When Donald Trump was elected, white evangelicals were absolutely critical to his victory. I think that the last four years have been clarifying for many evangelicals, for many observers of evangelicalism. On beginning the book with an anecdote about Trump And for the sake of protecting these vulnerable things, these precious things, really, the ends will justify the means. It's a very common theme in white evangelical writing on masculinity from the 1960s really to the present - that you need to have very tough, rugged men who can protect women and children, who can protect Christianity and who can protect the American nation. On John Wayne doing terrible things in movies but, often, for the protection of society or a greater good And so he's very much a part of the political movement, and he's this - becomes this kind of icon of what true American and true Christian masculinity really looks like. And he would be speaking at events hosted by white evangelicals in Southern California, and he endorsed Ronald Reagan. And he can defend Christian America, really, and that's what really appeals to many evangelicals, how he becomes this icon - and not just to evangelicals but to secular conservatives as well.īut also, the man himself in his own life, he was really critical to the rise of right-wing conservatism in the 1960s, 1970s. So whether he's, you know, on the frontiers of the Wild West or in the Second World War or on the battlefields of Vietnam, he can bring order through violence. So he is this rugged man who can bring order through violence, really. "Well, it's the man and the myth, really, with John Wayne. Support MPR News Today Heart Interview Highlights But when they were looking for models of Christian manhood, they really looked to kind of secular heroes or mythical heroes - so warriors or soldiers or cowboys." "And when I started reading these books, what struck me was there were only a few Bible verses kind of sprinkled here and there. "There are millions of copies of books that have been sold within evangelical circles on what does it mean to be a Christian man," she says. When researching her book, Kristin Kobes Du Mez - a history professor at Calvin University, which is a Christian college in Michigan - concluded that among many evangelicals, the John Wayne side of the argument has been winning. He feels the conflicting demands to be forgiving and combative, gentle and strong. The narrator in the song recalls trying to please both his gentle Christian mother and his tough-guy father. Her book - “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation” - which explores the past and present of Christian manhood, takes its title from a Christian song by the Gaither Vocal Band called "Jesus and John Wayne." It even affects why so many white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. It influences how millions of Americans shape their lives and their politics. The scholar Kristin Kobes Du Mez says the answer matters a lot.
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