Reviews: Jesus and John Wayne

Excerpts: Our reading list this year, like the rest of our lives, was colored by the triple whammy of 2020: the pandemic, the racial justice protests and the presidential election. But given the unpredictability of these 12 jam-packed, crisis-filled months,…

Excerpt: In an absolutely devastating closing chapter (titled “Evangelical Mulligans”) Du Mez traces many accounts of the all-too-frequent public failings of prominent evangelical leaders, and the knee-jerk efforts of those in similar positions of power to defend them while invalidating…

Excerpts: 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…

Excerpts: As an evangelical myself, I can see how far the movement has sunk — even to betraying its own ideal of masculinity In her recent book, "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a…

Excerpts:  Jesus and John Wayne  something more than a book of cultural history. 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 up…

Excerpts: Du Mez argues, using an extensive amount of research, that white evangelical culture often glorifies the aggressive, patriarchal idea of manhood, which has become intertwined with what it means to be a conservative Christian in the modern age. Sooner…

Excerpts: Simple hypocrisy is the simplest answer. Others see evangelical support for Trump as nothing more than transactional politics. Kristen Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin College, isn’t buying either of these explanations. In Jesus and John Wayne: How White…

Excerpts: While much has been reported and written about the disenfranchisement of working-class America and white “fly-over country,” Ms. Du Mez digs deeper into the evolution (no pun intended) of the white, masculine, American-branded faith that most of the rest…