Dr. Kristin Du Mez set off a firestorm with her bestseller Jesus and John Wayne: How Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. In it, she meticulously shows how toxic patriarchal white evangelicalism in the U.S. paved the way for Trump. This was largely because of the support of 80% of white evangelicals and 60% of white mainline Protestants. Truth telling is the purview of good historians and Du Mez told the a lot of truths in Jesus and John Wayne. The response from white, right wing complementarian Christians was predictable. These are men who choose to be misogynistic, and often abusive, authoritarians, after all. Thankfully, because of Du Mez and other scholars, theologians, and pastors, Christofascist complementarians are being exposed like never before.

Du Mez’s follow up to Jesus and John Wayne is the highly anticipated Live, Laugh, Love: The Secret History of White Women’s Christianity and the World They Made. Dr. Du Mez sat down with me and Desimber Rose to talk about both books and how we got to where we are as a nation. Our conversation begins with Dr. Du Mez explaining why conservative, white evangelicals so often cover up abuse while blaming the victims. From there, we shift the conversation to her new book and the strange places her research took her as she wrote it. Live, Laugh, Love comes out September 15, 2026.

Highlights:

The God Squad Pod is hosted by me, the Tattooed Theologian, and Desimber Rose. We explore faith and politics from a progressive theological and deconstructed lens. Full episodes can be found here. You can also tune in to the John Fugelsang Show on SiriusXm on Wednesday afternoons for more God Squad shenanigans and Christianity with profanity.