Jesus and john wayne book review
So when I picked up Jesus and John Wayne I expected the title to be more hyperbole than anything. My parents were fascinated with him and I own coffee mugs with his face and quotes.
#Jesus and john wayne book review full
In full disclosure, I was raised watching John Wayne movies and, as a cinephile, I still enjoy watching one once in a while. In fact, they are quicker to jettison Jesus (or recreate him like he's clay) than to reject leaders who hold power. White Evangelical Fascination With John Wayne. To me, that's the most fascinating aspect that Kobes Du Mez is how much they are beholden to power and within that, constantly try to re-create Jesus into that model. And those who spoke out against such machiavellian choices were often ousted from leadership or made to refute their previous assertions. The book shows time and again that when Evangelicals and their leadership were given the chance to go with the Christian who more clearly practiced and embodied the teachings they often upheld, they would overwhelmingly go with the one whom they saw would do more for them. With precision and skill that would make her a master-surgeon, Kobes Du Mez explores how evangelicals through their formal and popular leaders have crafted and directed followers to give up any accurate portrayal of Christianity in order to uphold patriarchy, patriotism (though more often jingoism), and profiteering. She also shows how evangelicals used radio, television, and social media over the decades to offer up a version of Christianity that was somehow always on the cusp of being destroyed in the US (despite overwhelming evidence otherwise) while simultaneously working their way into numerous politically influential spaces on the national scene. Kobes Du Mez illustrates how evangelicals in the 20th century embraced a particular mixture of traits including dominance-informed masculinity, advocacy for wars of assertion and profit, a xenophobic and religiously bigoted disregard for others, and political maneuvering that forfeited their believes and practices in the name of power. If one ever sought to understand the particular recipe of religious fervor, politicking, and hypocrisy that represents much of Evangelical Christianity in the United States over the past 100 years, they would do well to read this book. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez