Du Mez explains that while many black protestants are aligned with evangelical theological doctrines, “on nearly every social and political issue, black protestants apply their faith in ways that run counter to white evangelicalism” (p. The subtitle of the book asserts that race is a core feature of this American subculture. And, in fact, the book has the feel of a sociological study of evangelicals themselves rather than a history of the movement. Though theoretically evangelicalism is a set of specific theological propositions, in reality it is less a religious belief system and more accurately defined as a culture. Jesus and John Wayne is the history of evangelicalism, tracing the movement from its roots in the early twentieth century to its modern-day iteration. That was exactly how I felt reading Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez.
It was a key that made a lot of strange family behaviors make sense.
No one ever had, so my grandma told the story of an aunt whose tragic story had become a family skeleton. Years ago, while visiting my grandmother, she pointed to a photo from my parents’ wedding and asked me if anyone had ever bothered to tell me who that random woman was.