Jesus and John Wayne

Powerful book that helps explain why and how Christianity is the way it is today.

Not much theology but a good historical book that lays out the path to where evangelicals are now.

As a recently former Evangelical, this explains a whole lot of things that have bothered me for a long time. I kept hoping I could make a difference and make people really listen to the words of Jesus. But every time my family and I tried, we became ‘dangerous' and were bullied out of the church. I thought it was just churches where we live, but I see it is much larger than that. This book was so hard to listen to. I couldn't have finished it if I was reading it. I feel really lucky that I have only been given the cold shoulder a few times by churches because as I see in this book, it could have been so much worse. Sad and scary, but also it affirms my decision to become an ex-evangelical Christian.

This book is so helpful - to understand my own upbringing and how the political landscape has become what it is today. This was also hard to read as someone influenced and brought up in said movement and now sees it for what it was / is.

Very slow and dry, packing in a lot of detail to lay the foundation for why Trump is a culmination of evangelical priorities, not an outlier. It reads like a standard history book. I think what bothered me about this book is that it felt so clinical in describing issues that have such an incredible, daily impact on people's daily lives. It felt like a 1000 ft view, mostly due to the writing style. Still an enlightening read, but purely informational.

I grew up in an evangelical environment so none of this information is really even new, and yet it still stings so hard. 

This book is one of the best all-encompassing explainers of how Christian Evangelicalism affects every facet of the United States Government and religious patriarchy's role in shaping modern America.

Evangelicalism is just as underhanded and sinister at silencing balanced discussions about equal rights as it is SA victims. People like Jim Bakker, Pat Robertson, Bill Gothard and Phyllis Sclafly started a cesspool of far right, anti-science, anti-woman rhetoric that's still poisoning the public consciousness today.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how the traditional, peace-loving, socialist Christian Jesus turned into the gun-toting figure many hyper-religious, meglomaniacal über-conservatives follow today.