Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du MezĪs 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. Why is it important to understand the histories of the cultures we are part of and acknowledge the unpleasant aspects of those histories? The Jesus of the gospels is literally transformed into a militant warrior Christ who has tattoos up and down his legs and rides on a horse, wielding a sword into battle to slay all his enemies … that’s the corruption that I’m talking about. you can’t teach a boy to be a man by teaching him to turn the other cheek. There are explicit cases where biblical passages, core teachings of the Bible-like love your neighbors as yourself, love your enemies, turn the other cheek-are explicitly rejected and thrown out. I’m talking about how this embrace of a militant masculinity ends up transforming the faith itself. … It is a work of Christian scholarship, and I am writing as a person of faith. Spark: What can someone expect to find in this book?ĭu Mez: I described this as my book on white evangelical masculinity and militarism. The book has received national and international media attention, and Du Mez has been interviewed by NPR and BBC Radio, among others.
This book doesn’t have all the answers, but it opens up a conversation,” said Du Mez. “If we’re not actually understanding what has happened and perhaps where things have gone wrong, we will not be properly equipped to participate in the renewal of all things. From a historical perspective, Du Mez examines the anti-communist crusade of the 1960s to the evangelical support of President Donald Trump. The book is a comprehensive history of masculinity in white evangelical culture. The result is her recently released book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. This idea intrigued Du Mez, and she continued to dig deeper into the history of gender in the evangelical tradition. The best-selling book encouraged Christian men to be warriors.
After class, a few male students told her she needed to read the book Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. Back in 2005, history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez lectured on gender and how gender works in history.
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