Sho Baraka writes movingly in He Saw That It Was Good of a time he was forced to face the fact that his hero, war chief Shaka Zulu was deeply flawed. And wonder of wonders, God still works in and through his people, sinners though we are. It’s born of humility, recognizing that though I might not be guilty of the sin we are discussing, I am guilty of sin and my sin is just as bad. This is not just good narration on a podcast it is good biblical theology. And yet it is also a story about the mystery of God working in broken places. It’s a story about power, fame, and spiritual trauma, problems faced across the spectrum of churches in America today. JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE BOOK SERIESThe series includes something that should define us all the time, but especially now when we are forced to face the sordid tale of wickedness revealed in Jesus & John Wayne and “The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill.” Each episode of the podcast begins with a carefully scripted introduction that includes two sentences that are worth tattooing on our memories: I recommend the podcast series to you, but that isn’t why I bring it up here. Quite appropriate, as it turns out, since Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church are among the miscreants explored in J&JW. Soon after reading J&JW I began listening to the podcast, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill,” sponsored by Christianity Today. Still, including it would have strengthened the book immensely. This need not be lengthy and could be easily accomplished in a brief prologue or thoughtfully annotated bibliography. This is, sadly, correct, and there is simply too much theological, biblical, and creedal illiteracy for most evangelicals to work through all the theological and scriptural questions-and some of them can be quite gnarly for the ordinary believer-solely on the basis of the history recounted so well in J&JW. “Despite evangelicals’ frequent claims that the Bible is the source of their social and political commitments,” she notes, “evangelicalism must be seen as a cultural and political movement rather than a community defined chiefly by its theology”. They may sense that something is amiss in the movement and be moved by the history of toxic masculinity Du Mez recounts, but many-if not most-will need resources to move past discomfort or shock into a more historically orthodox understanding of gender, community, leadership, and ministry. I would add, however, that I wish Du Mez had made the book more accessible to evangelicals who will need help in working though the underlying issues at stake here. What a movement it has been, and Du Mez knows it well.Īs one who has made a living smack in the middle of much of this, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation sure rang true to me. She shows the backstory and the development of much that influenced the subculture that gave us both Anita Bryant, say, on one hand, and Amy Grant, on another Pat Robertson on one hand and Francis Schaeffer or Ron Sider on other hands. From Christianity Today and Billy Graham’s stance on Martin Luther King, to the impact of the cult-like Bill Gothard, from the DeVoss family’s Amway to the evangelical celebration of Ollie North, from the partnership of evangelicals with Catholic dynamo Phyllis Schafly to fight abortion, to the recent popularity of Wayne Grudem and John Piper’s teaching about traditional gender roles, this remarkable book offers a truly wide-ranging account. Or for anyone who wants to know about this major aspect of not only what we might call religious history, but American cultural history. You may not agree with all of Kristen Kobes Du Mez’s assessment of this or that aspect of evangelical subculture or her conclusions about how this John Wayne testosterone populism contributed to the way evangelical sexual abuse scandals were handled or how some white evangelicals aligned themselves with Trump, even given his admission of sexual assault, or as he publicly encouraged people at his rallies to punch or rough up others.Īgree or not, this is a book for anyone who has lived through the past fifty or so years of evangelicalism. “ J&JW is a must read for any who care about the integrity of the gospel and the direction of evangelical faith in these days.” “Her documentation is impressive and tragically compelling,” my friend Byron Borger of Hearts and Minds Books says. Kristin Kobes Du Mez, professor of history at Calvin University, has done the hard, long work of research necessary to tell the story of how a dreadful stain of toxic masculinity wove its way into the thinking, teaching, and practice of 20 th century American White evangelicalism. Jesus and John Wayne is a book that needed to be written and needs to be widely read and discussed.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |