Straight White American Jesus - The Orange Wave, Ep. 6: Non-Biblical Christian Manhood
Aired: 2022-05-10
Duration: 03:25


=== Evangelical Youth Cinema (02:34) ===

[00:00:00]  Axis Mundi
[00:00:08]  Axis Mundi
[00:00:36]  As evangelical teenagers in the youth group at Rose Drive Friends Church, my comrades and I did not watch R-rated movies with sex scenes.
[00:00:44]  We even avoided shows with curse words.
[00:00:47]  We certainly didn't get to watch the genre of teenage comedies, where a group of youth goes on a hilarious journey to prom, marked by experiments with drugs, rebelling against parents, public pranks, and virginities lost in the backseats of old station wagons.
[00:01:03]  That kind of content was sure to prevent us from remaining sexually pure and walking closely with God.
[00:01:09]  Instead, the girls in the youth group were prescribed the Princess Bride and select rom-coms.
[00:01:16]  Love was the currency they were taught to invest in.
[00:01:19]  The boys, by contrast, watched adventure flicks with heroes saving countries and brides from destruction at the hands of an evil tyrant.
[00:01:27]  By far, Mel Gibson's Braveheart was our favorite.
[00:01:30]  We probably watched it 50 times.
[00:01:32]  I could recite whole scenes by heart.
[00:01:35]  On my first trip to the UK, I even made a special trip to Stirling, Scotland, in order to see William Wallace's sword.
[00:01:42]  Without understanding it at the time, what my friends and I were doing by cultivating our understanding of manhood from Braveheart and other warrior movies, was using a Hollywood depiction of manliness as a stand-in for a biblical model.
[00:01:55]  We were not looking to the Jesus who turned the other cheek, admonished his disciples against violence, and eventually succumbed to murder by the state in the name of a greater good.
[00:02:05]  The Jesus who told Peter to put his sword away was pushed aside in favor of a fictionalized Scottish warrior who used his sword with otherworldly might to slay the English.
[00:02:16]  We didn't attempt to foster the virtues of kindness, patience, and gentleness outlined in 1 Corinthians 13, The famous Bible passage on love often read at wedding ceremonies.
[00:02:27]  Instead, we were looking to Hollywood depictions of warlords and soldiers as the blueprints for our own masculinities.

=== Hollywood Masculinity Blueprints (00:50) ===

[00:02:34]  We were not alone.
[00:02:34]  Thanks for listening to this free sample of The Orange Wave.
[00:02:51]  My name is Brad Onishi, the author and creator of the series.
[00:02:56]  I want to invite you to head over to our show notes and hit the link if you'd like to continue listening to The Orange Wave.
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[00:03:05]  But I poured my heart and soul into making this docuseries and we're an indie podcast.
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[00:03:12]  We do everything we can on our own to do this work.
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[00:03:25]  Thanks again.