white native-born Protestant men began to assert a new kind of masculinity-a rougher, tougher masculinity. When “old ideas of manhood seemed insufficient. Already, by the 1890s, American culture was changing as economic, social, and cultural forces began to threaten the cultural status quo and the reigning definition of masculinity.īy the early twentieth century, Christians recognized that they had a masculinity problem.
She traces the history of white American evangelicalism from the late 19th century to the present to make sense of how we got here. In her eye-opening book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, Calvin University Professor of History and Gender Studies, Kristin Kobes Du Mez (pronounced Mey), combined American evangelical history, current political developments, and the questions that were swirling to connect the dots. They stood enthusiastically before cameras and large crowds and published lengthy articles to reaffirm their support and convince evangelicals that a vote for Trump was a “moral choice.” Wade, and building a border wall, justified electing a president who is, as Pastor Robert Jeffress put it, “the meanest, toughest, son-of-a-you-know-what.” 2Įven the Washington Post’s release of the Access Hollywood tape that caught Trump boasting lewdly of sexually assaulting women-and over a dozen women came forward with allegations that he had done exactly that to them-was not a bridge too far for Trump’s white evangelical loyalists. For a significant majority, filling courts with conservative judges, ending Roe v. Trusted evangelical leaders had long been preaching morality and “family values.” Now these fierce proponents who preached that “character matters” were backing a candidate who was the flagrant antithesis, not only of everything they had championed throughout their careers, but more significantly who was shamelessly antithetical to the teachings and example of Jesus.Įvangelicals had become politicized. This evangelical voting bloc was reinforced by public endorsements from a line-up of well-known evangelical leaders, such as James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Franklin Graham, Wayne Grudem, Robert Jeffress, and Eric Metaxas.įor many it was difficult to imagine a more jarring dissonance than the one between historic Christian ethics and evangelical enthusiasm for Donald Trump. Pundits and pollsters attributed his win largely to 81% of American evangelicals who voted for him. It was a stunning moment in American history for both supporters and detractors.
Most Americans can tell you exactly where they were in 2016 when they heard the news that Americans had elected Donald J. In reality, evangelicals did not cast their vote despite their beliefs, but because of them. In 2016, many observers were stunned at evangelicals’ apparent betrayal of their own values. Publisher: Liveright Publishing Company, a division of W. Title: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation