I just don’t get it but that may be because I am not from there.
I guess it makes it even harder for me to believe it when I find out that some of the American presidential candidates most hated by evangelicals were in fact evangelicals themselves (and their most loved rivals were anything but). Finally we need to spend time together discovering the truth.īut beyond that, it is not a part of my framework to connect that with some kind of political system ( which I think the Bible refers to as a wild animal rather than a lamb who was slain).
We need to tell people that Jesus’ Kingdom has an unparalleled set of values. We need to tell people that Jesus is the best possible leader. I will say this with regards to politics: I do believe that all people need to be involved in nationbuilding, Christians in particular. I really can’t for the life of me understand why my evangelical masculinity needs to be so closely connected with politics and political systems. Any understanding of a necessary close connection between evangelical masculinity and politics escapes me. I was born and raised in Canada and have spent almost half my life in Southeast Asia so the American context is largely someone else’s context. Each paragraph is footnoted with sources so readers can double check what is said.Īt this point I need to point out that while I was reading I did find it a bit like watching the neighbours through their living room window. Rather than evangelicals having a carefully thought out theological argument for being men, what we discover is a political argument for being men that is then adopted by the evangelical church. Du Mez presents a view of evangelical masculinity that is frankly disturbing. As is obvious from some of my previous posts, masculinities are an important part of my life and ministry. I enjoyed this book immensely and highly recommend it.
What follows is not so much a critique as it is a train of thought brought about by the book. I like reading books because of where they take me and how they get my mind to go down trails that may or may not have been the intent of the author. The publisher’s product description says, “Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism―or in the words of one modern chaplain, with ‘a spiritual badass.’” I had a chance to read it a couple of weeks ago after borrowing the ebook version from the Saskatoon Public Library. Du Mez is a professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Kristin Du Mez’ Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation is a New York Times bestseller and has been the centre of an online debate from the moment it first came out.
0 kommentar(er)
