Review of 'Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
As expected this book is deeply frightening but not surprising.
While the title seems to denote a pretty slanted and critical approach to the Evangelical church ("corrupted"), most of this book reads like a pretty straight history: "Here's what happened."
That said, following the history makes it pretty easy to draw the conclusion that the current status of the evangelical church revolves around the conceit that white men need to stay in power with servant wives and children beckoning to their needs and desires. Lifting the white patriarchy is the ultimate goal. Very little in this book discusses race, some but not much.
The men working to keep themselves in power do so by appealing to militant masculinity and implying the persecution of Christianity.
The hypocrisy embedded in the movement knows no bounds and the current evangelical church bears nearly zero resemblance to Christianity. That said, those in power appear …
As expected this book is deeply frightening but not surprising.
While the title seems to denote a pretty slanted and critical approach to the Evangelical church ("corrupted"), most of this book reads like a pretty straight history: "Here's what happened."
That said, following the history makes it pretty easy to draw the conclusion that the current status of the evangelical church revolves around the conceit that white men need to stay in power with servant wives and children beckoning to their needs and desires. Lifting the white patriarchy is the ultimate goal. Very little in this book discusses race, some but not much.
The men working to keep themselves in power do so by appealing to militant masculinity and implying the persecution of Christianity.
The hypocrisy embedded in the movement knows no bounds and the current evangelical church bears nearly zero resemblance to Christianity. That said, those in power appear to be able to justify anything they wish their followers to believe through an interpretation of scripture.
This book is filled with examples of appalling misogynistic teaching: One that stood out was a pastor telling a woman to go home and give her husband a blowjob to entice him to come to church.