Here in Part 7 of my detailed book analysis of Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book, Jesus and John Wayne, I will look at chapters 11-13. In this post, my response will be alongside my summary of each chapter.
Chapter 11: Holy Balls—Summary and Response
In chapter 11, KDM focuses on a number of movements and Evangelicals that emerged in the early 2000s. She mentioned various Christian ministries like Xtreme Ministries and Mixed Martial Arts Academy, and Christian MMA that sought to spread the Gospel through fighting exhibitions and feats of strength. She also notes the growth of the Christian homeschooling movement, and once again mentions Bill Gothard and notes that a number of Republicans like Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Rick Perry all either had attended a conference led by Gothard or had spoken at one. She also mentions Doug Phillips, a Rushdoony acolyte who promoted the “Quiverfull Movement” that basically stressed the importance of a man fathering many children and being a family leader (think the Duggar Family and the show 19 Kids and Counting). That being said, KDM does mention that the Quiverfull Movement was very small and not really widespread.
Most of the chapter is devoted to Mark Driscoll of Seattle’s Mars Hill Church. He was a tremendously influential pastor for a short time and was known, quite frankly, as being a somewhat crude, foul-mouthed tough-guy, macho man pastor. KDM holds him up as an “extreme expression of militant Evangelical masculinity” and on this one she is completely right. Driscoll, a “New Calvinist,” was (and is) an absolute, vulgar, offensive goon who is not only a sad excuse for a Christian, but a sad excuse of a human being. He (from his pulpit!) would say that Jesus was an ultimate fighter warrior king with tattoos down his leg, riding into battle against Satan. He said that ever since the Fall, that men had become “pussified,” that James Dobson was “pussified” and that Promise Keepers was like “homoerotic worship.” He wrote a book about the “Song of Solomon” called Porn-again Christian in which he said it was a sex manual. Eventually, though, his authoritative and downright abusive behavior within his church came to light. In addition, he got caught writing some extremely nasty, vulgar and offensive rants on the church’s online discussion board and had to resign his position at Mars Hill Church. KDM ends the chapter by tying men like Mark Driscoll and Doug Wilson (whom she admits were on the extreme) in with a number of other Evangelicals like Tim Keller and D.A. Carson, among others and accuses all of them of promoting patriarchy and militant masculinity.
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For the most part, I agree with KDM in this chapter. It is a shame that a guy like Mark Driscoll even got to be as influential as he was. Where she goes wrong, as she has all throughout her book, is when she lumps the extreme examples of truly abusive masculinity (Mark Driscoll, Doug Wilson) with just your run-of-the-mill conservative Evangelical. Like I said in an earlier post, just because Huckabee, Palin, and Perry had either attended or spoke at a Bill Gothard seminar doesn’t mean they are “promoting patriarchy and militant masculinity,” any more than if a Democrat politician stumped for Bill Clinton in the 90s, that means that Democrat is promoting sexual harassment and rape. And just because Keller and Carson, along with Driscoll (and many other pastors) were part of The Gospel Coalition, that hardly means Keller and Carson are like Driscoll.
It’s good to expose those who are guilty of truly bad behavior. To engage in some kind politically partisan of “guilty by association” game—not so much.
Chapter 12: Pilgrim’s Progress in Camo—Summary and Response
Chapter 12 focuses on how Colorado Springs became the new center for the Evangelical world and how there was an Evangelical push to influence the military. Once again, KDM focuses on James Dobson, who had moved Focus on the Family to Colorado Springs in 1991. She notes that Dobson had supported Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore’s instillation of a monument to the Ten Commandments in the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003. He also become more and more politically involved, openly supporting various Republican candidates.
She also mentions pastor Ted Haggard of New Life Church, who became the president of the National Association of Evangelicals in 2003 and was very heavily involved in politics as well. In 2006, though, it came to light that Haggard had been paying a male escort for sex for a number of years and Haggard was forced to resign his position.
In any case, KDM argues that men like Dobson and Haggard, as well as men like Oliver North among others, pushed a more “Mel Gibson-like” depiction of a masculine, military-minded Jesus in an attempt to fuel Islamophobia. They viewed Islam as a threat to Christianity and America, and therefore endorsed the American military in the fight against Islamic terrorism.
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Once again, most of what KDM highlights in the chapter is true. There are two things, though, I would take issue with. First, I would have to guess that KDM is a pacifist and that she sees support of the military as un-Christian. Yes, there is the danger of conflating patriotism with being a Christian—and indeed many Evangelicals are guilty of that—but it is equally dangerous to imply that supporting the military or, quite frankly, having ministries to evangelize soldiers is somehow anti-Christian. As a matter of historical fact, militant Islamic groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS were, in their minds, fighting a “holy war” with the West and with Christianity. Militant, radical Islam is a threat, and it is the responsibility of any government to protect its citizens from hostile threats. And although it is true that there has no doubt been some Americans who view all Muslims as terrorists, it has been made abundantly clear ever since 9/11 (at least in the reality I am aware of) that the threat is coming from the radical strands within Islam, not with the majority of Muslims themselves. Failure to make that distinction—and it doesn’t matter if you are someone who really does think “all Muslims are terrorists,” or are someone like KDM who associates fighting Al-Qaeda and ISIS with “Islamophobia”—displays a tremendous lapse in judgment and very poor critical thinking skills.
Second, about Roy Moore. Sure, back in 2003, apparently Dobson (and others) supported Moore’s installation of the Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Supreme Court. I’ll just be blunt: who cares? The Ten Commandments are displayed in the US Supreme Court. The whole supposed “controversy” is the equivalent of a cat toy used to distract small-minded partisan puppets from focusing on anything that matters. As for Roy Moore himself, by the time 2017 rolled around, he was so problematic in both his views and his extreme conflation of Christianity and patriotism that he lost his bid for the Senate to Democrat Doug Jones—in Alabama. The very fact that a guy like Roy Moore—a veritable poster-boy for the very kind of corrupted Christianity KDM highlights throughout her book—lost to a Democrat in such a heavily Republican and heavily Evangelical/Fundamentalist state like Alabama should tell you something. Yes, there are guys like Roy Moore out there, but no, guys like him clearly do not represent “white Evangelicalism” as a whole.
Regarding Ted Haggard. Yes, he was too politically-involved. Yes, his sexual sins were exposed. Yes, he was forced to step down in disgrace, as he should have done. You can look at any religion, any group, any organization, and you are going to find instances where leaders do bad things. We live in a fallen world where that happens. What should concern us is how that particular church, group, or organization addresses it when it is exposed.
Chapter 13: Why We Want to Kill You—Summary and Response
In Chapter 13, KDM focuses on some of the reactions to 9/11 and Islamic terrorism by some in the Evangelical world. Franklin Graham called Islam “a very evil and wicked religion.” Pat Robertson said that Muslims were “worse than Nazis.” And James Dobson (again!) characterized Islamic fundamentalism as one of the most serious threats to American families. In addition, KDM spends a lot of time talking about Ergun and Emir Caner, two brothers who wrote, Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs. Long story short, the brothers claimed to have been former Muslim extremists who had now become Christians. Ergun Caner was even hired by Jerry Falwell to teach at Liberty University. As it turned out, the brothers lied about their lives a whole lot. They hadn’t grown up in Turkey, but rather had been born in Sweden and had come to Ohio at the age of three and was raised by their Swedish Lutheran mother. They had never been part of the Islamic jihad and their entire story was a sham.
KDM does acknowledge that not all Evangelicals “jumped on the anti-Muslim bandwagon, but states that most Evangelicals seemed to side with the likes of James Dobson (again!) and Albert Mohler. In any case, even though (white) Evangelicals continued to support George W. Bush in 2004 (79% voted for him), KDM says that his approval rating started to decline as his “warrior status diminished,” noting that in 2002, 87% of white Evangelicals 18-29 approved of Bush’s job performance, but by 2007 that number had dropped to 45%.
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Since I addressed the post 9/11 reaction in the previous chapter, I don’t need to say much about this chapter. KDM is right to point out the careless way certain “big names” in Evangelicalism apparently characterized Islam. That being said, she doesn’t provide a lot of context for her partial quotes. For example, did Robertson literally say all Muslims were “worse than Nazis,” or was he specifically talking about the likes of Al-Qaeda? And, to be fair, according to KDM, Dobson did say Islamic fundamentalism was a threat, not Islam. In any case, though, she is correct in her criticism of the careless way a lot of those “big names” in Evangelicalism addressed the post 9/11 threat. As for Ergun and Emir Caner, they were clearly charlatans, and the fact that Falwell kept Ergun Caner on staff even after the revelations came out tells you all you need to know about Falwell.
As for KDM’s rationale for Bush’s declining popularity among Evangelicals, though, it doesn’t really make sense. She claims that Bush’s “warrior status diminished” in the eyes of Evangelicals, but that claim flies in the face of actual history. If anything, the reason for Bush’s decline in popularity, particularly among young Evangelicals, wasn’t because his “warrior status” was diminished. It was because of a number of things: (1) no WMDs were ever found, (2) the Iraq war gone on a lot longer than expected, (3) the situation had devolved to the point where Bush order a surge and more military into Iraq, and (4) the abuse of prisoners at Abu ghraib had come to light. If anything, it wasn’t that Bush’s “warrior status” diminished. It was the general public (Evangelicals included) had become too disturbed over the whole thing. That is the exact opposite of what KDM claims.
My next post will be my next to last post on Jesus and John Wayne. In chapters 14-15, KDM looks at the Obama years and the election of Trump, and in chapter 16, she reviews many of the things she covers throughout her book by giving a laundry list of bad behavior of the usual suspects from her book. Since my next post will cover chapters 14-15, it should be pretty tame—after all, nobody has any strong feelings regarding Obama or Trump…right?
