Several years ago, a new attendee at my church brought to our attention that the chancel platform in the sanctuary was “missing” an American flag. I was not in a leadership position at the time, but I did hear from the man who, on several Sundays, was not shy about sharing his views on the matter. He seemed to believe our church had overlooked an obvious flaw that he was going to remedy. To that end, he donated a flagstand and pole.
When he engaged me on the matter, I suggested that the church is not an American institution and cannot be limited by placing a national flag in the center of worship. The man’s efforts failed, which I believe was a credit to our church. Reading Jesus and John Wayne helps me understand, in retrospect, what the flag-obsessed man was trying to achieve and what drove his passion to reform our church. He was introducing an early version of Christian Nationalism to an otherwise healthy church.
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation was a hard book to read and even angered me at times. It explains in historic detail how white American evangelism has failed and fractured our country. If just the mention of those terms in the last sentence bothers you, read the book!