But over the last several years, French has become a pariah to many on the right. He is super conservative himself, as you will hear in this conversation when he talks about his view of abortion.
#JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE RESPONSES HOW TO#
He is author of several books, most recently, "Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation." David has a long career as a lawyer who has fought for religious liberty of all faiths, but especially conservatives. And we also talk about the connection between the deification of men in religious subcultures, and the connection to how abuses of power - especially sexual abuse and harassment - have been covered up by religious institutions.ĭavid French, my guest today, is senior editor at The Dispatch, contributing writer at The Atlantic, co-host of the "Good Faith" podcast with Curtis Chang. It's not all gender difference but a kind of black and white thinking about what men and women can and cannot be. In this episode, we discuss what Du Mez means by gender difference, and what exactly she's critiquing. Du Mez documents the roots of this muscular Christianity rising out of a response to industrialization and the loss of meaningful work for many men, over a century ago.ĭu Mez writes in the book that "for conservative white evangelicals, the 'good news' of the Christian gospel has become inextricably linked to a staunch commitment to patriarchal authority, gender difference, and Christian nationalism, and all of these are intertwined with white racial identity." The argument in Du Mez's book is that the attempt to infuse Christianity with more muscle, to make Christian men in particular more aggressive, has gone badly astray. Her book, "Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation," has caused a huge stir. Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University - a private evangelical college.