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

An expert on American Christianity provides a 75-year overview of evangelicalism, highlighting the factors that have made Donald Trump a religious right hero.

How could 81 percent of white evangelical voters support a libertine in 2016 who doesn't even comprehend the fundamentals of Christianity? And why have the most ardent followers of a presidential reprobate turned out to be white evangelicals? In Jesus and John Wayne, renowned historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez explores these and other issues as she goes behind the scenes to show how white evangelicals contributed to the fractious political climate of our day. Du Mez dispels the myth that the "moral majority" supported Donald Trump mainly out of self-interest, showing that the candidate really embodies the fulfilment of white evangelicals' core beliefs rather than their betrayal.

A comprehensive history of the last 75 years of white evangelicalism, Jesus and John Wayne demonstrates how American evangelicals have spent decades trying to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of gritted masculinity and Christian nationalism—or, as one contemporary chaplain put it, with "a spiritual badass." Understanding the importance of culture in contemporary American evangelicalism is crucial, as Du Mez demonstrates. While many modern evangelicals may lack theological sophistication, they are familiar with VeggieTales, have read John Eldredge's Wild at Heart, and wear silver rings to show that they learnt about purity before sex. Millions of people's beliefs are shaped by evangelical literature, movies, music, clothes, and goods. Furthermore, there are plenty of strong heroes in evangelical popular culture—legendary combatants and tough soldiers like Mel Gibson, Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, and the Duck Dynasty—who stand up for "Christian America" and demonstrate white male dominance. John Wayne stands out among these evangelical giants as a symbol of a bygone era when men were daring to tell it like it was, did what had to be done, and were not intimidated by political correctness.

Put differently, Trump is by no means the first ostentatious superstar to win over evangelicals, nor is he the first strongman to pledge loyalty and authority to them. In fact, long after Trump leaves office, the principles and beliefs that form the foundation of contemporary white evangelicalism—patriarchy, authoritarian governance, assertive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence towards #MeToo, and hostility to the LGBTQ community and Black Lives Matter—are likely to endure.

Jesus and John Wayne offers a much-needed reexamination of why evangelicals have unified behind the least-Christian president in American history, showing how this has changed their religion and had long-lasting effects on all of us.