Evangelicals embraced Oliver North even as mainstream Americans forgot him

Evidence

AT THE TIME OF THE IRAN-CONTRA HEARINGS, A certain subset of Americans had been gripped by “Olliemania.” A T-shirt store in Albany, New York, sold a shirt emblazoned with an American flag, boasting “God, guns, guts and Ollie made this country.” A restaurant near Buffalo added an “Oliver North Sandwich” to their menu. Made with “red-blooded American beef” and topped with shredded lettuce, the sandwich was served up on a hero roll. But North’s moment in the spotlight soon came and went. Retailers had a hard time moving Barbie and Ken-like dolls modeled on North and his wife, and only about half of the 775,000 copies of Pocket Books’ paperback edition of North’s testimony transcript were expected to sell. Before long, a pork barbecue sandwich replaced the Oliver North on the menu in the Buffalo restaurant. … Even as he faded from view among the general public, North’s stature only increased among conservative Christians who were hungry for a hero of their own. Jerry Falwell led the way in lionizing North. In the spring of 1988, he had started a national petition drive to pardon North, and in May of that year he welcomed North to Liberty University as the school’s commencement speaker. When North arrived on campus, just one day after retiring from the military, Falwell compared him to Jesus. Reminding his audience that “we serve a savior who was indicted and convicted and crucified,” Falwell christened North “a true American hero.” … For American evangelicals, Ollie North was the perfect hero at the perfect time. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 274

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Du Mez’s central argument throughout the book about a parallel evangelical commercial-media culture producing its own heroes.