Evangelical masculinity literature glorified war and conquest as masculine virtues

Evidence

Men’s competitive nature was evidenced in their proclivity for risk and adventure, as well as in their greater political and economic achievements—these despite feminist affirmative action campaigns—and the wars they had prosecuted throughout history. From his office at Focus on the Family, Dobson could peer across the valley at the United States Air Force Academy. Watching cadets train to be pilots and officers, he pondered how men’s competitive nature explained “the bloody military campaigns that have raged through the ages,” yet how “this masculine thirst for conquest” had also produced “daring and adventuresome feats that benefited humanity.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 403

Categorization

• XREF: Supports the central thesis that militarism was baked into the evangelical masculine ideal decades before Trump; connects to earlier chapters on military evangelicals and ‘muscular Christianity.’