So, it was really when I was a new professor at Calvin in the early 2000s-when I was back in these Christian spaces and teaching evangelical students-that I became aware of works like John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart (2006) where he elevates militancy as a model of Christian manhood. Then I went to graduate school, I was studying history, and I wasn’t observing evangelicalism all that closely. So it was evangelical adjacent, depending on who you ask.Įither way, I was familiar with patriarchal theology, but had never really encountered this more militant masculinity in those spaces. I grew up in a confessional, traditional, Dutch reformed church. Because I had grown up in conservative Christian spaces, and whether it counts as evangelical or not is going to depend on your definitions. KKM: I would say it was in the early 2000s. Do you think you could describe the first time that you witnessed militant masculinity? But then, what becomes of this conception of masculinity ultimately distorts core Christian teachings about, not just masculinity, but about Christianity itself.ĬC: It feels like that historical moment is both distant and extremely relevant. You need strength you need to be on the battlefield. If you go back to the Cold War era, it makes sense that part of being a Christian man-part of being an American man-is to defend Christian America. In a sense, Jesus and John Wayne shows how notions of Christian patriarchy became combined with Christian nationalism to produce this militant conception of Christian manhood. One of the key takeaways is that evangelical support for Donald Trump really shouldn’t be seen as a betrayal of evangelical values, but in many ways as their fulfillment, particularly once we situate white patriarchal authority at the center of evangelical “family values” politics.ĬC: Can we define militant masculinity and Christian patriarchy? I know they ’ re linked, but there is a subtle nuance between them, and other terms that emerge in your work, for example, Christian nationalism. KKM: It’s essentially a history of the past half-century of white evangelical masculinity and militarism.
So I can’t say, “Oh, I knew that Trump was going to win.” But I did understand that evangelical support was going to be enduring for Trump.ĬC: Can you give our readers a brief summary of Jesus and John Wayne in your own words? I’d heard exactly this rhetoric before to justify those abusive leaders.
So, in the days after the Access Hollywood tape was released, when we saw evangelicals scurry to continue to justify their support for then-candidate Trump, it clicked for me that I’d seen this before. I had been paying attention for over a decade, and I’d seen one man after another who’d been writing these books on Christian manhood become implicated in abuse scandals, either as perpetrators or defending friends who were accused. That said, a few weeks earlier, I started to wonder after the release of the Access Hollywood tape. I knew it was going to be tight, but it wasn’t until that night, sometime in the middle of the night, that I realized what we were looking at. I had access to the same media sources and polling numbers everybody else did.
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Kristin Kobes Du Mez: Oh, I definitely didn’t know: I was in my basement glued to my TV on election night when I realized it.
Recently, I sat down with Du Mez to discuss the themes of her book, its reception, and whether it is the historian’s responsibility to offer solutions.Ĭhrisaleen Ciro: Where were you when you knew that Trump was going to win? Were you surprised? Or were you one of those people who “ always knew?” She connects his bravado to a five-decade long history of church teachings that men are supposed to be decisive, sexually aggressive, militant, and unapologetic patriarchs. In her book, Du Mez argues that Donald Trump did not win over white evangelicals in spite of his brash womanizing-but because of it. According to the Pew Research Center, 50 percent of evangelicals now identify as conservative. Kristin Kobes Du Mez set out to put this movement in historical context in her 2020 book, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (Liveright, 2020). When their support carried President Trump all the way to the White House, Calvin University historian Dr. When the thrice-divorced, self-proclaimed billionaire, casino entrepreneur, and unfailingly crass Donald Trump announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination, his significant popularity among white evangelical Christian voters surprised political commentators.