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

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Author: Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2020-06-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1631495747

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical 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. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.

Real Men Have Feelings Too

Real Men Have Feelings Too
Author: Gary J. Oliver
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Total Pages: 294
Release: 1993
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780802471253

Exploration of the reality and myth of male emotions

Evangelicalism and Masculinity

Evangelicalism and Masculinity
Author: Jose Leonardo Santos
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 149
Release: 2012-09-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 073916869X

The explosion of the Evangelical movement in Latin America beginning in the last half of the 20th century has changed the face of a continent. Many men have redefined themselves through a religious conversion to Evangelicalism, which challenges notions of machismo. This book explores why they would choose to do so. While they abandon drinking, promiscuity, domestic violence, and aggression, Evangelical converts maintain a strict set of gender roles, which they perceived as a divine mandate. This dramatic change is made possible through the device of an Evangelical Worldview, experienced and lived as cosmic narrative that obligates a Christian masculinity.

Point Man, Revised and Updated

Point Man, Revised and Updated
Author: Steve Farrar
Publisher: Multnomah
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2022-04-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0593192737

The bestselling guide for Christian men who want to lead their families well is now revised and updated to help fathers and husbands navigate the complexities of today’s challenges. “Jam-packed with biblical direction and leadership strategies, this battle guide will equip you to lead your family to victory.”—Dr. Tony Evans, president of the Urban Alternative and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship Most men want to be strong spiritual leaders of their families. They just don’t know how because they’ve never seen it modeled. That’s why Steve Farrar wrote Point Man thirty years ago. With more than half a million copies sold, it’s the go-to resource for how to faithfully lead and love your family, walk boldly through challenging seasons of marriage and parenting, stand firm against personal temptation, and forge a faith that shines bright. Yet the war on the family has only intensified since this trusted guide first came out. Whether through entertainment, social media, or legislation, our world seems determined to undermine the traditional family—which means faithful spiritual leadership is needed more than ever. This revised and updated edition will equip you to confidently navigate the cultural and societal forces affecting your family, such as: • shifting views of masculinity and femininity • the declining influence of church and faith • fractured perspectives on morality Packed with powerful inspiration, clear biblical direction, and contemporary examples, Point Man provides the strategies you need to lead your family safely through today’s battles and on to victory.

A New Gospel for Women

A New Gospel for Women
Author: Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190205644

A work of history, biography, and historical theology, A New Gospel for Women tells the remarkable story of Katharine Bushnell (1855-1946), an internationally-known social reformer and author of God's Word to Women, a startling reinterpretation of the Christian Scriptures that even today stands as one of the most innovative and comprehensive feminist theologies ever written.

The Reformation of Machismo

The Reformation of Machismo
Author: Elizabeth E. Brusco
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2011-05-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0292791682

Protestant evangelicalism has spread rapidly in Latin America at the same time that foreign corporations have taken hold of economies there. These concurrent developments have led some observers to view this religious movement as a means of melding converts into a disciplined work force for foreign capitalists rather than as a reflection of conscious individual choices made for a variety of personal, as well as economic, reasons. In this pioneering study, Elizabeth Brusco challenges such assumptions and explores the intra-household motivations for evangelical conversion in Colombia. She shows how the asceticism required of evangelicals (no drinking, smoking, or extramarital sexual relations are allowed) redirects male income back into the household, thereby raising the living standard of women and children. This benefit helps explain the appeal of evangelicalism for women and questions the traditional assumption that organized religion always disadvantages women. Brusco also demonstrates how evangelicalism appeals to men by offering an alternative to the more dysfunctional aspects of machismo. Case studies add a fascinating human dimension to her findings. With the challenges this book poses to conventional wisdom about economic, gender, and religious behavior, it will be important reading for a wide audience in anthropology, women’s studies, economics, and religion. For all students of Latin America, it offers thoughtful new perspectives on a major, grass-roots agent of social change.

Does God Make the Man?

Does God Make the Man?
Author: Stewart M. Hoover
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2015-10-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1479811777

Many believe that religion plays a positive role in men’s identity development, with religion promoting good behavior, and morality. In contrast, we often assume that the media is a negative influence for men, teaching them to be rough and violent, and to ignore their emotions. In Does God Make the Man?, Stewart M. Hoover and Curtis D. Coats draw on extensive interviews and participant observation with both Evangelical and non-Evangelical men, including Catholics as well as Protestants, to argue that neither of these assumptions is correct. Dismissing the easy notion that media encourages toxic masculinity and religion is always a positive influence, Hoover and Coats argue that not only are the linkages between religion, media, and masculinity not as strong and substantive as has been assumed, but the ways in which these relations actually play out may contradict received views. Over the course of this fascinating book they examine crises, contradictions, and contestations: crises about the meaning of masculinity and about the lack of direction men experience from their faith communities; contradictions between men’s religious lives and media lives, and contestations among men’s ideas about what it means to be a man. The book counters common discussions about a “crisis of masculinity,” showing that actual men do not see the world the way the “crisis talk” has portrayed it—and interestingly, even Evangelical men often do not see religion as part of the solution.

For the Beauty of the Church

For the Beauty of the Church
Author: W. David O. Taylor
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2010-03-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441207767

Think of your local church. Without art--music, song, dance, etc.--it would be a much poorer place. But if protestants have any vision for the arts, it tends to be a thin one. This unique book is an attempt to contribute to a robust, expansive vision for the church and the arts. Its specific aim is to show how the many parts of the landscape of church and art hold together. You can think of it as a kind of helicopter flyover, but one with expert pilots. The guides include the likes of Eugene Peterson, Lauren Winner, Jeremy Begbie, Andy Crouch, and John Witvliet, helping to inspire readers and empower pastor-leaders with a vision of the church and the arts that is compelling, far-seeing, and profoundly transformative.

Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Revised Edition)

Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Revised Edition)
Author: John Piper
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 632
Release: 2021-01-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433573482

A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say. In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God's unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.

After Evangelicalism

After Evangelicalism
Author: David P. Gushee
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2020-08-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1646980042

Named one of the Top 10 Books of the Year in 2020 by the Academy of Parish Clergy "Drawing on his own spiritual journey, David Gushee provides an incisive critique of American evangelicalism [and] offers a succinct yet deeply informed guide for post-evangelicals seeking to pursue Christ-honoring lives." —Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Calvin University Millions are getting lost in the evangelical maze: inerrancy, indifference to the environment, deterministic Calvinism, purity culture, racism, LGBTQ discrimination, male dominance, and Christian nationalism. They are now conscientious objectors, deconstructionists, perhaps even "none and done." As one of America's leading academics speaking to the issues of religion today, David Gushee offers a clear assessment and a new way forward for disillusioned post-evangelicals. Gushee starts by analyzing what went wrong with U.S. white evangelicalism in areas such as evangelical history and identity, biblicism, uncredible theologies, and the fundamentalist understandings of race, politics, and sexuality. Along the way, he proposes new ways of Christian believing and of listening to God and Jesus today. He helps post-evangelicals know how to belong and behave, going from where they are to a living relationship with Christ and an intellectually cogent and morally robust post-evangelical faith. He shows that they can have a principled way of understanding Scripture, a community of Christ's people, a healthy politics, and can repent and learn to listen to people on the margins. With a foreword from Brian McLaren, who says, “David Gushee is right: there is indeed life after evangelicalism,” this book offers an essential handbook for those looking for answers and affirmation of their journey into a future that is post-evangelical but still centered on Jesus. If you, too, are struggling, After Evangelicalism shows that it is possible to cut loose from evangelical Christianity and, more than that, it is necessary.