Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

After the 9/11 attacks, “Islam replaced communism as the enemy of America and all that was good, at least in the world of conservative evangelicalism” (219). Christian publishers began publishing anti-Islamic books, and former Muslims who had converted to Christianity wrote books and became speakers. One former Muslim, Ergun Caner, was hired to teach at Jerry Falwell’s college, Liberty University. Critics revealed that Caner lied about his background and being a former terrorist, but he was not fired, only demoted. Other former Muslim converts who claimed to have been terrorists were likewise exposed as frauds. Even then, they “remained sought-after authorities in evangelical circles” (224) because rhetoric from such speakers helped justify conservative evangelical fears and militarism.

Some Christian leaders, even evangelicals, signed the Yale Letter, a declaration calling for peace between Christians and Muslims. However, many conservative evangelicals denounced the Yale Letter for claiming that Muslims and Christians worship the same god and for “showing weakness and endangering Christians” (226). A consequence of such rhetoric was that, in 2009, “white evangelical Protestants continued to register more negative views of Muslims than other demographics” and “evangelicals were significantly more likely than other religious groups to approve of the use of torture against suspected terrorists” (227).