She is the guilty party. Very well-done. An Interview with Kristin Du Mez. They are against abortion (women having control over anything), women dressing like men, working outside the home or in politics. Jesus and John Wayne, Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s urgent, sharp-elbowed survey of the last half-century of white American evangelicalism. They demand it of their president. I can’t remember the last time I had such a visceral reaction to a book. New York. Anyone who grew up evangelical needs to read this. This is a really cohesively argued piece of historical non-fiction that persuasively traces the connections between the muscular Christianity that arose in the 1800s to early 1900s American fundamentalism to the neoevangelicals of the 1950s through today. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Review--Jesus and John Wayne (again) [This isn't the first time I spotlighted Jesus and John Wayne , and neither will it be the last.] All in all, I would definitely recommend this to anyone trying to understand American evangelical subculture of the late 20th & early 21st century. That isn't completely wrong, but I am not sure it really gets the main point of the book any more than framing it as an Anti-Trump book as this review does. Wilson was both former president of the United States and Princeton University. Come as often as you like — we’re not counting. A lot changes must be made to undo the damage of many decades in chu. Welcome back. But the problems that are being pointed out by DuMez were caused by people trying to disciple Christians, not ignoring of discipleship altogether. ... which got too starry and was spoiled by John Wayne's son of gawd. For them, Jesus was a warrior, more Rambo than Mister Rogers. Even though I have read scores of articles on the subject of white evangelical support for Donald Trump, as a child of the movement I still have a hard time understanding how a group who purports to take the Bible so seriously could back a person whose values are so antithetical to the way of Jesus. Episode 110: Jesus and John Wayne: Have Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Broken a Nation? PhD from the University of Notre Dame, and now I reside in Grand Rapids, MI. All the celebrity evangelists have built massive multimedia empires that funnel cash back to the center. Love thy neighbor? 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. This is my 700th Goodreads review--serendipitous, since the 700 Club is given a few nods in this book. Men rule, women are submissive. Sooo let’s call it a day with 4 stars. I am used to seeing these kinds of histories drop off around the first Reagan election, so I was really interested to see the more detailed history outlined of the movement between 1980 & 2020. It is successful, and it is a shame. Episode 110: Jesus and John Wayne: Have Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Broken a Nation? Whether or not she’s accurate, I can’t necessarily say. The point of the tweet wasn't that the son was wrong for marrying again, but that the grace offered to him was not present for others (and continues to be taught.). I am thankful that it has been written. The two slashes // may indicate: . They knowingly allow child abusers and rapists to marry in the church and are surprised when there is trouble later. Putting John Wayne and Jesus Christ in the same box takes a little work (for the uninitiated, like me). Review--Jesus and John Wayne A couple of decades ago, I suggested a few negative things about Billy Graham in a piece I wrote for the Banner, the denominational magazine of the church in which I was reared, the Christian Reformed Church of North America. He was clearly innocent. Review this title 127 Reviews. I have read "Jesus and John Wayne" and I am immensely thankful for Kristin Kobes DuMez' excellent historical work. Du Mez is facing a problem that besets many ex-evangelicals and former fundamentalists these days: How did the people who taught us to love Jesus end … Watching the last four in particular led me to question many things about how and why others vote as they do. It brings together so many elements of the mid-to-late twentieth century. (2020 election week). You’ve found a like-minded tribe that cherishes what a free press stands for. Jesus and John Wayne isn’t about the cowboy icon, not really. I was raised in a conservative Evangelical household. Linking Jesus to John Wayne is an intriguing idea but Kobes Du Mez doesn't do enough with it. Jesus is played by Jeffrey Hunter and if you were to ask today's movie fans what they most remember about Hunter, they will either say his role in the original Star Trek pilot as Captain Christopher Pike, or his two roles in John Ford films, The Searchers and Sergeant Rutledge. Part of having a heritage is doing business with the bad as well as the good. No signup or install needed. He was his own man; everyone else be damned. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes du Mez. That’s at least part of the reason we’re not evangelicals. Those who need to read it won’t, and those who will read it have probably heard most of this before. As Christians, we will never come to complete agreement; universal agreement is not really the goal. Even though I have read scores of articles on the subject of white evangelical support for Donald Trump, as a child of the movement I still have a hard time understanding how a group who purports to take the Bible so seriously could back a person whose values are so antithetical to the way of Jesus. 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., Jesus and John Wayne, How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, 9781631495731 Kingdom Root conversations with Scot McKnight will give clarity to the context of the New Testament and how that context informs the … In her new book, Jesus and John Wayne, Calvin University History Professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez tells the story of how a group of fundamentalist Christians formed the National Association of Evangelicals in the 1940s and how, over the past 75 years, that group became more politically powerful as they preached a message of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism. What a week to read this book! 82% of white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. If anything, it shows the need for books like Jesus and John Wayne more. I don’t know. 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. She has written an exhaustive study of the evolution of American evangelicalism, with emphasis on its political effects. Driving a Car Christian Dream Meaning Goal 2020 review and 2021 Resolution Top 10 Sites to watch Telugu Movies O… Spider-Man: If This Be My Destiny - L… Top 6 Best Sites Like Moviewatcher t… This post first appeared on Kirk Miller Blog – Thoughts On Scripture, Theolo, please read the originial post: … It is less than pretty. This book is a history of white American evangelicalism and its highly readable while managing to pack in a lot of history. The book’s subtitle, How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, suggests an excoriating approach, but Du Mez sticks close to the texts and the history, pinning down the evolution of attitudes rather than arguing with them. It is astonishing how low quality so many evangelists are. Not being a terribly "political" person, I haven't paid much attention to elections until the last 12 years. Trump over Clinton was an easy choice. Comments . Whether or not she’s accurate, I can’t necessarily say. WN: This is one of the few times I also posted a book review to this Blog. Difficult to pick a rating! “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. So was my wife, and so were most of my friends of my generation. There are positive things about being raised in a tradition with commitments to community and personal piety. I learned some things about people whose names I'd heard in the past, but hadn't paid much attention to. Listen to Episode 110: Jesus And John Wayne: Have Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith And Broken A Nation? But a politics defined by opposition to abortion and homosexuality was at least equally important for our parents’ generation. Which brings out another of the many distasteful aspects of evangelicals: sexual hypocrisy. I was raised in a conservative Evangelical household. The sins of white evangelicalism has affected global mainstream culture. Nothing surprising but when all the points connected, everything makes so much sense. But those facets have taken over evangelicalism. A favorite strategy is to blame the victim for being there at all. I quibble with some of DuMez’s analyses, though, and did note that this book skewed extremely left-wing, most markedly in its unadulterated defense of Hilary Clinton as a devout Christian and a candidate evangelicals should have been enthusiastic about. In her recent book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, Calvin University historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez situates Gothard and Piper in a long line of white, alpha-male leaders whose devotion to a militant Christian patriarchy and nationalism inevitably led to exuberant support, among large numbers of white evangelicals, for Donald Trump as … This book also suggests that this striving toward visions of militantly muscular Christianity to be the motivation for evangelicals to participate in the fracture of the nation via their support of Donald Trump. Indeed, Kristin Kobes Du Mez’ book is one that can help jolt us to the reality of what we have made and become. 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. 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. “To be an evangelical, according to the National Association of Evangelicals, is to uphold the Bible as one’s ultimate authority, to confess the centrality of Christ’s atonement, to believe in a born-again conversion experience, and to actively work to spread this good news and reform society accordingly.” There is no mention of watching Fox News or voting Republican straight ticket, carrying guns, supporting the patriarchy or proselytizing the military. He took no guff from anyone. The author explores previous elections and presidents along with more current ones. I also really enjoyed seeing the connections to militarism with Billy Graham all the way in the 1950s, as well as the connections between modern evangelicalism and the Vietnam War. Evangelicals will vote against anyone who doesn’t fit that description. Yet another famous pastor mentioned in the book was called out yesterday on twitter for condemning all divorce, even in the case of physical abuse, blessed his son's second marriage. I would agree that it was too neat and tidy. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last 75 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. For a title like Jesus and John Wayne, I broke my rule. Women are there for the taking, and not for active duty service. I am angry at how the faith I hold so dear has been twisted and manipulated into the evangelicalism of America. There is stability and order in the patriarchy; equality means chaos. But the pop culture intersection of American politics and American evangelicalism proved tempting, and thankfully, most worthwhile. A lot changes must be made to undo the damage of many decades in churches and institutions. As someone who grew up idolizing John Wayne in reruns of his films in the 1980s, this book resonated with me from the title to the last word. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Kristin Kobes Du Mez. The 'when it hasn't' is also important. If you look at what Evangelicals are really about, then their support for Trump is not all that puzzling after all. There was much that I really enjoyed. Throughout the last hundred years, evangelicals have glommed on to very flawed, most un-Christian characters as their heroes. What, after all, is “culture”? Jesus and John Wayne fits the “must read” category for those open to having the idea of American Christianity tested by the Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. Or in another example, from the book, the emphasis against sex, instead of teaching about the right use of sex, has ended up not just harming many couples' actual sex life, but also wrongly located where responsibility for chastity lies. Careful statements about correlation and sociological and anthropological secondary literature are often missing. 4 stars? But DuMez has begun an important conversation that is very necessary in the modern American church. Immigration is for white Europeans, not Central Americans. For sure. The Golden Rule is ignored in favor of violent deaths. I think her argument is well supported and well argued. I first realized this when, without any real shifts in my theology, I began to slide toward full libertarian. Du Mez is one author in a long line seeking to explain the Trump phenomenon. The individual who can save us is part of the American mystique. I feel like this explains so much of my childhood—James Dobson, the Bill Gotthard and the Youth Institutes, Elizabeth Elliott, evangelical sex manuals from the 70s—-it all showed up in my life. (One example of several.) Jesus and John Wayne is a disturbing read but it is not without some hope. 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. See other pictures of the day here. I’m so angry that I was gaslit into believing that people like John Piper, Focus on the Family/James Dobson, and even Billy Graham were good and had the purest of intentions. This exposes so much that is wrong with the church in America, most notably in the way in which a number of "evangelical" churches have responded to sexual abuse cases, where the desire seems to have been to protect the male leadership rather than care for abuse victims. 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. He shook his head, amused. The “family values” evangelicals propound are just a cover for patriarchy, submissive women and masculine power, Du Mez says. She then explores how these shifting definitions shaped the rise of Christian Nationalism and Evangelicalism’s entanglement with geopolitics. Usually I will stay away from books on religion. For many of us, reading Jesus and John Wayne might feel a little like that. The frustration is that those who need to read this probably. Ignatius in his Rules for Discernment talks about how Satan can appear as an angel or how we are not aware of the harm that we cause others, both aspects of how we as Christian not only need discernment but also a community to help us see more than what we can see individually on our own. But a politics defined by opposition to abortion and homosexuality was at least equally important for our parents’ generation. They have theme parks, museums and tours like rockstars. I feel pretty confident saying it is. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

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