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

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

by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

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History & Foreign AffairsTheology & Faith

Kristin Kobes Du Mez's argument is that white evangelical support for Donald Trump wasn't a betrayal of evangelical values. It was the culmination of some 75 years spent tying the faith to militant masculinity, patriarchy and Christian nationalism, and you can trace it through evangelical books, films, music and merchandise.

Core ideas
  • The model man: John Wayne stands for the rugged, aggressive American manhood that evangelicals came to revere.
  • The builders: Billy Graham embodies a masculinized Christianity, and Focus on the Family's James Dobson pushed strict patriarchal discipline in the 1970s and 1980s.
  • Every era, one ideal: The arc runs from Cold War anticommunism through the culture wars, post-9/11 opposition to militant Islam and the Obama years to Trump.
Published2020
Pages356
ISBN9781631495731
ReadNov 2022

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