Mark Driscoll reframed Jesus as a hypermasculine warrior to attract men to church.

Evidence

Driscoll insisted that real men avoided church because they had no interest in a “Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ.” But Jesus was no “long-haired … effeminate-looking dude”—he was a man like Driscoll’s own working-class dad, “a construction worker who swung a hammer for a living,” a man with “calluses on his hands and muscles on his frame.” Jesus bore no resemblance to “the drag-queen Jesus images that portray him with long, flowing, feathered hair, perfect teeth, and soft skin, draped in a comfortable dress accessorized by matching open-toed sandals and handbag.” He was an aggressive, anger-filled leader who picked fights with religious authorities, slaughtered thousands of pigs, ordered his disciples around, and didn’t mind causing offense. Jesus was a hero, not a loser, “an Ultimate Fighter warrior king with a tattoo down his leg who rides into battle against Satan, sin, and death on a trusty horse,” just like in the Westerns. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 438

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for the book’s central thesis that militant masculinity became the organizing center of evangelical identity; connects to the Western-hero imagery theme running through earlier chapters. — connects to: American conservative Christianity exalts a hypermasculine, militarized image of Jesus. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 347
• FICTION: The ‘Ultimate Fighter warrior king with a tattoo down his leg’ Jesus is a vivid cultural artifact that could seed satirical fiction.