Du Mez traces the history of evangelicalism and conservative politics from post-World War II to the present.
While I don’t entirely agree with her conclusions, I found her book helpful in connecting the historical dots. … He was the latest and greatest high priest of the evangelical cult of masculinity. He was the reincarnation of John Wayne, sitting tall in the saddle, a man who wasn’t afraid to resort to violence to bring order, who protected those deemed worthy of protection, who wouldn’t let political correctness get in the way of saying what had to be said or the norms of democratic society keep him from doing what needed to be done. Donald Trump was the culmination of their half-century-long pursuit of a militant Christian masculinity. She concludes:Įvangelicals hadn’t betrayed their values. Du Mez explains that Trump’s evangelical support is not an aberration or pragmatism but the natural outworking of a system of beliefs built on patriarchy, racism, militant masculinity, and Christian nationalism. Many commentators have struggled to explain Trump’s popularity with evangelicals and their steadfast support of him and his policies despite seeming contradictions with conservative Christian values. How could “family values” conservatives support a man who flouted every value they insisted they held dear? How could the self-professed “Moral Majority” embrace a candidate who reveled in vulgarity? How could evangelicals who’d turned “WWJD” (“What Would Jesus Do?”) into a national phenomenon justify their support for a man who seemed the very antithesis of the savior they claimed to emulate? Kristin Kobes Du Mez wrote her recent book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, to answer the question of how Donald Trump became a hero to the Religious Right. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 267ĭr. Revelation 2:4-5 (NIV)įew … seemed willing to critique behaviors they might otherwise have been expected to find repulsive, or at the very least troubling. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. You have forsaken the love you had at first.