Jesus and John Wayne

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The ΓÇ£paradigm-influencingΓÇ¥ book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping,revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalismrevealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalismΓÇöor in the words of one modern chaplainwith ΓÇ£a spiritual badass.ΓÇ¥ As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explainsthe key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of todayΓÇÖs evangelicals might not be theologically astutebut they know their VeggieTalestheyΓÇÖve read John EldredgeΓÇÖs Wild at Heartand they learned about purity before they learned about sexΓÇöand they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical booksfilmsmusicclothingand merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroesΓÇömythical warriors and rugged soldiersmen like Oliver NorthRonald ReaganMel Gibsonand the Duck Dynasty clanwho assert white masculine power in defense of ΓÇ£Christian America.ΓÇ¥ Chief among these evangelical legends is John Waynean icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctnessunafraid to tell it like it wasand did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the ΓÇ£moral majorityΓÇ¥ backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasonsDu Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillmentrather than the betrayalof white evangelicalsΓÇÖ most deeply held values: patriarchyauthoritarian ruleaggressive foreign policyfear of Islamambivalence toward #MeTooand opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this countryJesus and John Wayne shows thatfar from adhering to biblical principlesmodern white evangelicals have remade their faithwith enduring consequences for all Americans.