Welcome to Litsy!

I didn‘t intend to be reading horror tonight on Halloween, but here we are.

I knew this book would be infuriating, but didn‘t realize just how infuriating. Even more so because I grew up in a family of big James Dobson fans. My mom listened to Focus on the Family every morning on the drive to school. As an adult, my view of the man has changed drastically as glimpses of the toxicity in his work trickled into my awareness, but this? 😳🤬🤢

This is a really great book if you are baffled by the weird turn some evangelical churches have taken toward hard-right politics and against women‘s rights in recent years. I was raised in the Southern Baptist church so a lot of this rings true to me. I saw this turn towards Christian Nationalism decades ago so I got out. Anyway, this book has a lot of good historical context for what we are seeing now.

This 75-year-spanning study by a Christian historian traces American evangelicals‘ takeover of the Republican Party and shows how their highest values—militarism & masculinity, patriarchy & patriotism—turned a modest Jesus Christ into a macho John Wayne, and made voting for Donald Trump not a necessary evil, but a natural conclusion. As disturbing as it is revelatory, this book is a must read for anyone seeking to make sense of this political era.

This one has been recommended for so long and I finally read it. It really is amazing how Evangelicalism has become more about patriarchy and patriotism than actual Christianity or theology. This book was interesting to learn about 20th century history, but also it was sadly very relevant to today.

I didn‘t make it very far. It was all too scary for me.

Read this because a friend asked me to so we can talk about it. This cleared up a lot of my confusion of how we got here.

“The nuclear family structures around the male breadwinner was … of recent invention, arising in the 1920s and peaking in the 1950s and 1960s; before then, multigenerational families relying on multiple contributions to the family economy had been the norm.”

Christian nationalism might be the biggest threat to democracy in American today.

I‘m all 👂🦻and 👀👀.

It‘s my life! VeggieTales, DC Talk, the silver purity ring… Hahah crazy 🤪

I have barely gotten into this book, and I have already added 2 books TBR. I love when my books mention book. I always feel like I should read them.

@ETALTON I loved your booklist!So many interesting books.Ive picked these 5-4 of them I've read and loved, and hope you like them too.The tagged book sounds so fascinating,I had to pick it- such an interesting starting point to explore political shifts.I hope you enjoy your picks! And happy new year!

Finishing my final reads of 2022. This one was meticulously researched and very informative, if a bit dry. I‘m glad I finished it. I came full circle in my non-fiction reads this year, started with Cultish and ending with this one.

My favourite book for February 2022 was the tagged book. I was reading reviews of God Spare the Girls on Goodreads and a number of them mentioned this particular book. A really interesting look at how evangelicals have influenced North American culture for the past 70 years. #12booksof2022

It‘s a very interesting story about the White American evangelical Christian movement and the psychotic nature of the situation. I know it‘s not representative of the whole movement but it‘s very damning nevertheless.

Fascinating insight into the Evangelical Movement and how it came to support Donald Trump despite its morally conservative values. Helps me make sense of my upbringing and the current environment I see.

Why did white evangelicals, who have spent the last century or so calling for "moral" leaders and "family values," turn out in such high numbers for a vicious little crook like Donald Trump? Du Mez argues that white evangelicalism has a strong strain of patriarchal authoritarianism, which valorizes brawlers and bullies. Hence, Trumpism. It's more polemical than I expected, but it's a polemic I am 100% here for because it matches my experience

Wow. An interesting book that dug into and began explaining so many different levels. It shed so much light on so many confusing things that have happened in evangelical circles over the years. And sadly continue to happen. This book is highly criticized in evangelical circles—but it would be helpful for many to read and consider. Tough read in some ways but powerful.

I‘m stunned at how little I understood the complexities and connections of religion, political influence, and gender expectations. This book helped connect so many dots for me I didn‘t know I needed. Highly recommend.

4.5⭐️ A really fascinating look at white evangelical churches in the United States. As a Canadian, I‘m seeing the sort things creeping in and honestly I am starting to rethink going to church services on weekends. #2022 #bookstagram #bookreview #nonfiction

1) Tagged book, Sense & Sensibility, A Promises Land, Sunflower Sisters

2) God Spare the Girls

3) Reading, watching TV, listening to podcasts, laundry

#weekendreads

I will be reading the tagged book, finish up the #wutheringheights #readalong, work on Sense and Sensibility, A Promised Land and Sunflower Sisters for #weekendreading #wanderingthroughwutheringheights

Am about halfway through the book and I‘m just so fucking disgusted. I think I‘m disgusted because I see it in my own church. I definitely don‘t see this sort of stuff being portrayed in my parents marriage. They have a role reversal in that my dad does the grocery shopping and the cleaning and he does his own laundry and he makes dinner most nights. And he‘s done these things for at least 25 years.

The case made in this book that patriarchy is the guiding force behind modern evangelicalism is compelling and hard to deny. If you desire a way to view modern politics, especially the right, this is the place to start.

I found the discussions of how evangelicals view masculinity particular hard to listen to. Honestly, in my mind, nothing is less masculine than being performatively masculine all of the time. How little one must be.

1. Jonathan Tropper, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Stephen King (however, I expect this to change with my mood and time 🤪)
2. It seems so basic but I loved the name Hermione 3. Jesus and John Wayne #wonderouswednesday

Started reading this today, and I can tell it's going to be a thinker. I was a member of a conservative evangelical church as a 20something in the 90s and most of my social circle was evangelical at the time. There are aspects of evangelicalism today that I recognize and aspects I do not. I chafed against a lot of the teaching, but I don't remember it being suffused with such meanness. I pray my friends from those days found a better path.

This was difficult to get through because I was so enraged by what I learned.

Beautiful. Difficult.

An interesting book, although sometimes I lost attention because the narrator‘s voice is very soothing. The white men in this book are so scared of feminists and lgbtq—it‘s funny. The only part that really angered me was the last 2 hrs when sexual abuse was addressed. Finally answered my question of why this group loves Trump. Also, I don‘t think they read the same Bible as I do.
Years ago, I had a client who had finally left her husband. 👇

I came here to post my review and discovered that the cool kids have been reading and discussing this lately! 😁 Happy to see that, as it‘s really, really good. Highly recommend both the book (see reviews by @britt_brooke and @megabooks for why!) and Dr. Du Mez overall - she‘s excellent in webinars/book talks and is such a clear and important voice right now.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Fascinating and frustrating. Evangelicals are master business people. Du Mez, a scholar of American Christianity, explores decades of cultural evangelicalism and how we arrived in the Trump era. Gender roles, white supremacy, masculine Christianity (heaven forbid Jesus be depicted as slight with long, wavy hair and robes), and the wielding of political power are covered, backed by specific examples of “leaders” and their manipulations.

It all comes back to protecting the patriarchy and Jesus as a warrior.

Du Mez looks back from turn of the 20th century to now and examines at the evolution of evangelism and its effect on American culture and politics, from Billy Graham and John Wayne to Ted Haggard and Duck Dynasty. Since the Regan era, evangelism has been framed at big strong men protecting women‘s virtue, which led to things from purity balls to the election of 45. ⬇️

I‘m so excited for this! #hoopla does have it, but the sound is bad on my phone. I‘m hoping it will explain to me why one of the local churches sent people to the Jan 6 riots.

This book was quite the eye opener! Decades of evangelical madness, their way or the highway 🤯 WWJD drives them but not Jesus Jesus ( he‘s a long haired hippie freak girlie man preaching love and understanding) they want a John Wayne/Braveheart/G I Joe crossbreed that takes no prisoners, wins at any cost, suffers no fools. Woman and kids are seen not heard, white men are the best of the best 🤮🤮

Sheets on the line even with the weather app saying a storm is brewing and audio weeding to try and stay ahead of garden mayhem. I moved a few plants around too 🤞🏻and trimmed some tree branches

Out audio walking and wishing these people were home so I could ask them where their cool garden art was from

Finishing one audio book and started the next. I‘m driving all over town today doing errands so bring on the audio books. I heard about this here, so thank you Littens for always having my book back 😘😘

Barely made my #doublespin for May, but I did it. @TheAromaofBooks

A friend of mine who grew up in the evangelical tradition recommended this book to me. I didn‘t grow up in churches like this and often am puzzled by them. So this is my beach reading today. I usually read lighter fare at the beach, but apparently nothing I brought was light; I also have Kristen Hannah‘s The Four Winds and Stephen King‘s The Institute.

This was INTENSE. But explains so much about evangelical support for Trump. 😑 #howjessreads2021

If you‘re like me, someone who misses their faith but recognizes that the shadow of fundamentalism lives over their belief, this book may be just what you need to step into the light. It pretty plainly lays out all the rotten fruit of the conservative/fundamentalist/evangelical movement in the country.