Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes DuMez
Content Warnings: Religious trauma, non-specific mentions of sexism and homophobia
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted A Faith And Fractured A Nation by Kristin Kobes DuMez is not an indictment of Christianity. It is not even an indictment of Evangelicalism. Jesus and John Wayne is ultimately about militant masculinity, and how it uses religion to push the USA toward fascism.
The Author
The author of the book, DuMez, is a professor at Calvin University, a Christian private university in Grand Rapids, MI. She is a professor of History, and identifies as Christian. There are debates about the accuracy of her analysis of Biblical interpretation.
I'm not a Christian nor am I a theologian, so I am not going to wade into arguments about what the Bible actually says because I don't think it is directly relevant to the rising political movement of regressive patriarchy in the United States and other countries. I believe some political actors use religion as a means of promoting white patriarchy in the US, and I am reading this book as a case study in that.
To quote the author herself:
"Despite evangelicals’ frequent claims that the Bible is the source of their social and political commitments, evangelicalism must be seen as a cultural and political movement rather than as a community defined chiefly by its theology." -DuMez
Why John Wayne?
According to the author, there has been a tension between different interpretations of Christianity in the US for centuries. The social gospel if the early 1900s presented a progressive view of religion that espoused aiding fellow humans. This view of Christianity was opposite of the other wing of the religion, which viewed Christ as a conqueror and a warrior.
The main thesis of the book is that, rather than changing their beliefs to suit their religion, champions of militant masculinity instead sought out modern day warriors. Christian men who were tough, stoic, and decidedly not feminine. John Wayne, despite being a poor Christian, represented the ideal of masculinity to this wing of the churches coming up in the early to mid 1900s. Rugged, individualistic, aggressive and dominant: he represented a warrior. DuMez repeatedly comes to this image of a warrior over and over again.
"Since the 1960s and 1970s, evangelicals had championed discipline and authority. To obey God was to obey patriarchal authorities within a rigid chain of command, and God had equipped men to exercise this authority in the home and in society at large. Testosterone made men dangerous, but it also made them heroes." - DuMez
Incompatibility with a plural society
The author draws on American history to draw a line from the foundations to the modern iteration of violent patriachy on display in the first Trump administration. The book spends quite a bit of time with the forces that set down the seeds for modern day evangelical patriarchy, such as Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly, and others.
What stands out is the normalized intolerance on display from individuals in this movement. This isn't unusual for Americans in general, but it's especially noteworthy as this movement has become both more extreme and more mainstream. However, even earlier on this speech was all over AM radio shows or on gospels. I would catch a crazy sermon or some guy talking about radical liberals or Muslims all the time on road trips through the rural patches of red America. I just recently did a deep dive on one such visit to Right Wing Watch, but I had been watching them for closing on twenty years now.
To quote the author again:
"in 2014, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Decision magazine featured Putin on its cover, and Franklin Graham praised the Russian president for standing up to the “gay and lesbian agenda.” The next year, Graham met with Putin in Moscow, an occasion that prompted him to praise Putin as a defender of “traditional Christianity” while accusing President Obama of promoting atheism. In foreign policy as in domestic politics, the cult of masculinity can transform loyalties and reshape alliances." - DuMez
The mindset driving this 'cult of masculinity' does not allow difference. Anything beyond the narrow lanes of what they deem to be 'acceptable' behavior is evil and cannot be tolerated.
Concluding Thoughts
This book did a great job of linking up things I knew together into a cohesive web, though the religious discussions did go a bit over my head. This has been a concept I've been thinking about a lot lately, so this book has certainly given me more things to ponder.