“Jesus and John Wayne” has been criticized by numerous conservative religious writers.
The book documents decades of evangelical literature that describes Jesus as a “warrior God.” Du Mez says conservative evangelicalism has long been grounded in views of male domination over women, the idea that the United States is God’s chosen country and that it must be defended at all costs and by any means necessary, and a fear of any threats to white racial identity. People at a concert by the evangelical musician Sean Feucht on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in October 2020. … That’s their brand,” she said, arguing that instead, it is “cultural and political allegiances actually shape the ways in which they understand what is biblical.”Įvangelicalism, she writes in the book, is a “historical and cultural movement forged over time by individuals and organizations with varied motivations - the desire to discern God's will, to bring order to uncertain times, and for many, to extend their own power." “They primarily identify as Bible-believing Christians. One of the arguments in Du Mez’s book is that evangelical Christians believe that their worldview derives from the Bible, when it has in fact been shaped more by American popular culture. “These sources are really formative for shaping their understanding of what is good and true.” And it is largely invisible to people outside this community,” Du Mez said in an interview on “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast. “There's a whole universe out there that really forms the faith of ordinary evangelicals. Kristin Kobes Du Mez and her book "Jesus and John Wayne." (Photo illustration: Yahoo News photo: Liveright, ) There is also the “consumer culture” of Christian publishing, Christian radio, Christian music, online media and other inputs.
“Most non-evangelicals are not aware of the culture of evangelicalism and just how influential it is on ordinary evangelicals,” said Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of “ Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” a New York Times bestseller released in 2020.ĭu Mez, a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University - a private evangelical college - said the evangelical subculture begins at an early age, with “youth group culture” and separate systems for education, from home schooling to private Christian schools that begin in kindergarten and extend up through college, like Calvin itself. Evangelical Christians have been a subject of head-scratching puzzlement to many other Americans for years, but the author of a popular book analyzing the group says that’s because their views are formed by an entire subculture that is “invisible” to others.
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