Silent No More

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes du Mez is not an easy read – or listen, in my case. My sister told me I had to listen to it so we could talk about it – so, like all good little sisters, I did so.

The author is from a white evangelical background, so not only does she have personal experience within the evangelical world, but her research and attention to details is impeccable. One thing I appreciated is her ability to not stray from the main focus of the book. She didn’t get lost on tangents or use this as a soap box or rallying cry for feminism (although, to be fair, I wanted to find some feminist march somewhere and join it after finishing the book). No. She takes a goal – answering the question “How did we get here as a nation?” after the election of a Christian nationalist, outspoken misogynist, sexual predator, and known liar.

Donald Trump didn’t come out of nowhere, she argues. She traced the history of patriarchy, racism, and sexism within the evangelical community starting in the 1950s. She writes of big name evangelical leaders and evangelical cultural icons, men like Bill Graham, Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Chuck Colson, Tim Lahaye, Jerry Falwell (and his son), and Bill Gothard, just to name a few. She explains how the rhetoric of “rugged masculinity” started to sleep into Christian evangelical culture. After all, before the 60s, Christians were primarily registered Democrats. She argues that with the rise of Billy Graham, religion and politics started to co-mingle, to the point that evangelical leaders started endorsing political candidates.

The roots of white evangelicalism are firmly planted in the soil of patriarchy, racism, and militant ideology and rhetoric. During the 70s and 80s, talk of “culture war” and “the moral majority” called for strong men to “take the lead” and fight a war against secular influences such as feminism, desegregation, abortion on demand, and against enemies such as “beta men” – men like Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, and Walter Mondale.

This militant rhetoric started to shape Jesus into a rugged hero who never backed down. He wasn’t afraid to throw some tables around, or raise a whip. He was in favor of “just wars” like the Iraqi invasion following 9/11. Shirts that read “Jesus loves me and my guns” was just one example of this type of aggressive Jesus, one who they shaped into their own image. The white male belief that their rights were being trod on, women were usurping male authority, and that Democrats were sissies, pussies, and afraid to do what needed to be done to keep America strong was an attempt at white male evangelical victimization.

The election of Barack Obama only fueled this rage. See? Here was a perfect example of how white American rights were going to be taken away, right in front of their faces. A man who claimed to be a Christian, but MUST be Muslim. And was he even born here? Where was his birth certificate? And his wife was strong, independent, and clearly not submissive to her husband in the way a good Christian wife was supposed to be.

The author paints a very clear picture of why Donald Trump won over white evangelicals at staggering numbers well over 80%. His rhetoric fueled their fear, enraged them even further, and then gave them a new high priest who would rescue America and make it great again. Because, clearly, America was only great when white males held all the power, women fell in line like they were supposed to, and people of color knew their place.

Not all evangelicals supported him at first, the author says. Russel Moore in particular was very vocal about his dislike of Trump. John Piper, as well, although he wasn’t as scathing in his rebuke as Moore was. In fact, their dissent softened when he won the primaries and was the Republican candidate for president in 2016, and Hillary Clinton was the Democrat candidate. Here was a woman, God forbid, who could possibly lead this country. According to Piper, this alone was reason to vote Republican. And as Trump’s ego, narcissism, racism, and sexism was continually on full display, the argument became, “But we need new Supreme Court Justices to end abortion” as the reason to vote for him. It wasn’t until the tape of Trump boasting of sexually assaulting women did Moore and Piper go back to declaring that not voting was now the answer.

However, Moore and Piper were on the fringe of evangelicalism. Men like Falwell fawned over Trump. White evangelical leaders loved him, because he “told it like it was.” Some claimed that the reason so many white evangelicals voted for him was for issues related to the economy. However, this was clearly proven false by data gained from multiple sources, including exit polls. It was moral issues – issues like freedom of religion, freedom to own guns, and the desire to end abortion that people voted for him.

The author’s point was well proven. Trump wasn’t an exception to the rule of white evangelical Christians. He was just continuing in the same vein as they had always been. Here was a strong, masculine, straight shooting white man who would lead the country into its future. He was just like their hero – John Wayne. Wayne had always been practically worshiped by white evangelical men. Starting with his rise to fame, and culminating in his death, Wayne was a “man’s man.” Forget that he dodged the draft and then went on to make movies about the glory of soldiers and war. Forget that he had made openly racist comments, or was thrice divorced and denigrated women.

All in all, this book was well researched, well written, clear, concise, and illuminating. I highly recommend it for people like me who are flabbergasted at how someone as morally repugnant as Trump could have gotten to where he is, as the savior of America. 5/5 stars. You can grab it on audiobook, ebook, or paperback at most major booksellers.

After finishing the book, I was struck by two things. First, the author answered the question I’d been asking since Trump was first elected. How in the world did men I once admired, nationally and locally, vote for someone so morally reprehensible? During 2015 and leading up to the election in 2016, it seemed to me that Russel Moore was the only white evangelical I knew who remained stalwart in his opposition of Trump, calling him out for his inflammatory speech, moral failings, sexism, and racism. On a personal level, I was incredibly disappointed by a whole host of men I knew and respected within my social and church circles. Men I never thought in a million years would get behind a candidate like Trump. Instead, they held their noses and voted for him, and then, as time went on, started to laud him and his accomplishments. He put two Supreme Court Justices in place, after all, who would end abortion. Never mind that Brett Kavanaugh was accused of rape. If a rapist will stop the murder of babies, it would be worth it. The irony, in my estimation, is staggering. Women were only vessels to bear children, yet when women wanted to exercise their own right over their own body and healthcare, suddenly white men start clamoring and yelling. And their voices are always the loudest. Abortion is the greatest evil, right? But instead of finding ways to support the influx of babies now being born into poverty, Republicans are slashing budgets to programs that will help them. So not only is abortion access limited, so are resources to help the women now forced to carry these babies and raise them, often without the help of men – there’s a reason the absence of fathers has become an epidemic in our culture. As soon as women started leaving the home and entering the workforce, and not staying home as full time homemakers, men suddenly no longer wanted to be fathers. Now, they were being asked to have equal responsibility in the home. And equality was an unthinkable ask.

The second thing that was striking to me was just how ensconced I once was in this world of white evangelical male patriarchy. Sovereign Grace Ministries and CJ Mahaney were brought up in this book, labeling CJ as influential in the evangelical world, not just through SGM but through Together for the Gospel and The Gospel Coalition. And like most evangelical leaders, he was embroiled in scandal and claims of bullying and cover ups. I grew up learning songs like “Onward, Christian Soldier” and “I’m in the Lord’s Army.” What I was fighting wasn’t people, but ideologies. Social narratives. Attacks on the Christian faith. As a child I wouldn’t have been able to identify any of those things, but singing songs like that only prove that even children were being inoculated to believe this white male evangelical narrative, complete with militant rhetoric and the idea that Jesus was a fighter, not a peace maker.

I’ll end with this. Jesus was not a white man. He wasn’t a fighter. He wasn’t a trail blazer – at least, not in the ways white evangelicals think. His Sermon on the Mount tells us all we need to know about his political beliefs. Mainly, turning the other cheek, and walking not one mile, but two. His radical call of self-denial wasn’t only for women. His fighting spirit only came out when he encountered injustice – real injustice, not the kind that men make up to portray themselves as victims. I’ve written here that he was a feminist.

His humility was a strength, not a weakness. And in the ultimate example of what it means to be a man, he died naked on a Roman cross. I’m convinced that if he came to earth today, he would be crucified again. Not by Jewish leaders jealous of him, or Roman occupiers afraid of him, but by modern day foreign occupiers and religious leaders – it doesn’t take a genius to figure out who I’m talking about.