#48 – Jesus and John Wayne

Over the last two weeks, we’ve looked at how the Gospel of Jesus was changed from being a message of love, forgiveness and liberation into one of fear, guilt, shame, and unworthiness. This distortion was reinforced in the home, the Sunday Schools, Youth groups, and from the pulpit. And in the eyes and minds of people within the church and outside of it, this version of the Gospel became Evangelical Christianity.

In this episode, we’re going to explore another distortion from an entirely different angle: how the Jesus of that Gospel was replaced with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism.

Dr. Kristin Kobes Du Mez has written a book which has taken the literary world by storm. And not just the Christian literary world: it’s a New York Times Best Seller.

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.

Kristin takes us on a walk through recent Evangelical history, and shows how another distorted version of the Gospel was also taught from the pulpit, in the Sunday Schools, and within popular Christian literature. And this one too is seen by many American churches as entirely normative.

As always, tell us what you think.

If you want to find more from Kristin: https://kristindumez.com/

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