![]() What do you think? Please leave a comment at the bottom. Get a Kindle copy of Jesus and John Wayne for $14.99 Can. Jesus and John Wayne is not a flawless book but it is worth the read over your Christmas holidays. He grew his churches to over 15,000 with young men through preaching about wives serving their husbands sexually. Mark Driscoll is the former pastor of Mars Hill Church, and leader of the Acts29 network of churches. Most damning is story after story of downplayed instances of clergy sexual abuse and the subjugation of wives. She goes on to observe, “This evangelical consumer culture not only shapes evangelical beliefs and values, but it also fosters a sense of communal identity across regional, denominational, and socioeconomic differences.” In an interview Du Mez asks, “Did you grow up listening to Focus on the Family in your home each and every day? Did you shop at Christian bookstores? Did you listen to Christian music or Christian talk radio?” Yes, yes, yes and yes. For those of us who have struggled to make sense of our evangelical culture, we don’t need citations to tell us what we already know.”ĭu Mez clearly shows that the books, book tours, Bible studies, music, Christian bookstores, and publishing industry within evangelicalism played a crucial role in maintaining and distributing evangelical norms and values. ![]() “We’ve seen many of these issues with our own eyes: the dismissive responses, the sexist comments, the failure to act on the part of victims, the exaggerated responses to perceived cultural threats. ![]() Jamie Carlson, though critical of Du Mez’s arguments, says her work brings order to what others have struggled to express. “This is the way apostle Paul describes marriage in Ephesians chapter 5: A husband is like a savior to his wife, the burden really lies with men, to see themselves as those who rescue women from loneliness, to rescue women from being in a unfulfilled life, being in a place where they are not provided for, where they are not protected, not cared for, not loved, not given opportunity to have children.” Norms And Values He is one of the many leaders that Du Mez points to as an illustration of an unhealthy, patriarchal church culture. John MacArthur is the lead pastor of Grace Community Church, Sun Valley, California, the Chancellor of Master’s University & Seminary, and featured teacher with the Grace to You media ministry. And what of his vulgarity?… Even sexual assault? Well, boys will be boys…If you wanted a tamer man, castrate him.” She offers a biting version of Evangelical Christianity “What makes for a strong leader? A virile (white) man. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation is a New York Times bestseller. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. Boys Will Be Boysĭu Mez is a Professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. Jesus and John Wayne share a lot in common in evangelical thinking. John Wayne is the icon of a lost time when men were men, political correctness was for sissies, the good guys were unafraid to tell it like it is and did what needed to be done. Her research shows evangelical males replacing the Jesus of the Gospels with what one chaplain calls “a spiritual badass.” ![]() ![]() Du Mez exposes the darkest underbelly of Evangelicalism. She doesn’t make accusations or applications. Billy Graham, James Dobson, Tim LaHaye, Ed Cole, Bill McCartney, and organizations like Promise Keepers, and the Christian Men’s Network. One after another, legendary influencers of my formative pastoral years were paraded out. I plowed through all 386 pages in three nights of reading. She crafts a compelling narrative revealing Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. Jesus, I know and John Wayne, I know, but who is Kristen Kobes Du Mez? White Evangelicalsĭu Mez is the author who set evangelical Christians’ hair on fire writing about John Wayne, Jesus, white evangelicals and, of course, Donald Trump. ![]()
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