The struggle for the family was nothing less than a struggle for the survival of American democracy, and the key to preserving the family was preserving the “traditional” structure of the family, a structure Du Mez argues was actually the product of American cultural dynamics in the early post-war period rather than a timeless bedrock. The alliance between conservative white evangelicals and conservative political activists was cemented in part by their shared belief in the virtues of the patriarchal nuclear family and the importance of protecting white male authority from movements perceived to subvert it. This enculturated respect for idealized masculinity fit well with the emerging conservative political and cultural movements of the Cold War era. Rather than appearing as an aberrant anomaly sparked by one contemporary political figure, conservative evangelical political alliances in the early twenty-first century continue the logical progression of movements that believed promoting and protecting an idealized version of sanctified white Christian masculinity was key to preserving American culture and international influence. Jesus and John Wayne was born from Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s quest to understand how the “values voters” who influenced her early years became such a reliable base of support for a candidate whose actions and words contradicted their professed ideals in so many ways.ĭu Mez identifies a patriarchal masculinity embedded in neo-evangelical popular cultures as a primary catalyst for the appeal of Donald Trump to many American evangelicals. Donald Trump came in second to Ted Cruz in the Iowa Caucuses, but once it became clear he was going to be the Republican nominee, Sioux County fell in line and went solidly for Trump in the 2016 general election. I also remember the reluctant trepidation with which Trump was received by many Dordt constituents, including prominent College Republicans who felt a duty to host the event because Dordt had made a blanket promise of welcome to all presidential candidates that year. As one of the curious observers of the event myself, I remember well how much of that crowd was sprinkled with devoted Trump followers from outside of Sioux County and even Iowa. Du Mez describes how she looked in vain for the hallmarks of the Sioux County she knew in the crowd response to Trump that day. Not just that Trump has garnered such support, but the irony of who those supporters are. It’s like incredible.” Du Mez and other longtime participant observers of American evangelicalism agreed with Trump on one thing. Haan auditorium and bombastically proclaimed, “They say I have the most loyal people-did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of 5 th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters. An alumnus of Dordt College and raised in Sioux County, Du Mez watched with fascinated horror on Januas presidential candidate Donald J. Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith and Fractured A Nation begins on sacred ground for all daughters and sons of Dordt University. D'Elia, A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America.Title: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith and Fractured A Nation George Marsden, Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism.Ĭhristian Smith, The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture. Pankaj Mishra, Age of Anger: A History of the Present. Sharp, 'Race, Gender, and the Limits of Evangelical Identity,' Berkeley Forum, April 22, 2021. Kameron Carter, 'Behind Christianity Today’s Editorial is a Deeper Crisis of America’s Religion of Whiteness,' Religion News Service, December 24, 2019. Timothy Dalrymple, 'The Splintering of the Evangelical Soul: Why We're Coming Apart, and How We Might Come Together Again,' Christianity Today, April 16, 2021. I recommend a magisterial work by Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America, and I reflect a bit on some recent articles on the cultural dynamics of evangelicalism.

Jesus and john wayne chapter summaries