Mark Twain once said, “God created man in his own image and man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.” We’re too good at doing that. This is why we need to be mindful of our understandings of God. If not, as Anne Lamott reminds us, we run the risk of finding a God that hates all the same people we do.
I finished reading the book Jesus and JohnWayne toward the beginning of this year. Over the course of the last several weeks, I’ve heard at least three interviews about it. If you haven’t read it, talk about creating God in our own image!
Long story short, the book is a historical look at how many Christians have crafted a particular manly image of what a godly man should be. Don’t worry; a certain kind of godly woman comes to fruition, too. I had never realized how much so many Christians love John Wayne. So much so, he becomes this sort of Christian prototype of who we should aspire to be.
To do so, of course, Jesus needs to change.
Imagine a world where the Jesus we read of in scripture appears weak. That’s what happens when you juxtapose Jesus with the ideal combative Christian we’ve created. You can’t interpret his way of life literally. There’s a real world out there. That’s why the more manly Christian is John Wayne and not, let’s say, Mr. Rogers.
What’s ironic about that is John Wayne is a character. Mr. Rogers is who he is.
There were, supposed, virtuous goals behind this rugged creation we’re talking about. But when you have to ignore so much of what Jesus actually said, your virtue loses its virtue.
To be fair, this is only the most recent savior redesign. I’m sure other cultures in other times have done the same. But this is what we’ve created. Many of our churches supported ministries who cultivated and maintained this image. That was one detail I noticed throughout Jesus and John Wayne.
The word network came about quite a bit.
We created networks that perpetuated this ideal of toughness. The rise of the spiritual John Wayne wasn’t by accident. It was planned and designed.
Let’s compare that to what we read in the book of Acts. The apostles begin sharing the Christian gospel. People respond and come to know the Lord. All along the way, the church met resistance. Some of it was violent. In Acts 12, King Herod “laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church” (Acts 12:1). He killed some and arrested others. What was the church’s response?
Fervent prayer.
Not military might. Not political control. There’s no John Wayne in Acts.
After Herod’s death, because he didn’t give glory to God, the text says, “the word of God continued to advance and gain adherents.” The word grew because the apostles and the church understood what it meant to follow Jesus.
What a great reminder for the church today. Creating God in our own image gets in the way of God’s word growing in our hearts. If we’re not careful, we all do it. We lose sight of the gospel of Jesus when we want Jesus to be more like us or want him to be something or someone he is not.
Stay blessed…john
