Evangelical Christians and Trump: Is the partnership a shock?

In early June, President Trump had federal officers use tear fuel and rubber bullets to disperse a peaceable protest so he may stage a photograph op exterior St. John’s Church, which sits throughout from the White Home.

The picture, now notorious, exhibits Trump awkwardly holding up the Bible as if he’s by no means held a e-book in his life. It’s a surreal shot that by some means captures the performative dimension of his whole presidency.

However why the Bible? And why undergo all that hassle to do the picture op in entrance of a church?

It’s well-known that evangelicals are certainly one of Trump’s most loyal constituencies, however it’s nonetheless not clear why. Standard knowledge says that evangelicals held their noses and voted for Trump purely for pragmatic functions — the largest purpose being the Supreme Court docket. They might not like him, the argument goes, however he’s a helpful political car. (See, for instance, the Court docket’s determination on Wednesday that permits the Trump administration to develop non secular exemptions for employers who object to the Inexpensive Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.)

However what if Trump wasn’t a trade-off for evangelicals? What if an obsession with manhood and toughness made a determine like Trump the pure achievement of their political evolution?

That is the argument Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a historian at Calvin College, makes in her new e-book Jesus and John Wayne. In keeping with Du Mez, evangelical leaders have spent many years utilizing the instruments of popular culture — movies, music, tv, and the web — to develop the motion. The end result, she says, is a Christianity that mirrors that tradition. As an alternative of modeling their lives on Christ, evangelicals have made heroes of individuals like John Wayne and Mel Gibson, individuals who venture a extra militant and extra nationalist picture. In that sense, Trump’s strongman shtick is a near-perfect expression of their values.

To be candid, I wasn’t certain what to make of this thesis, however I’m additionally not an authority on American evangelicalism. So I contacted Du Mez, who teaches at a Christian faculty and has spent 15 years learning evangelicals, to speak in regards to the path of the motion and the way it led to Trump and what she calls our “fractured political second.”

A evenly edited transcript of our dialog follows.

Sean Illing

The contrarian argument on the core of your e-book is that the connection between Trump and (largely white) evangelicals is extra harmonious than most individuals counsel. Are you able to sum up your thesis?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Nicely, there are all these theories that evangelicals had been holding their noses once they voted for Trump, that they had been by some means betraying their values. However I’ve studied evangelicals for a very long time and I used to be watching them very carefully through the election and within the aftermath, and I simply didn’t see any regrets in any respect. There was no angst or no sense that this was by some means a troublesome trade-off. In truth, what I noticed was a bunch of enthusiasm. There have been some evangelical leaders who had been expressing warning about Trump, however many of the rank and file had zero issue supporting Trump.

Sean Illing

And when did that turn into clear to you?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I’d say proper across the time the Entry Hollywood tapes had been launched — that’s when it crystallized for me. So we had these tapes the place Trump is speaking about sexually assaulting ladies in such crass phrases. And the media actually homed in on white evangelicals at that second, asking if this was a bridge too far. Though there was just a little hesitation right here and there from evangelicals, a couple of week later they had been all again on board.

Sean Illing

I do know you educate at a Christian college, however did you develop up within the evangelical world? Have you learnt it from private expertise?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I didn’t establish as an evangelical rising up, however most evangelicals don’t. We are inclined to establish as Christians. Trying again, although, I might most likely outline myself as evangelical-adjacent. I grew up in a small city in Iowa, and this was very a lot part of my world.

As I grew up, I used to be uncovered to this evangelical in style tradition by our native bookstore, the one bookstore on the town. The cabinets had been crammed with these evangelical books, with Christian modern music and Christian motion pictures. I used to be in a Christian youth group. And so my expertise with evangelicalism was by the favored tradition.

Sean Illing

Assist me perceive why masculinity and nationalism are so foundational to the modern evangelical worldview.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

What I look to as a historian is that this essential interval within the post-World Warfare II period when these gender beliefs fuse with anti-communist ideology and this overarching want to defend Christian America. The concept that takes root throughout this era is that Christian masculinity, Christian males, are the one factor that may shield America from godless communism.

On the identical time, you’ve the civil rights motion destabilizing white evangelicalism and conceptions of white masculinity. Then you’ve feminism destabilizing conventional masculinity. And all of this comes collectively for evangelicals, who see their place within the tradition slipping away, they usually see their political energy beginning to erode due to this cultural displacement. That’s the second once you see Christian nationalism linking along with a really militant conception of Christian manhood, as a result of it’s as much as the Christian man to defend his household in opposition to all kinds of home risks within the tradition wars, and likewise to defend Christian America in opposition to communists and in opposition to army threats.

Sean Illing

So the thought is that Christian masculinity is the one factor that may protect conventional American tradition and that perception is what precipitates the flip towards a extra muscular Christianity?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

That’s precisely proper. So once you consider evangelicals, lots of people consider the time period “household values.” However I truly went again to the origins of household values evangelicalism and I used to be actually stunned simply how a lot it was positioned within the context of international coverage, how a lot it was within the service of defending the American nation. If you happen to return and take heed to James Dobson of Deal with the Household and browse the books that emerged throughout this era, that is all very clear.

Sean Illing

The phrase “household values” is often hurled at evangelicals with a purpose to name out their hypocrisy, however I believe your e-book makes fairly clear that they’re not hypocrites in any respect. They solely seem hypocritical in the event you misunderstand what they really worth.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Precisely. If you happen to perceive what household values evangelicalism has at all times entailed — and on the very coronary heart of it’s white patriarchy, and sometimes a militant white patriarchy — then instantly, all kinds of evangelical political positions and cultural positions fall into place.

So evangelicals will not be appearing in opposition to their deeply held values once they elect Trump; they’re affirming them. Their precise views on immigration coverage, on torture, on gun management, on Black Lives Matter and police brutality — all of them line up fairly carefully with Trump’s. These are their values, and Trump represents them.

Sean Illing

I’d prefer to steelman the evangelical perspective, so are you able to inform me what cultural forces they’re reacting in opposition to?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Nicely, it adjustments over time. Within the ’40s and ’50s, it’s all about anti-communism. However as soon as the civil rights revolution takes maintain, it turns into about defending the steadiness of the normal social order in opposition to all of the cultural revolutions of the ’60s. However the actually fascinating second for me is within the early ’90s when the Chilly Warfare involves an finish. You’d assume there could be a sort of resetting after the nice enemy had been vanquished, however that’s not what occurred.

As an alternative, we get the trendy tradition wars over intercourse and gender identification and all the remaining. After which 9/11 occurs and Islam turns into the brand new main risk. So it’s at all times shifting, and at a sure level I began asking the query, notably post-9/11, what comes first right here? Is it the worry of recent change, of no matter’s occurring within the second? Or had been evangelical leaders actively looking for out these threats and stoking worry with a purpose to preserve their militancy, to take care of their energy?

Sean Illing

So this drift right into a extra militant and nationalist Christianity results in this obsession with toughness and machismo. The way in which you place it’s that evangelicals are on the lookout for “religious badasses.” They don’t need light Jesus, they need William Wallace or John Wayne.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Yeah, these are their position fashions. Most white evangelical males that I knew through the top of this motion, which is admittedly the early 2000s, had been very militant. They had been shopping for these hypermasculine books and participating in these males’s studying teams. They weren’t residing out this rugged, violent life-style, besides possibly at weekend retreats the place they role-played these things. However in actual life, they had been nonetheless strolling round in khakis and polo shirts, however these had been the values that had been actually animating their worldview.

Sean Illing

Wait, are there weekend retreats the place evangelical males are role-playing Braveheart?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I don’t learn about that particularly, however that is very a lot a factor. The success of John Eldredge’s e-book Wild at Coronary heart [a huge bestseller that urged young Christian men to reclaim their masculinity] was a giant deal within the evangelical world, and it offered tens of millions of copies simply within the US. Each faculty Christian males’s group was studying this. It was all over the place within the early 2000s.

There have been a lot of conferences celebrating this model of a rugged Christianity. It was large enterprise, and there have been a lot of weekend retreats the place males may exit into the wilderness and follow their masculinity. Native church buildings invented their very own variations of this. One church I do know in Washington had their very own native Braveheart video games that entails wrestling with pigs or one thing. It was all bizarre and totally different, however the level was to show and specific your masculinity.

Sean Illing

Is that this fascination with manhood distinctive to evangelical tradition particularly? Or is that this one thing you discover in different Christian subcultures?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

The emphasis on strict “gender distinction” and perceived must “outline” Christian manhood is much higher in conservative white evangelicalism than in different Christian subcultures. White evangelicals additionally stand out when it comes to their emphasis on militancy and their conceptions of masculinity, and in how that militant masculinity is linked to Christian nationalism.

In Black Protestantism, for instance, it’s possible you’ll discover an emphasis on Christian manhood, however you’re more likely to come across discussions of fatherhood relatively than a militant warrior masculinity. In mainline Protestantism you’ll be extra prone to encounter a kinder, gentler masculinity — extra of the Mr. Rogers type. (Militant white evangelical masculinity explicitly denounces Mr. Rogers’s mannequin of manhood.)

That stated, evangelical constructions of masculinity have made inroads into mainline circles largely by way of in style tradition (many mainline church buildings use evangelical literature of their small-group Bible research, for instance), so the strains between white evangelical and mainline Christianity will not be at all times all that clearly drawn.

Sean Illing

There’s loads happening there, however I’ll carry this again to Trump. Do most evangelicals think about him a religious badass?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

For a lot of he’s not, however he’s their nice protector. He’s their strongman that God has given them to guard them. So, once more, the ends justify the means right here. However I believe it’s necessary to grasp that the attraction of Trump to evangelicals isn’t stunning in any respect, as a result of their very own religion custom has lengthy embraced this concept of a ruthless masculine protector.

That is simply the way in which that God works and the way in which that God has designed males. He stuffed them with testosterone in order that they will combat. So there’s simply a lot much less of a battle there. The commonest factor that I hear from white evangelicals defending Trump is that they simply want he would tweet much less. I don’t discover loads of concern about his precise insurance policies or what’s in his coronary heart.

Sean Illing

I don’t perceive how a draft-dodging, spray-tanned hypochondriac has turn into a hypermasculine protector for militant evangelicals —

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I imply, that’s honest, however you need to keep in mind that their complete thought of militant masculinity was fashioned in response in opposition to feminism and extra not too long ago in opposition to so-called political correctness. That has been simply such a robust enemy for white evangelicals who really feel oppressed by these new requirements of habits. And I believe Trump actually succeeds by not following any of these guidelines of civil discourse.

Sean Illing

If most evangelicals are taking their ethical and political cues from Trump or the Duck Dynasty clan or from Christian radio and tv, haven’t we crossed over into one thing post-religious, one thing nearer to a life-style or a cultural pose?

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I believe we’ve got. However I’ll say there’s nonetheless range inside evangelical church buildings, communities, and households. There are such a lot of evangelicals who learn their Bible each morning, who maintain to scriptural teachings as they perceive them. However for a lot of of them, the Bible is an advanced e-book. Which verses do you maintain on to as formative in your life, and which do you dismiss? Many are studying by the filter of this ideology now.

However I’ve encountered a lot of evangelicals who don’t need to converse out, who really feel loads of strain inside their very own communities. This isn’t what their religion means to them, this isn’t what Christianity is to them. So after we discuss white evangelicals, we should always acknowledge that there’s disagreement inside church buildings and communities and households, however it’s true {that a} strong majority of white evangelicals have purchased into this ideology.

Sean Illing

Some of the fascinating threads in your e-book is that this story about how evangelical leaders have tried to modernize the church through the use of popular culture to lure folks in, however over time the popular culture has utterly supplanted the theology and all that’s left is the vacuous political model.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I educate at a Christian college, so nearly all of my college students would match into this class of white evangelicals. And simply this previous yr, I used to be instructing a course the place it concerned studying the primary three chapters of Genesis. It was about biblical gender roles and taking a essential look.

And at one level throughout our dialogue, one girl raised her hand and stated, “I’ve a confession to make. I believe that is the primary time I’ve truly learn the primary three chapters of Genesis … I’ve been working with the VeggieTales tales and I assumed I knew this, so I didn’t trouble with the Bible.” [VeggieTales is a Christian animated collection for youths that makes use of popular culture to retell biblical tales.] She was so embarrassed to admit that, however then a number of different college students confessed to the identical factor.

So that is the evangelical tradition these children have been raised in. They take heed to pop Christian music on the radio. They learn the pop Christian books. They watch Deal with the Household youngsters’s programming. They watch VeggieTales cartoons. And Christian dad and mom are advised to maintain their children away from the broader secular tradition, so it’s additionally very insular. They keep on with the Christian model of it. That’s the one theology they know.

Sean Illing

That is actually a narrative a couple of non secular motion getting entangled with politics and consumerism and being bastardized on account of the collision.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I believe that’s proper, and there’s some huge cash to be made by the e-book gross sales, the promoting, and the connections between the political strategists and a few of the people behind this shopper market. What I actually tried to do right here is simply perceive the networks behind American evangelicalism. Who’s publishing what? What are the distribution networks?

It’s essential to grasp evangelicalism by this lens. Even when somebody walks right into a Christian e-book retailer or goes on-line and orders a Christian product, that looks like an genuine expression of their religion to them.

Sean Illing

I hear folks say on a regular basis that Trump’s election was a tragedy for evangelicals, however after studying your e-book, I’m wondering if it isn’t their biggest victory.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez

It is determined by your vantage level, proper? I’ve been learning evangelical masculinity for nearly 15 years, and seeing the veil ripped off on this manner was nearly cathartic for me. I used to be in a position to see the character of the motion with much more readability. That is what “household values” evangelicalism appears like, and now it’s obvious to everybody.

However for evangelical dissenters, that is certainly a tragedy. And but I believe even those that are resisting, or who’re calling this out and who’re combating the path that evangelicalism has taken, nonetheless must reckon with the methods through which they, too, as a part of this custom, have been complicit on this ideology. The Trump period didn’t simply occur. We’ve been shifting on this path for a very long time.

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