Evangelical identity is formed more by cultural heroes than by theology

Evidence

The products Christians consume shape the faith they inhabit. Today, what it means to be a “conservative evangelical” is as much about culture as it is about theology. This is readily apparent in the heroes they celebrate. Establishment evangelicals might count Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield among their eminent fore-bearers, but evangelical popular culture is teeming with a different ensemble of heroes—men like William Wallace (as brought to life by Mel Gibson), Teddy Roosevelt, the mythic American cowboy, Generals Douglas MacArthur and George S. Patton, and the ordinary American soldier. And the actor John Wayne. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 23

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the book’s core method: identity through consumer culture heroes rather than doctrinal content.
• CANDY: The list of heroes — Mel Gibson’s William Wallace, John Wayne — is an immediately shareable, provocative contrast with Edwards and Whitefield.
• SEED: Angle for an essay: the saints of a consumer religion — who replaces the theologians in the popular canon, and what that replacement signals.
• XREF: connects to: Evangelical conversion is usually a datable, emotionally charged event — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 32; Rural evangelical communities fused Christian and American identity as one — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 53