Men and women were different, evangelicals typically argued, because they were built for distinct vocations.Дu Mez acknowledges that a small but valiant evangelical left has been wrestling with racism, sexism and imperialism for half a century but she regards this movement as a minority report within the larger evangelical world. God created men and women with complementary, but very different, emotional attributes. Most significant for Du MezвЂ™s thesis, evangelicals charged that the feminist call for equal rights was a tacit rejection of biblical revelation. The quagmire of Vietnam simply indicated that AmericaвЂ™s latest crop of young men had gone soft. Because racism was a personal and spiritual failing, the solution lay with the Christian gospel, not public policy.ДЄctivist Phyllis Schafly wearing a вЂњStop ERAвЂќ badge, demonstrating with other women against the Equal Rights Amendment in front of the White House, Washington, D.C.ДЄmericaвЂ™s anti-communist crusade was ordained of God and therefore noble. While Protestant mainline churches wrestled with issues of race, gender and imperialism, evangelicals, with few exceptions, clung to the myth of white Christian nationalism. If the country was as imperialist, racist and misogynistic as her critics were claiming, the вЂњgoodnessвЂќ of America was cast in doubt. America was great, it was widely believed, because America was good.Д«ut in the 1960s, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and second-wave feminism shattered American confidence. The militant masculinity described in Jesus and John Wayne is organically related to what scholars now call вЂњwhite Christian nationalism.вЂќ Evangelicals had been on a roll in the wake of the Second World War with new churches springing up everywhere and liberals and conservative Christians agreeing that God had given America a leadership role to play in the world.

At the same time, вЂњAmerican culture still associated masculinity with working-class jobs.вЂќ By the 1970s, American men were in the throes of an identity crisis. вЂњSince the 1960s,вЂќ Du Mez notes, вЂњmale blue-collar work such as construction, manufacturing and agriculture had been in declineвЂќ while sectors open to educated women вЂњsuch as health care, retail, education, finance and food serviceвЂќ were rapidly expanding. Her book includes a couple of references to my article and uses one of my best lines as a chapter title: вЂњThe unspoken mantra of post-war evangelicalism was simple: Jesus can save your soul, but John Wayne will save your ass.вЂќ Evangelical enthusiasm for Donald Trump, I argued, suggested that that militant masculinity of John Wayne had eclipsed the spirituality of Jesus.Дu Mez came across my article because she was thinking along similar lines. I first became aware of Du MezвЂ™s project shortly after writing a piece for Baptist News Global in October of 2016 called Jesus and John Wayne: Must we choose? When I Googled вЂњJesus and John Wayne,вЂќ the first item up was a 1980s song by that title by the Gaither Vocal Band that portrayed American evangelicals as living in a healthy tension between the fierce masculinity of John Wayne and the radical grace of Jesus. In 2015, as she watched evangelicals lining up behind the strutting embodiment of the militant masculinity celebrated in EldredgeвЂ™s book, Du Mez decided to take a closer look. Instead of repenting of these traits, Eldredge said, Christian men should embrace them. Men are dangerous, unpredictable, combative and aggressively sexual - characteristics that fitted them for lives of adventure and leadership. Men are brimming with testosterone, Eldredge explained, because God needs warriors. First published in 2001, the book sold more than 4 million copies in the United States alone. The majority of white American evangelicals support Trump, she says, because he embodies the kind of militant masculinity they have learned to love.Дu MezвЂ™s first hint that a radical shift had taken place in the world of white American evangelicalism came when students directed her attention to John EldredgeвЂ™s Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a ManвЂ™s Soul. In Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, she explains why. Kristen Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin College, isnвЂ™t buying either of these explanations.

Others see evangelical support for Trump as nothing more than transactional politics. Why Donald Trump? Why are American evangelicals so enamored of a president who could serve as a poster boy for the seven deadly sins?

Holy post jesus and john wayne