Jesus and John Wayne

How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

By: Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Narrated by: Suzie Althens

How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate's staunchest supporters? These are among the questions acclaimed historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez asks in Jesus and John Wayne, which explains how white evangelicals have brought us to our fractured political moment.



Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism. Evangelical popular culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of "Christian America." Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done.



A much-needed reexamination, Jesus and John Wayne explains why evangelicals have rallied behind the least-Christian president in American history and how they have transformed their faith in the process, with enduring consequences for all of us.©2020 Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Like reading a history of my evangelical life

I grew up in the exact stream of faith that the author lays out in this book. With one or two exceptions, I was deeply familiar with every person mentioned, every book referenced, every piece of lingo and cultural collateral. I deeply appreciated the fair and historical method the author used in laying out the facts of how one depiction of masculinity dictated the ethos of an entire group of people for generations. The subtitle is the most “inflammatory” thing about this book. Clearly the author has opinions, but this book doesn’t read like a snarky tirade against evangelicals. It’s a thorough history, and having lived it, I can attest to its absolute veracity. I can’t recommend it highly enough if you want to understand the driving force behind right wing evangelicals.

Narration is very choppy

I had a hard time with this narration. I think the pauses replaced the need to say “.” (Quote, unquote) Tragically, it breaks the flow of the story.

explains so much.

Reading this book was like reading a family history. It explains so much about how I was raised and how we as a nation got to where we are.

This book helped revitalize Christianity for me

For awhile I’ve had struggles with my faith as someone who grew up Christian and attended a Christian college, particularly due to the Church’s marriage to Republicanism and the election of Donald Trump. I saw the same people who told me the moral character of a leader matters when talking about Bill Clinton’s affair turn around and vote for Trump. I’ve been very discouraged wondering why my faith and the teachings of Jesus seem so departed from modern day evangelicalism. This book helped bring perspective of many of the unhealthy and unChrist-like beliefs that propagate throughout the Church are more recently formed and not indicative of what the Bible and Jesus actually teach. Highly recommend!

Great info, not well served by the reading

So much of this book was fascinating, but I found the reader to be completely non-emotive and unengaging, like it was being read by a machine. It made it very easy to tune out unintentionally and I kept missing things. Also be aware that the last chapter is a litany of nearly an hour long list of powerful men getting away with SA and justifying it with faith. So just be ready for that.