However, over the past several decades conservatives have consolidated their power within the broader movement. Even today, the evangelical tent includes Calvinists and Pentecostals, ‘social justice warriors’ and prosperity gospel gurus. “At any given time, numerous creeds have coexisted and competed for influence within evangelicalism. I thought about this when I read these words from Du Mez: The Christian Internet told me that if I loved Jesus (which I did), then I would vote Republican (which I would have, if I were old enough to vote), because opposing gay marriage and opposing abortion rights outweighed every other political concern. This is mostly explained by the fact that, unfortunately, I read the Christian Internet. Here are a few thoughts and quotes:ġ) One of the oddities of my own spiritual journey is the fact that, as a teenager, I held some surprisingly Religious Right-leaning views for someone who grew up in a liberal part of the country, in a moderate-to-liberal family, and in a moderate-to-liberal church. I was blown away by Jesus and John Wayne. Joke’s on me-turns out there really was (and I’m sure still is) much more to learn. King? What more could there be-and what more could there be that I would actually be excited to read about and not just totally depressed by? evangelicalism-and how it became what it is? What more could there be that I didn’t already learn in my American Church History class, biblical studies and theology classes, ethics classes, or the whole frickin’ class I took on Dr. Part of me felt like, didn’t I go to seminary to try to figure out what the hell is wrong with (white) U.S.
But maybe part of me also felt a little jaded on the topics involved. I definitely believed everyone that the book was awesome (which it totally is). I’m not totally sure why it took me a minute. It’s one of those books people kept recommending to me for a while before I actually got around to reading it. Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (Liveright, 2021) is an extensively-researched deep dive into the intersections of patriarchy, militarism, toxic masculinity, violence, Christianity, many decades of US politics, and basically all the things. But if you want to call these “zero chill book reviews,” that’s cool too.)Īnyhow. (Some might ask, does it still count as “super chill” once it gets to be this long? To which I would say, the chill factor isn’t about length so much as style-these aren’t really book reviews so much as just collections of quotes that stood out to me and things the book made me think about. Well, this is looking to be another two-part super chill book review…