I meant to read this around the same time I read The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr, but I didn’t feel like depressing myself twice in a row and got distracted with other books. Recently, though, a friend of mine commented that she sees a disconnect between the overly-macho culture that exists in America and the Jesus in the Bible and that reminded me that I wanted to read this book.
Jesus and John Wayn is a roughly 100-year development of evangelical masculinity in America, starting with a culture clash between the “feminised” Christianity of the Victorian era and the disruption created by Industrialisation, ending with how Donald Trump became accepted by evangelicals despite his many personal transgressions of their professed moral values. It’s a whirlwind ride, covering many years of history and the many (sub-)subcultures in this (sub? mainstream?) group of evangelicals. Some of the groups/movements covered include:
- Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
- Focus on the Family
- Promise Keepers
- Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP)
- Quiverfull (but I don’t think was talked about in as much detail as the others)
Jesus and John Wayne would actually make a good complement to The Making of Biblical Womanhood. Where Barr is personal, Mez remains focused on the big picture. Barr digs into medieval history and even the reformation to look at the role women have played in the Church, Mez keeps her focus on the last 100 years in America. Barr talks theology, for Mez, the people and the events behind the movement are more important. For me, having read The Making of Biblical Womanhood helped me to understand Jesus and John Wayne because I already had an understanding of the theological issues behind this.
Speaking of complementary books, in the past few days, I also saw that Jinger Vuolo, one of the daughters of the Duggar family has written a book about her experience with IBLP. I’m definitely interested in that, given that it’s probably a personal account of something this book mentions, and I think the two books could go well together. Julie Roys also has a podcast episode on IBLP as a cult, and I’m definitely going to be listening to that soon. If you prefer to read, I really like what Recovering Grace is doing in this specific area.
While I thought the book did a good job tracing the development of evangelical masculinity and how it’s become its current force, I did wish that the book did more to situate the evangelical community in the wider Christian and non-Christian American community. How did other, non-evangelical denominations see this strain of Christianity? What did the youths in the evangelical community think, given that quite a few of them defected? A chapter on the people who are deconstructing and holding this group of evangelicals might have been interesting to read. I was never very sure how influential this group of evangelicals was outside of their constituents; I think it’s overrepresented in other English-speaking countries (because some of the websites, like DesiringGod are just too popular) but I don’t know how convincing their ideas are to those who are not part of their in-group.
Overall this is a clear account of how the current idea of evangelical masculinity has developed and in turn shaped the political positions of many white evangelicals in America. While I, somewhat paradoxically, felt as though there was an information overload at times but also that I wanted more to contextualise the history, I think that Jesus and John Wayne helped to explain a lot of what I’m seeing on parts of the internet and the information here will probably be useful in many future conversations.
I have been trying to decide whether to read this book or not. I’m already embarrassed & distressed at the extent to which the “American white Evangelical” subcategory of Christianity often seems to most highly prioritize defending and promoting the Republican party candidates (no matter how vile, and the more macho and hard-nosed the better) and platform (every part of it, without Scriptural consideration).
It sounds like this author picks out the worst elements and generalizes across Evangelical Christianity, but those worst elements do have a distressing amount of influence and definitely get the most attention. In my 13 years as a pastor in mostly-white American Evangelical churches, I have often felt myself an outsider despite (theoretically) sharing the same basic beliefs regarding the Bible, Jesus, salvation, etc. I have been very thankful for The Gospel Coalition as a much more biblically focused organization (though I’m sure this author would still take issue with some of their theology), and every year the conference they sponsor is my “get away and recharge” event.
As a Christian outside of the US, I did feel like much of what she described was accurate in how US evangelicals are seen/are making their presence felt online and overseas, so it’s heartening to know that you think these are probably the worst elements of evangelicals. My cousin-in-law is a pastor at a reformed Church and even he has mentioned that our local reformed Churches and the ones in the US are very different; but unfortunately, I think a lot of online discourse is dominated by certain strains of US evangelicals.
If you ever do decide to pick up this book, I would be interested in seeing how it corresponds to your experience as an evangelical. I do agree that her definition of “evangelical” is very broad, which is why I take it as “evangelical masculinity” – I would consider that to be a subset of self-professed evangelicals.
Speaking as someone who isn’t the most macho man out there (e.g. my wife is the “handy” one in our household and I’m not really into guns, cars, or hunting), I expect I would find much to identify with in the book. Even the self-identified evangelicals who don’t take it to absurd extremes tend to side-eye those of us who don’t fit a certain male stereotype (or don’t praise ‘Merica & the GOP enthusiastically enough). I do wonder how much of that is American Evangelicalism and how much is just plain old American culture.
I suspect quite a bit is an American “cowboy” type of culture!