{"id":21847,"date":"2020-08-28T21:48:29","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T21:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=21847"},"modified":"2020-08-29T12:43:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-29T12:43:30","slug":"what-makes-donald-trump-and-john-wayne-heroes-of-the-christian-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-makes-donald-trump-and-john-wayne-heroes-of-the-christian-right\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes Donald Trump and John Wayne heroes of the Christian Right?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kristin Kobes Du Mez<\/a>, Calvin University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Research Brief<\/a> is a short take on interesting academic work.<\/em><\/p>\n

The big idea<\/h2>\n

White evangelical support for Donald Trump has long puzzled observers<\/a>. To many, it seems hypocritical<\/a> that Christians who have long touted \u201cfamily values\u201d could rally around a thrice-married man who was accused by several women of sexual assault<\/a>. Scholars have commented on his crassness<\/a>, defined by historian Walter G. Moss<\/a> as \u201ca lack refinement, tact, sensitivity, taste or delicacy.\u201d Others have observed how he has broken rules<\/a> of civil political engagement.<\/p>\n

But in my research on evangelical masculinity, I have found that Trump\u2019s leadership style aligns closely with a rugged ideal of Christian manhood championed by evangelicals for more than half a century.<\/p>\n

As I show in my book \u201cJesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation<\/a>,\u201d conservative evangelicals embraced the ideal of a masculine protector in the 1960s and 1970s in order to confront the perceived threats of communism and feminism.<\/p>\n

Believing that the feminist rejection of \u201cmacho\u201d masculinity left the nation in peril, conservative white evangelicals promoted a testosterone-fueled vision of Christian manhood<\/a>. In their view, America needed strong men to defend \u201cChristian America\u201d on the battlefields of Vietnam and to reassert order on the home front.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Actor John Wayne.<\/span>
\nPhoto by Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Culture has played a critical role in shaping and sustaining this rugged vision of Christian manhood. In fashioning their masculine ideal, evangelicals have drawn liberally on Hollywood heroes \u2013 on mythologized warriors like Mel Gibson\u2019s William Wallace in the movie \u201cBraveheart\u201d and on the heroic cowboys and soldiers played by John Wayne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reflecting the onscreen heroism portrayed by men like Gibson and Wayne, this masculine ideal condoned violence in the pursuit of righteousness and justified a vigorous, even ruthless assertion of power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why it matters<\/h2>\n

In 2016, exit polls revealed<\/a> that 81% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, a number higher than<\/a> any other religious demographic.<\/p>\n

I argue that the language evangelicals used to defend their support for Trump suggests that they were not betraying their values<\/a>, rather that Trump embodied well the rugged and even ruthless ideal of evangelical masculinity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the meanest, toughest son of a you-know-what I can find,\u201d explained Robert Jeffress<\/a>, pastor of First Baptist Dallas. In their book \u201cThe Faith of Donald J. Trump<\/a>,\u201d Trump\u2019s evangelical biographers David Brody and Scott Lamb concurred: Trump would \u201cprotect Christianity\u201d; he would be their \u201cultimate fighting champion.\u201d<\/p>\n

With his poll numbers flagging<\/a>, maintaining white evangelical support is critical to the president\u2019s reelection efforts.<\/p>\n

That support is likely to hinge not on his presumed morality or Christian virtue, but rather on his ability to project rugged strength and masculine power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.<\/em> Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

How I do my work<\/h2>\n

As a historian, I approach evangelicalism not as a set of abstract theological beliefs, but rather as a historical and cultural movement.<\/p>\n

In order to understand American evangelicalism, I surveyed popular evangelical teachings on masculinity, sexuality and family values as revealed not only through sermons but also through Christian radio, film and the Christian publishing industry.<\/p>\n

Collectively, books on Christian<\/a> manhood<\/a> have millions of copies, sending the message of an aggressive, testosterone-driven ideal of Christian manhood and affirming the new evangelical identity.<\/p>\n

What still isn\u2019t known<\/h2>\n

The relationship between evangelical consumerism<\/a> and formal religious authorities is a fruitful area for further research. More work, too, can be done to explore how conflicting ideas of Christian manhood<\/a> coexist within white evangelical communities and how conceptions of Christian masculinity vary across racial divides.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next<\/h2>\n

I am beginning work on a project that is in many ways a counterpoint to Jesus and John Wayne, tracing the cultural and political ramifications of evolving ideals of white Christian womanhood.\"The<\/p>\n

Kristin Kobes Du Mez<\/a>, Professor of History, Calvin University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Calvin University The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work. The big idea White evangelical support for Donald Trump has long puzzled observers. To many, it seems hypocritical that Christians who have long touted \u201cfamily values\u201d could rally around a thrice-married man who was accused by several women […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2450],"tags":[7439,4412,1829,2066,8564,8563,3785],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21850,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21847\/revisions\/21850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}