for most white evangelicals—even with his appalling un-Jesus like behaviors—-reading this book will enlighten you to how different values, changing theology, and cultural attitudes in the church evolved over time to make that happen.
Infuriated is one word that stayed with me in how I felt while reading this book.
One evening while I was in the process of completing this read, I watched the movie “Promising Young Woman.”
(BTW….TREMENDOUS film. Highly recommend but please be aware it can be *very* triggering for women especially if you have experienced sexual assault or any kind of unwanted sexual behavior. Which unfortunately is MOST–if not ALL–of us.)
Watching this movie while reading thru this book was either perfect timing or horrendous timing.
My rage and frustration at toxic masculinity embedded in our culture and our churches just EXPLODED to max levels.
I am still sitting in a place of processing these many emotions because both the movie and book brought up a WHOLE LOT of shit for me.
Toxic masculinity, misogyny and objectification of women just REALLY REALLY gets my blood boiling.
Especially in regards to the church and how it has upheld all of these things.
Jesus valued ALL human beings.
AND…
JESUS VALUED WOMEN.
ALL OF THE TIME.
And yet…..over and over again people twist and turn things in Scripture for power and authority—and then feel righteous and validated in their behaviors.
All for “His glory”.
Miss me with that BS.
I have done reviews before that have felt scattered and incomplete and kind of a mess….this is another one of those.
I have been trying to type out my thoughts on this book off and on for a few hours this afternoon and I just can’t seem to verbalize the words swirling around in my brain and swimming thru my heart.
I do wish I would have had a hard copy of this instead of listening to it on audio because I feel like there was SO MUCH I would have underlined, highlighted, dog eared and shared with you here.
I didn’t even take notes on my phone like I usually do with my audiobooks because I was so engrossed with the content while listening.
So my thoughts are still all over from this read and this is a pretty squirrely review….
But I can tell you this with 100 percent honesty:
The more I uncover about the truth and history behind the American church, the farther I move away from being a part of it.
And that doesn’t feel scary or intimidating to me….
To be honest, it feels pretty damn freeing.
I’ll just end by saying this:
I highly recommend this informative book.
And also:
SMASH THE PATRIARCHY wherever you find it.
And this right here is one thing I’m trying to hold on to:
K.
I’m done for now.