Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

49 reviews

kayschwe's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

abutler's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and War

elly29's review against another edition

challenging informative sad slow-paced

3.25

There was a deluge of information, and I'm unsure I processed or retained a lot of it. I listened, and had to go back again to catch a lot of what Du Mez said. Notably, there were a lot of players -- both individuals and organizations -- that contributed to the coalescence of white conservative evangelicalism and christian nationalism, and it was difficult sometimes to get a picture of how they all fit together. It starts with Billy Graham, and John Wayne, and moves to Oliver North and James Dobson and Jerry Falwell. I think Du Mez did the best she could to make a cohesive narrative out of it, but I'm still reeling and can't express the things I learned from it.

At times, I wanted to breathe fire. For example, with Marabel Morgan's "Total Woman," which set women back by a century, or the purity circles, or Chapters 16 which was on how Christian evangelical patriarchy self-justified abuse (major content warning on that, about victim-blaming). A lot of the tools that crystallized the cultural movement were the same through 1960, 1980, and 2010: a focus on a (fragile! They emphasized that the male ego was fragile and needed assuaging!!) male ego, with a docile/submissive femininity that needed protection (but who will protect women from self-aggrandizing, power-hungry patriarchs?).

Some of it hit close to home, as Du Mez mentioned Mormonism on occasion, and the same scandals in evangelicalism and Catholicism have occurred.

I... I have so much less sympathy for the culture of evangelicalism. It is divorced from any sense of religion. And, it drives home the point that Trump's election was a litmus test of our political and cultural climate: that a swathe of white males are frantic about losing their position in society. (It really is all about racism -- which Du Mez acknowledged briefly, but not enough). Very interesting to read this on the heels of Wilkerson's "Caste" and Haidt's "The Righteous Mind": definitely evangelicals/conservatism appeals to Authority/Order, Sacredness (ish?). 

Like, I still don't know what to do with this book, y'all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Racism, Violence, Islamophobia, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Homophobia and Abortion

It's a cultural-polticial-historical analysis, so it discusses and analyzes sexism, misogyny, homophobia, abortion, etc, not necessarily graphic detail. However, Chapter 16 was rough on the sheer volume of evidence of sexual abuse, and conservative christians' dismissal of sexual abuse. If you're sensitive to discussion like that, steer clear!

crunchy_hobbit's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

4.0

It doesn’t really come together till the final two chapters (ie, I’d like the author to be a little more explicit about the term she uses as her through line) but when it hits, it hits. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, and Religious bigotry

katyallred's review against another edition

dark informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Abortion

sarahholliday's review against another edition

challenging informative

4.25

An impressive analysis of the insidious influence militant masculinity, patriarchy, and white supremacy have had on American evangelicalism and American culture more broadly. The evidence is abundant and the arguments convincing, though I wish de Mez would've drawn explicit connections between these systems and abuse earlier in the work, rather than leaving the bulk of that particular discussion for the final chapter. 

Overall, I loved this much-needed work and want to put it into the hands of everyone I know.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape

kaitlinlovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

It’s going to take me awhile to form a coherent review. This is an incredibly well-researched, eye-opening book like nothing I’ve read about Evangelicalism before. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Islamophobia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

drusilla_reads's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry

j_sherrill's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

As someone who has grown up sort of on the fringes of evangelical Christianity in America and as someone who is perplexed by the evangelical obsession with Donald Trump, I felt this was an important book for me to read. I did not expect it to be as challenging as it was. To me, at times this book felt pretty dry and dense and I found myself zoning out. I was just bored at times. In spite of this, I feel like this is an important book for any evangelical Christian to read and it is well worth the time and effort required to read it. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry