The impact of white evangelicals on U.S. politics

The majority of white evangelical support went to President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and it’s a voting bloc that continues to hold the attention of campaigns and political analysts in the lead-up to the 2020 election. 

That support in 2016 was’t necessarily a transactional or a “lesser of two evils” choice. Rather, it’s “the culmination of evangelicals’ embrace of militant masculinity, an ideology that enshrines patriarchal authority and condones the callous display of power, at home and abroad,” according to author and history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez in her latest book. She also writes that it’s not a change that started with Trump, nor will it end when he’s no longer in office.

In “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” Kobes Du Mez explores Christian manhood, the history and culture of this group and where American evangelicalism goes from here.

She joined MPR News host Kerri Miller in conversation Tuesday morning.

Guest:

• Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a professor of history, gender studies and urban studies at Calvin University. Her latest book is “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.”