Christian schools propagated a mythic militant patriotism through curriculum and pageantry

Evidence

Wells was a key figure in the southern California evangelical community. To counter the perceived failures of public schools, he established a Christian elementary school and Orange County’s first Christian high school, Heritage High. Dedicated to teaching “Christian Americanism,” the school board screened textbooks to ensure that God and Christianity were well represented in American history. (They chafed at the lack of attention one popular textbook gave to General Douglas MacArthur—a paltry 26 words.) The school’s drama department staged musicals celebrating the values of patriotism and frontier democracy in which boys acted as the nation’s “valiant protectors.” One drama, God of Our Fathers, contained inspirational words from Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and General MacArthur. From the Patriot’s football team to school floats adorned with students dressed as Union, Confederate, and WWII soldiers all raising the flag at Iwo Jima, the school was steeped in a mythical, militant past. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 100

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how the book’s method uses commercial/educational artifacts as carriers of ideology — the school floats and drama pageants are the cultural apparatus transmitting militant masculinity. — connects to: Taxpayer-funded Arizona charter schools teach a biblical nationalist version of American history — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 99