Du Mez’s work throws the closet doors wide open, and our skeletons are on full display. Because we cannot continue to claim that abuse scandals or Christian nationalists are outliers. Evangelicals need to come to terms with how they have used power and gender to harm people. Jesus and John Wayne is well-timed, and important. It helps us see the ideological distance between soft-spoken James Dobson and our blustery racist grandpa aren’t as vast as we had assumed. It helps us see that that “one time” when we saw women treated badly was actually one of many. The book helped me put the stars I’ve seen through the decades into alignment, revealing a constellation of our failures. I have spent my life in evangelical circles, and most, if not all, of the names mentioned in Jesus and John Wayne were familiar to me. Believing that wounds from a friend can be trusted (Pro 27:6), we would do well to heed those Jesus and John Wayne offers. Indeed, Kristin Kobes Du Mez’ book is one that can help jolt us to the reality of what we have made and become. For many of us, reading Jesus and John Wayne might feel a little like that. She returns home with a bruised face and bruised pride to reflect on her sins.
Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Revelation” begins with a holier-than-thou character having a book, along with her sin, thrown in her face.
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