Jesus and John Wayne

 

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Shattered a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Jesus and John Wayne isn’t so much a book as it is a rant. The author is mightily ticked off at the state of affairs with both Christianity and politics in the 21^st century and this book serves as an outlet for her frustrations.  You get the feeling that if she had been verbally dictating this book, she would have been pointing and shaking her finger and screaming into the microphone.  If she was typing notes, you get the feeling that she had the CAPS lock key on the entire time.

It's not that her sentiments are incorrect nor faulty. In fact, her observations are spot on. The premise of this book is that sometime in the middle of the 20^th century, evangelical Christians stopped worshipping the true Jesus, and instead started worshipping John Wayne – or a Jesus with traits of John Wayne. This was initially very subtle, of course. If we’re completely honest, it’s hard to follow the advice of someone who tells us to turn the cheek when what we really want to do is whack them over the head with a baseball bat.  So evangelical leaders (and their devoted flock) have taken their Bible, performed some massive hermeneutical gymnastics, and turned a humble Galilean into to an assault weapon yielding action hero.  It’s amazing how far people who claim to identify as a Christian will go to justify such behavior.

Here's an example: I confronted an individual claiming to be a Christian because of his abusive, nasty alienating behavior.  I told him that our Bible tells us that God is love, and his behavior is a far cry from “love”.  His response?  Being nasty and screaming insults at people causes them to see the error in their ways, and if you’re “kind” instead, that gives them the impression that their behavior is acceptable.  When I heard this, I replied with eyebrows raised, that this kind of behavior doesn’t normally work with rational, levelheaded people.  He then barked back at me “That’s the Holy Spirit’s job!”

O-KAYYYYY

So, yes, there’s a problem with a lot of these type of individuals and they are the focus of Du Mez’s book. Her book is essentially a linear history lesson of all of the times evangelicals and politicians have emanated this behavior with no positive results other that a bizarre testosterone rush that these individuals get when “worshipping” in multi-million dollar buildings while speaking (screaming actually) in tongues.  She goes from one event to the next. One corrupt evangelical to the next. One “masculine” church movement to the next.  She doesn’t ever come up to breathe.  We hear of all the accolades every time a conservative figure is elected to office, and we hear all of the “we’re definitely now in the end times!” moaning every time a Democrat is elected. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.

What I would have preferred the author do, is slow down her manic paced frustrations a bit, and maybe articulate about just why this behavior is, in fact, Un-Christ-like.  There are plenty of good examples and arguments that she could use from scripture, but being a history major, the author might not actually know that much about such things.  This is a shame. One almost wishes she could have co-written this with a reputable theologian so we can see just how damaging this “American Christian” movement has become, and perhaps look at alternative behaviors that the Christian church should be emanating.

I should point out that she wrote the book after Donald Trump’s election to the office of President after 2016, yet before his failed maniacal coup of 2020.  My guess is she watched the horrific events as they transpired on January 6^th and wanted to shout “I told you so!”.  (Side note: I remember when that event occurred and thinking that it just might wake people up to realize how deranged  and dangerous Donald Trump was.  Whereas some came to their senses, there are still people (including highly visible church leaders) who are stupid enough to follow and believe him.)  One almost gets the impression that had she tacked this project a few years later, she may have called the book “Jesus and Donald Trump” instead.

This isn’t an easy book to read due to what is known as “trigger levels”.  When you read about the behavior of so many white evangelicals throughout the years, your tendency is to hurl this book across the room.  It’s hard to stomach.  It’s even harder to understand how so many can still be so blind to the lies and dangers of the movement. Related note: America is not, nor has it EVER been, a “Christian” nation. If we could stop thinking it was, that just might fix a lot of issues right away.

I would also re-emphasize that the author seems to go against EVERYONE who is a White Christian; even the Veggie Tales creator.  I thought that was a bit farfetched at times, but she does acknowledge that there were some good results and platitudes behind things such as The Promise Keepers Movement of the 1990s.  Again, what the author says needed to be said, I just wished she could have toned it down a bit and not sound quite so angry.  Of course, it’s awfully hard NOT to be angry when you see what so many facets of evangelism have done do Jesus and his teachings.