Book Review: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez
This book clears up the reasons behind the baffling phenomena of people voting against their own interests and for authoritarians. Kristin Kobes Du Mez documents well the origins and evolution of the methodology used by what may be described as populist evangelicalism (not to be confused with genuine attempts at orthodox christian theology and practice). The author documents christian nationalist efforts to recast their concept of Jesus from the one depicted in the Gospels who spoke and acted with convincing authoritativeness to a John Wayne character who demands militarism and misogyny from his followers and endorses the oppression that grows out of unrestrained capitalism.
Constantly misrepresenting the actual threats to the United States and other countries, the christian nationalists who call themselves evangelical routinely conflate social welfare with autocratic dictatorship and erroneously call it “socialism” (meaning the Soviet variety)—this movement has been accelerating for over 40 years, but has earlier roots past the John Birch Society from the 1960s and into the 19th Century. Du Mez describes all of this clearly and well.
Much of the culture of these groups described by Du Mez looks much like a cult, in which abuse is overlooked and even encouraged as acts of righteousness. Conformity is the order of the day, making left wing cancel culture (often misguided itself) look anemic in comparison. The broadcast and social media infrastructure maintaining this white nationalist movement is vast and very well funded over an extended time—look beyond just Fox News and its imitators, and into the social structure of evangelical culture.
As possible signs of hope, Du Mez illustrates some examples of individuals who have escaped the spell of this propaganda. The book is inconclusive as to whether this is a growing trend or just tiny rays of light in an otherwise dark night. Unfortunately unless the hostile take overs of institutions such as the Southern Baptist Convention and the Republican Party can be countered, white christian nationalist fascism in our future cannot be ruled out. Although Du Mez does not couch the book as a call to action, it may rightly be considered to be one—let’s see that it results in an effective critical mass response.
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