Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

These are brief notes on the novel. I ordered the book during Covid years and just couldn't get into the reading, as it's rather academic in nature, versus written by political, social or professional journalists. The font is small and the reading vast, but after hearing and reading more about the content contained in this book, I reordered it and am now drafting notes.

As a young girl, I loved westerns and combat movies, but also sitcoms that made me laugh. When I think back about the older sitcoms, such as Leave it to Beaver, or My Three Sons I'd had no real idea 'what society was projecting' to me. Beaver was a stereotypical home with a stay at home mother and working father, that despite being gone a good part of the day, still held all the authority. While My Three Sons portrayed a different type of family - the mother role was replaceable by a housekeeper and more involved dad. Women were replaceable and played a less significant role in the family then the father, the earner of the family.

What I didn't have an appreciation for, was the devotion and time my grandmother spent with me experiencing the world of Barbie. Knowing that despite what mores society had for me, my family had others, that allowed me to be independent, educated, loving and reliant upon myself and not just a man. Husbandry was a partnership not a patriarchy'.

Introduction: Evangelical support for Trump was no aberration, nor was it merely pragmatic choice. It was rather, the culmination of evangelical's embrace of militatnt masculinity, an ideology that enshrines patricarchal authority and condones the callous display of power, at home and abroad. As Trump arrived proclaiming himself as their savior, the conservative white evangelicals traded their faith of humility and elevated the belief they were defending their faith and nation, securing the idea that the end would justify the means.

They replaced the Jesus of Gospels with a vengeful warrior Christ, it'sno wonder many came to thin of Trump in the same way. Trump didn't trigger the militant turn, it was a sympotomatic of a long-standing condition. White Protestantant support premptive war, condone the use of torture, and favor the death penalty. They are similar of other faith groups to own a gun, and believe citizens should be allowed to carry them in most places. White evangelicals ae moe opposed to immigration reform and a heightened view of immigrants than any other religious demographics; two-thirds approved of the border wall.

Sixty-eight percent of white evangelicals Protestants believe the US has no responsibility to accept refugees nor do they support any growth of any non-white sector of the population. Their dream for the US does not reflect any portion of the mainstream citizenship to include support of the religion of Islam, as they perceive it to be a natural conflict of interest in Christianity and democracy. They accept the fact Christianity has become a majority with minority support which has led to bias against them, resulting in this 'group; to become more authoritarian in nature.

They share the belief that domestic and foreign affairs are two sides of the same coin. That Christian nationalism has determined that America is God's chosen nation and must be defended their intolerance toward immigrants, racial minorities, and non-Christians. They are strongly linked to opposition to gay rights and gun control, supports harsher punishments for criminals, allows justifications for the use of excessive force against the black Americans, in law enforcement situations and strong traditionalists to gender ideology.

These evangelicals have pieced together a patchwork of issues and nostalgic commitment to rugged, aggressive, militant white masculinty serves as the thread binding them together into a coherent whole. And in 2016 a substantial number of white evangelicals shared Trump's nationalism, Islamphobia, racism and nativism. They condoned his 'nasty' politics and supported the injurying of protestors, describing them as 'bad apples and deserving of their punishment. These Protestant leaders were demonstrating a preference for rejecrting political compromise, a strong push for solitary leadership and breaking the rules that they see that don't fit 'their' needs.

These white nationalists who state they preach the Bible and uphold it to be the highest authority of Christian life ignore the many verses that state the opposite of their beliefs and actions. There are ove 31,000 verses considered essential guides to faithful Christian practices, which these 'leaders' have ignored or explained away.

Twenty-five percent of African Americans who subscribe to all four distinctives identify as evangelical, largely because most Black Christians have long resisted embracing the evagelical label, as it is clear to them that there is more to evagelicalism than straightforward statements of belief. According to survey data black Protestants apply thier faith in ways that run counter to white evangelicalism. These differences are rooted in not just experience but faith itself.

For the traditional white evagelical identity, race rarely acts as a separate variable; the white conservative evangelical the 'good news' for the Christian gospel has become inextricably tied to a secure commitment to patriarcal authority, gender difference and Christian nationalism, intertwined with the 'white racial identity' platform. Republican in it's politics and traditionalist in it's values. Conservative White Christian Americans have embraced these values dividing the nation polarizing American politics and society.

Their traditions are easily found, such as the James Dobson's Focus on Family radio programs or the cartoon show VeggieTales, music concerts by Amy Grand or the NEwsboys or DC Talk. They learned about irity before they learned about sex, atnd they ahve a silver ring to prove it. The movie Passion of the Christ, Sout Surfer or the latest Kirek Cmeroan film with thier youth group. They attend Promise Keepers with guys from church and read Wild at Heart in small groups. The diffusion of evangelical consumer culture extends far beyond the orbit of evangelical churches, it's inroads to mainline Christianity, have distorted mainline Christianity to the point of 'diversion' within the United Methodist Church.

The cultural evangelicalism remains intertwined with establishment evangelicalism. The religious contet consumed by the various congregations is written and published my demoninational organizations and para-church groups, pastors, theologians, colleges and seminaries, publishing houses and charities generate much of the religious content that is marketed toward immense congregation of consumers. These leaders preach and bestow authority upon one another, announcing each others' literature on social media, in books and other published documents; thereby allowing onlt themselves to determine what they feel worthy of sharing or lecturing condemation. And at times this cultural evangelism is able to rupture the authority of the evangelical elite.

Presently the evangelicals are discovering they have little influence over many people in their pews, due to Trump's push of a more ideological and coherent worldview that partakes in a common culture, with like-minded consumers. Providing them a pursuit of 'tradition' over social-change, security in the face of global threats and most importantly, affiriming the righteousness of a white Christian America, by extension of white Christian Americans, conservative evangelicals succeeded in winning the hearts and minds of American Christians. They achieved this dominance not only by crafting a compelling ideology but also by advancing their agenda through strategic organizations and political alliances, on occasion by way of ruthless displays of power, dominating the production and distribution of Christian consumer culture.

The power of conservative white evangelicalism lacks clear institutional authority structures, but the evangelicalism is apparent in both the size of its market share and its influence over religious distribution channels. The products Christians consume shape the faith they inhabit; today a conservative evangelical is as much about culture as it is in a belief system (theolgy), which is visible in the heroes they celebrate, such as John Wayne, generals Douglas McArthur and George Patton. They bestow an image of the all American cowboy and our idealized soldiers, displaying a strong masculine conservative christian stereotype of men. Idealized for protecting the weak and their pursuit for justice and order.

The irony is John Wayne didn't consider himself a Christian, nor did he live a moral life by the standards of traditional Christian virtue. Yet, they chose to symbolize a different set of values, ones that would initiate emotional nostalgic mythical values - a return of gender roles, and the reassertion of white patriarchal authority. These ideological pastors felt it was best to embody militant Christian masculinity by linking them to religious and secular conservatism, helping to secure an alliance with profound political ramifications. These so-called miltant-herous would come to be defining not only as the symbol of Christian manhood but Christianity itself.

Fundamentalists and evangelicals retreated from public view and political engagement after 1925's Scopes Monkey Trail and with the end of Prohibition in 1933, where they concentrated on individual soul saving techniques, that is until the 1970's, or so it seemed. However there are remants of literature on their 'moves' to push muscular Christianity during the 1940's and 50's., promoting patriarchal, gender traditionalism, militarism, and Christian nationalism identity. Preachers like Billy Graham believed he had been appointed as a role-keeper of the American Christians by stregthening the family, and it's values.

By the 1960's, the civil rights movement, feminism, and the Vietnam War led many Americans to quesion 'traditional' values, while gender and sexual norms were in flux, and the American no longer appeared to be melded to God's right hand. Family values were at the forefront of the evangelicals political resurgence and topics such as sex, power, race, and group identitites were now being introduced. They felt these new culture methods had removed men of their duty to provide and protect opening the door to women in the military, the CEO mangement levels. Vietnam was not a national security issue, but a crisis in masculinity, Civil Rights was believed to be an aggressor attacking and destabilizing our social order. Desegregation was often felt to have been an overreach of government, and turned into an threat against the protections of our white womenhood and the power of white men to police social and sexual boundaries.

White patriarchy was central to the new 'family values' of politics, and by the late 70's this defence of patriarchy emerged as distinctively driven by evangelicals. This refounded resilence in the consumer marketplace now had standing and functioned less as a soul-saving enterprise as more as a means by which evangelicals created and maintained their own identity. A Family Values identity infused with a sense of culturaral embattlement. Those radio and tv shows/media reflected on how to raise your family, how and when to procreate and whom to fear. Masculinity power was maintained thru a mythical past of the cowboy, soldier and warriors guiding them to a renewed frontier, with the promise of a sweet, submissive femininity, allowing the evangelical to shape cocneptions of what was good and true. By the 80's evangelicals mobilized effectively to participate as a partisan political force, due to the share cultured identity, The militant evangelical masculinity went hand in hand with a culture of fear.

In 2001 when terrorists attacked the US, the evangelicals, themselves battled, driven by fraudulent tales of the Islamic threat, tales they often promted themselves. Realizing they would need more than 'an instance' to provoke anarchy, they needed a militant faith present and fearful at all times, a need for an 'ever-present sense of threat.

In 2008, the elected President Obama enacted those fears for the evangelical and their followers. The culture during that period often seemed to be at a loss and their power stagnant but they'd fought the underground war many times before knowing they'd surface once more, fully charged and ready to take back 'their privileged lives'.

Trump gave them hope and cause to surface, they'd been tormented with the passing of the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate, the enactment of 'transgender' bathroom lawas and the acceptance of gay marriages. Globalization brought terrorism closer to our shores, and our international power weakened, with the allowance of women into the troops and leadership roles of our miltary and large corporations.

For years, these white anglo-saxon protestant men stoked these fears, knowing their power depended on it. They feared them...and they wanted you to fear them. Them were not a part of 'white christian culture', they were communists, feminists, liberals, secular humanists, homosexuals, the United Nations assembly, the government, Muslims, and immigrants. Evangelicals portrayed the hero from this plight as a man whoe was embodied with God-given testosterone-driven masculinity; the meanest toughest son-of-a-bitch, I can find for the role.

Across hundreds of years of Christian history and evangelicalism itself,there is precedent for sexism, racism, xenophbia, violence, and imperial designs. The history of American Christainty itself is filled with voices of resistence and signs of paths not taken. All this did not begin with Trump, nor will it end with him.

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Chapter 1: Saddling Up

Chapter 2 John Wayne Will Save Your Ass

Chapter 3: God's Gift to Man

Chapter 4: Discipline and Command

Chapter 5: Slaves and Soldiers

Chapter 6: Going for the Justice

Chapter 7: The Greatest American Hero

Chapter 8: War for the Soul

Chapter 9: Tender Warriors

Chapter 10: No More Christian Nice Guy

Chapter 11: Holly Balls

Chapter 12: Pilgrim's Progress in Camo

Chapter 13: Why We Want to Kill You

Chapter 14: Spiritual Badasses

Chapter 15: A new High Priest

Chapter 16: Evangelical Mulligans: A History