Trump represented the culmination, not betrayal, of evangelical militant masculinity

Evidence

Evangelicals hadn’t betrayed their values. Donald Trump was the culmination of their half-century-long pursuit of a militant Christian masculinity. He was the reincarnation of John Wayne, sitting tall in the saddle, a man who wasn’t afraid to resort to violence to bring order, who protected those deemed worthy of protection, who wouldn’t let political correctness get in the way of saying what had to be said or the norms of democratic society keep him from doing what needed to be done. Unencumbered by traditional Christian virtue, he was a warrior in the tradition (if not the actual physical form) of Mel Gibson’s William Wallace. He was a hero for God-and-country Christians in the line of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and Oliver North, one suited for Duck Dynasty Americans and American Christians. He was the latest and greatest high priest of the evangelical cult of masculinity. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 615

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: This is the book’s central thesis stated in its most condensed form: Trump as consummation of a half-century cultural project, with the full genealogy of the warrior archetype drawn in one paragraph.
• XREF: Directly answers the reader’s stated question about continuity vs hypocrisy; the phrase ‘the latest and greatest high priest of the evangelical cult of masculinity’ is the takeaway line to quote.
• SEED: Angle for an essay: ‘the prophet problem’ — how a movement that preaches sanctified masculinity reconciles its own moral codes when its champion openly violates them, and why it doesn’t care.