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| ====== Jesus and John Wayne ====== | ====== Jesus and John Wayne ====== | ||
| - | Discusses | + | ---- dataentry readinglist ---- |
| + | title: Jesus and John Wayne | ||
| + | author: Kristin Kobes Du Mez | ||
| + | status_: reading | ||
| + | summary: | ||
| + | content_tags: | ||
| + | ---- | ||
| ===== Questions ===== | ===== Questions ===== | ||
| * How did these patterns, ideas, and beliefs manifest in my own church upbringing? | * How did these patterns, ideas, and beliefs manifest in my own church upbringing? | ||
| * What can we do to reverse or improve this situation? | * What can we do to reverse or improve this situation? | ||
| + | * Why the constant emphasis on culture war BS? | ||
| + | * This struggle is very much cyclic in nature, and they always seem to fight extra hard after a lull. How can we halt the next reactionary wave? It is worth noting that the bulk of the text covers the last century and change, so most of the players have come from the same two generations or so. I'm well aware that their project has been heavily focused on ensuring their message' | ||
| ===== Chapter notes ===== | ===== Chapter notes ===== | ||
| Line 476: | Line 484: | ||
| * altogether, North emerged a hero of the Christian Right; much like the conservatives who took over the SBC, he had skirted conventions in service of a greater good---Christian nationalism in both cases | * altogether, North emerged a hero of the Christian Right; much like the conservatives who took over the SBC, he had skirted conventions in service of a greater good---Christian nationalism in both cases | ||
| ==== The Greatest American Hero ==== | ==== The Greatest American Hero ==== | ||
| + | * " | ||
| + | * Falwell (in a fundraising letter): "In my judgment, petty partisan politics have made Ollie North, his family, and the very lives of Nicaraguan freedom fighters pawns in a liberal campaign to justify President Reagan." | ||
| + | * it certainly appeared that figures like Falwell and Beverly LaHaye made bank selling Ollie merch | ||
| + | * the evangelicals saw North' | ||
| + | * as it turns out, North had a history of remorselessly engaging in shady shit: with his commission in jeopardy due to injuries, he broke into the Naval Academy administration building to alter his records; when caught, he said, "the higher ideal of serving our country [was] worth the risk...as long as [I] was doing it for our country, it couldn' | ||
| + | * the Academy was cool with that, and he jumped straight into Vietnam in 1968, later becoming an instructor at Quantico | ||
| + | * one colleague of North' | ||
| + | * North was deeply frustrated with Americans who didn't buy into that myth, and he blamed the media for warping the image of the military with stories of " | ||
| + | * in 1978 North converted to charismatic Protestantism, | ||
| + | * the church he joined post-conversion seamlessly blended patriotism and Christianity; | ||
| + | * North' | ||
| + | * Senator George Mitchell: " | ||
| + | * the whole quote as given on p. 123 is great, but I have to emphasize this last portion | ||
| + | * the conservative evangelicals saw no two sides; at the 1991 SBC, North urged the attendees to become politically active to counter "a veritable Sodom and Gomorrah on the banks of the Potomac." | ||
| + | * he published a memoir, spoke at evangelical churches (for undisclosed amounts), and raised funds through direct mail campaigns; all of this helped to pay for his legal fees and his failed Congressional campaign | ||
| + | * the latter targeted all the typical conservative talking points, from guns to abortion to school prayer; he managed to raise $16 million in a single year through direct mail alone | ||
| + | * critics noted his authoritarian tendencies and lack of concern for truth | ||
| + | * his supporters pointed to the distinction between what was right and what was legal, arguing that if he had lied, then it must have been necessary---after all, he was clearly a good soldier | ||
| + | * authoritarianism on full display---he' | ||
| + | * North' | ||
| + | * Edwin Louis Cole (" | ||
| + | * he built his call for Christian manhood upon the foundation of prosperity gospel; men who followed God's plan would see returns in every aspect of their lives | ||
| + | * men had three roles according to Cole: to guide, guard, and govern, and they need to be both tender and tough to fulfill those roles | ||
| + | * Jesus perfectly exemplified that mixture; he was both good with kids and down to fight (the moneychangers in the temple) | ||
| + | * ironic that conservatives latched onto the violence in that story, when what prompted him to it was the blatant profiteering going on within the temple | ||
| + | * to Cole, Christlikeness and manhood were synonymous, and manhood required a certain measure of ruthlessness | ||
| + | * he worked to distinguish his vision of manhood from the macho image, but he was also clear that tenderness should not be confused with effeminacy | ||
| + | * Cole: "today it is the softness that is killing us" | ||
| + | * women, churches, and nations all needed masculine decision makers, he argued, and America' | ||
| + | * his anti-hero syndrome was evidenced by television' | ||
| + | * Christian broadcasting was his proposed cure for this alleged sickness, but unfortunately for him, the world of Christian broadcasting was being rocked by sex scandals at the time | ||
| + | * in 1986 Jimmy Swaggart accused Marvin Gorman of committing adultery with several women; Gorman eventually confessed to one act of adultery but claimed one pastor' | ||
| + | * the same year, Swaggart accused Jim Bakker of a " | ||
| + | * in 1988 Swaggart himself was caught with a prostitute by Gorman; a few years later, he was again caught with a prostitute but told his congregation, | ||
| + | * all of these scandals highlighted the hypocrisy at the core of the Religious Right; many reveled at the sight of the movement' | ||
| + | * conservative evangelical organizations had seen significant donation losses in the wake of the scandals; the Iran-Contra affair provided them with a much-needed hero and donation revitalization | ||
| + | * evangelicals would look to the military more generally for the heroism their leadership lacked; this began during the Vietnam War, when the military stood as a last bastion of authority and traditional values | ||
| + | * Falwell and others worked in the 1980s to tighten connections between the evangelicals and the military; Falwell in particular often called on retired military men to help him make the case against disarmament | ||
| + | * in 1983 army chief of staff Gen. John A. Wickham Jr. recruited Dobson to push evangelical family values onto the military | ||
| + | * Dobson' | ||
| + | * the two believed strongly that the strength of the nation depended upon a patriarchal family structure at home | ||
| + | * this partnership was mutually beneficial: Dobson was able to expand his reach, and Wickham' | ||
| + | * other military leaders were also actively proselytizing to those in their command at this time | ||
| + | * given their embrace of the military, evangelicals were not equipped to critique militarism; after all, if the military was a source of virtue, then war (including preemptive war) must also be virtuous | ||
| + | * Christian Reconstructionist Rus Walton outlined a crusade theory of warfare in which " | ||
| + | * the end of the Cold War was disorienting for the evangelicals, | ||
| + | |||
| ==== War for the Soul ==== | ==== War for the Soul ==== | ||
| ==== Tender Warriors ==== | ==== Tender Warriors ==== | ||
| Line 483: | Line 538: | ||
| ==== Why We Want to Kill You ==== | ==== Why We Want to Kill You ==== | ||
| ==== Spiritual Badasses ==== | ==== Spiritual Badasses ==== | ||
| + | * in his 2000 bid for president against Bush, John McCain had openly denounced people like Robertson and Falwell who weaponized their religion to foster division and intolerance; | ||
| + | * in 2008, he tried to cozy up a bit to the Religious Right, who weren' | ||
| + | * but Barack Obama was even more distasteful to the evangelicals, | ||
| + | * sure, he was a Christian, but he wasn't the //right// kind of Christian to them | ||
| + | * the biggest strikes against him and his wife (for the conservative evangelicals) were their critiques of America | ||
| + | * Michelle had noted that the support for her husband had led her to feel national pride for the first time in her adult life; surely, conservatives argued, there had been // | ||
| + | * on this last point, it's interesting how Meghan McCain employed a similar retort against Trump: "My father' | ||
| + | * Barack' | ||
| + | * in a beautiful display of centrism, Obama professed his belief in the general goodness of the American people while criticizing its historical failures to live up to its own ideals; he expressed distaste for Wright' | ||
| + | * Dobson was not having it, using phrases like " | ||
| + | * I especially like his take on the latter: "... the Sermon on the Mount---a passage that is so radical that it's doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application." | ||
| + | * young evangelicals appears to be drifting away from the Religious Right; others, including NAE president Richard Cizik and megachurch pastor Rick Warren openly voiced support for Obama | ||
| + | * some sought to expand " | ||
| + | * McCain' | ||
| + | * many conservative evangelicals strongly disliked the idea of a female VP, but that option was far more palatable than her opponent | ||
| + | * for most, however, she was a perfect fit; she appealed to plain-folk evangelicals tired of " | ||
| + | * her unpredictability and general ignorance of world affairs, though turn-offs for many, were some of her most appealing traits to the conservative evangelicals | ||
| + | |||
| + | * for a brief moment after the election, some in the press preemptively hailed "the end of white Christian America"; | ||
| + | * if you've been paying attention, however, then you're aware that militant evangelicalism thrives on a sense of embattlement, | ||
| + | * race was a core (if unstated) element to the white evangelical identity, so naturally birtherism spread rapidly within evangelical circles | ||
| + | * to Christian nationalists, | ||
| + | * Franklin Graham (son of Billy) was quick to paint him as a secret Muslim or Muslim sympathizer | ||
| + | * Phyllis Schlafly (who was still alive!) hosted a "How to Take America Back" conference (ugh), featuring panels such as "How to Counter the Homosexual Extremist Movement", | ||
| + | * fuck, it just hurts me to see these ding-dongs conflate those things; the Nazis were **not** any flavor of socialists | ||
| + | * Boykin contributed to a report by a neocon think tank, which argued that Muslim social groups wanted to impose shariah law and were all fronts for " | ||
| + | * ironic as always, considering what efforts he was involved in | ||
| + | * Wayne Grudem (cofounder of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood), who had been focused on theology and gender, published a 600-page tome in 2010 titled //Politics According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture// | ||
| + | * it might be worthwhile looking into this extremely spicy book to get a feel for the arguments | ||
| + | * Grudem' | ||
| + | * he also criticized those who would vote " | ||
| + | * evangelicals did stray away from Obama for his re-election, | ||
| + | * the ACA's contraceptive mandate, the Masterpiece Cakeshop debacle, Obergefell v. Hodges, Kim " | ||
| + | * the trans bathroom " | ||
| + | * note in particular how Dobson' | ||
| + | * ah yes, because the only thing stopping predatory creeps from being their creepy selves is a fucking sign on the door | ||
| + | * but note how this mirrors arguments against integrated public restrooms | ||
| + | * Eric Metaxas, who had been a writer for // | ||
| + | * why do we keep giving these people microphones? | ||
| + | * he wrote a few, uh, history-adjacent " | ||
| + | * his overarching goal, laid out in //7 Men: And the Secret of the Greatness//, | ||
| + | * criticism of this book: the title is excellent, but I think early chapters try too hard to shoehorn Wayne into the narrative, so that when he dies and is rarely mentioned again, it feels like a dropped point | ||
| + | * Metaxas described how Wayne' | ||
| + | * since the 1960s, Americans were much more skeptical of public figures, making heroes a hard sell; and what's worse, they projected that skepticism backwards! Washington and Columbus are villains now, is nothing sacred? | ||
| + | * Metaxas connected the decline of heroic masculinity with the erosion of patriarchal authority, as evidenced by TV depictions of fathers | ||
| + | * nothing of his writing was new to the evangelical sphere, but the looming loss of the culture wars helped it resonate further | ||
| + | * and of course we have the duckfucker Robertsons of //Duck Dynasty//, which featured a clear delineation between the big, burly men and their perfectly accessorized wives and daughters | ||
| + | * oh, dear; Phil claimed that homosexuality would lead to " | ||
| + | * once again, conservative Christians were drawn to his no-holds-barred, | ||
| + | * the Christian publishing industry certainly milked them for all they were worth | ||
| + | * Thomas Nelson had formed a partnership with Walmart in the 1990s over their shared " | ||
| + | * that' | ||
| + | * by the early 2000s, the line between " | ||
| + | |||
| + | * there was a constant stream of literature lying somewhere between the Robertsons and Metaxas, all of which called for militant Christian masculinity; | ||
| + | * some of them were particularly on the nose, e.g. McDougall' | ||
| + | * Boykin and Weber' | ||
| + | * they even went the extra step of acknowledging the existence of " | ||
| + | |||
| + | * the Obama years redoubled the evangelicals' | ||
| ==== A New High Priest ==== | ==== A New High Priest ==== | ||
| + | * as bad as the evangelicals found Obama, they found Hillary Clinton much worse; she was openly supportive of abortion access, and she was a **woman**! gasp! | ||
| + | * Du Mez describes Trump as " | ||
| + | |||
| + | * evangelicals as a whole took time to warm to Trump, with their figureheads generally favoring more traditional Republican candidates, of which there were several in the race | ||
| + | * Mike Huckabee was the typical tone-deaf whitebread conservative | ||
| + | * Ben Carson played shield for closeted racists (and compared political correctness to the practices of Nazi Germany? WTF?) | ||
| + | * Marco Rubio drew the favor of establishment northern evangelicals | ||
| + | * Ted Cruz was essentially Trump Lite (TM) with his talk of " | ||
| + | * eventually most evangelicals came to support Trump by election night | ||
| + | * that they would come to favor such a man was not as surprising as it may at first seem; the evangelical tradition had long involved stoking fears of threats to the nation: Communism, secular humanism, feminism, multilateralism, | ||
| + | * in short, they had been priming their followers for decades to look for a strong daddy who would do anything to protect them from those threats; so when Donald Trump came along in a cloud of foul-mouthed bravado, it was a natural fit | ||
| + | * even prominent evangelical leaders, many of whom had endorsed other candidates, were surprised by how quickly and how tightly their followers latched onto him; some pastors feared losing their congregations if they didn't voice support for Trump | ||
| + | * last paragraph on p. 256: briefly mentions the alignment between war (spiritual or physical) and capitalism | ||
| + | * p. 259 photo: blegh | ||
| + | |||
| + | * a group of NeverTrumper evangelical leaders fumbled for any reason to deny Trump' | ||
| + | * Du Mez puts it bluntly: " | ||
| + | * one by one, they fell in line with those followers; Dobson argued that Trump was "a baby Christian" | ||
| + | |||
| + | * following the release of the //Access Hollywood// ("grab 'em by the pussy" | ||
| + | * insert all of Innuendo Studios' | ||
| + | * "Once again, reports of the death of the Religious Right had been greatly exaggerated." | ||
| + | * that's a //V for Vendetta// reference, right? Not a bad bit of humor for this point | ||
| + | |||
| + | * economic arguments were popular early theories for evangelicals' | ||
| + | * those who claimed to have held their noses while voting for Trump were not motivated by fact-based assessments of his fitness for the post (he was demonstrably worse on all counts than Clinton) but rather by the belief that his policies (e.g., Supreme Court nominations) would benefit them | ||
| + | * indeed, once he addressed those initial concerns, they remained quiet about his ongoing indiscretions | ||
| + | * between 2011 and 2016, the proportion of white evangelicals who believed that " | ||
| + | * I wager that the actual effect at play was authoritarianism; | ||
| + | * Trump was exactly the embodiment of the militantly masculine figure they had wanted for so long (or more accurately, had been trained to seek) | ||
| + | * "The election was not decided by those 'left behind' | ||
| + | * an excellent, well-stated point | ||
| + | * a year into his presidency, Scott Lamb and David Brody published //The Faith of Donald Trump: A Spiritual Biography//, | ||
| + | * he was (or presented as) a believer in a black-and-white morality with clear lines between good guys and bad guys; he validated his followers' | ||
| + | * that is, he was catnip to authoritarian followers | ||
| + | |||
| ==== Evangelical Mulligans: A History ==== | ==== Evangelical Mulligans: A History ==== | ||
| ==== Conclusion ==== | ==== Conclusion ==== | ||
| Line 493: | Line 644: | ||
| Countless people throughout America' | Countless people throughout America' | ||
| + | |||
| + | About halfway through the book, the Religious Right' | ||
| + | |||
| + | Consider the following quote from Al Mohler in the wake of the SBC takeover: | ||
| + | |||
| + | > Mr. and Mrs. Baptist may not be able to understand or adjudicate the issue of biblical inerrancy when it comes down to nuances, and language, and terminology...But if you believe abortion should be legal, that's all they need to know. | ||
| + | |||
| + | With that in mind, what would happen if they were granted the " | ||
| + | |||
| + | It's easy to see how well Christian nationalism aligns with fascism: "Our nation was once great, prosperous, and (most importantly) | ||
| + | |||
| + | It is immediately clear from the early pages that this book was written largely in response to the Trump presidency. Untold quantities of ink, paper, and bytes have been consumed trying to make sense of it all. It's all too easy to open such a piece with one's jaw firmly on the floor and close without ever picking it up, let alone making a coherent point beyond the self-evident "Trump bad". Perhaps that failure stems from clinging too tightly to the belief that his presidency was somehow an anomaly or that it was without precedent. "Why does two plus two equal four? Because it does, of course---now let's discuss something else." | ||
| + | |||
| + | Du Mez, however, demonstrates that not only was such a presidency very much precedented, | ||
| + | |||
| + | Having read Altemeyer' | ||
| + | |||
| + | Given that the most powerful players in the text are from the same generation or two, it is tempting to believe that the Religious Right' | ||
| + | |||
| ===== Related reading ===== | ===== Related reading ===== | ||
| * [[Anti-Intellectualism in American Life]], particularly Part 2 | * [[Anti-Intellectualism in American Life]], particularly Part 2 | ||
| * [[The Authoritarians]] | * [[The Authoritarians]] | ||
| + | * [[The Civil War as a Theological Crisis]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | {{tag> | ||
| ---- struct data ---- | ---- struct data ---- | ||
| + | readinglist.author | ||
| + | readinglist.title | ||
| + | readinglist.summary | ||
| + | readinglist.status | ||
| + | readinglist.subjects : politics, history, evangelicalism | ||
| ---- | ---- | ||