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

The story of how evangelicals, especially white southern evangelicals, became involved in politics and have since been a force, whether if the reader thinks for good or ill, has been retold countless times over the past several years and gets aa new retelling by professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez. Du Mez starts roughly eighty years ago when evangelicals were more concerned with saving souls than being involved in politics. But as Americans began to move away from organized religion, the evangelicals were at first not quite united but over time started throwing their weight behind Republican candidates, no matter how much corruption and bad the candidates were. Over time, according to Du Mez, the Evangelicals basically sold their soul to a party that does not care about them, as the Republican party knows the Evangelicals will vote for them no matter who the person is. What is more unique is that Du Mez moves beyond President Reagan, and the idea of rugged masculinity and individuality, no matter how much it might contradict sayings from the Bible. She goes up through the election of the current president.