They may sense that something is amiss in the movement and be moved by the history of toxic masculinity Du Mez recounts, but many-if not most-will need resources to move past discomfort or shock into a more historically orthodox understanding of gender, community, leadership, and ministry. I would add, however, that I wish Du Mez had made the book more accessible to evangelicals who will need help in working though the underlying issues at stake here. What a movement it has been, and Du Mez knows it well.Īs one who has made a living smack in the middle of much of this, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation sure rang true to me. She shows the backstory and the development of much that influenced the subculture that gave us both Anita Bryant, say, on one hand, and Amy Grant, on another Pat Robertson on one hand and Francis Schaeffer or Ron Sider on other hands. From Christianity Today and Billy Graham’s stance on Martin Luther King, to the impact of the cult-like Bill Gothard, from the DeVoss family’s Amway to the evangelical celebration of Ollie North, from the partnership of evangelicals with Catholic dynamo Phyllis Schafly to fight abortion, to the recent popularity of Wayne Grudem and John Piper’s teaching about traditional gender roles, this remarkable book offers a truly wide-ranging account. Or for anyone who wants to know about this major aspect of not only what we might call religious history, but American cultural history.
You may not agree with all of Kristen Kobes Du Mez’s assessment of this or that aspect of evangelical subculture or her conclusions about how this John Wayne testosterone populism contributed to the way evangelical sexual abuse scandals were handled or how some white evangelicals aligned themselves with Trump, even given his admission of sexual assault, or as he publicly encouraged people at his rallies to punch or rough up others.Īgree or not, this is a book for anyone who has lived through the past fifty or so years of evangelicalism. “ J&JW is a must read for any who care about the integrity of the gospel and the direction of evangelical faith in these days.” “Her documentation is impressive and tragically compelling,” my friend Byron Borger of Hearts and Minds Books says. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, professor of history at Calvin University, has done the hard, long work of research necessary to tell the story of how a dreadful stain of toxic masculinity wove its way into the thinking, teaching, and practice of 20 th century American White evangelicalism.
Jesus and John Wayne is a book that needed to be written and needs to be widely read and discussed.