North fused martial heroism with evangelical piety in bestselling war books.

Evidence

North continued to publish installments in his fiction series alongside a number of nonfiction titles including A Greater Freedom: Stories of Faith from Operation Iraqi Freedom and American Heroes in the Fight Against Radical Islam. The latter criticized Americans for being squeamish about pointing out that those trying to destroy the American way of life were, “almost exclusively, radical Muslim males.” The primary purpose of the book, however, was to showcase the heroism of American soldiers fighting against Islam. North insisted that it wasn’t about glorifying war; war was terrible, of course. He simply wanted to show brave American soldiers as they really were, as “part of the brightest, best educated, trained, led, and equipped military any nation has ever had.” And they were deeply religious. North told of a “little choir of Marines” performing “the manliest rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’” he’d ever heard, and of servicemen tucking Bibles into their flak jackets and flocking to chapel services, Bible studies, and prayer sessions. In combat, men might “take vulgar language to the level of a new art form,” but when the shooting stopped, they could be found reading their Bibles in a quiet moment. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 487

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s larger thesis that white evangelical identity was manufactured through a consumer culture of books and media; North is one commercial vector among several.