{"id":440,"date":"2017-04-27T16:27:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T16:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/Fruits\/?page_id=440"},"modified":"2022-08-20T23:47:13","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T23:47:13","slug":"the-faith-and-patriotism-of-john-wayne","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/the-faith-and-patriotism-of-john-wayne\/","title":{"rendered":"The Faith and Patriotism of John Wayne"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Diane Howard, Ph.D.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

John Wayne\u2014\u201cthe Duke\u201d<\/em>\u2014 was an embodiment of masculinity and patriotism. He appeared in more than 175 movies and won an Academy Award for his role as Rooster Cogburn in\u00a0\u201cTrue Grit.\u201d He was also a committed patriot<\/a><\/span>. He played this role in public and on screen. From his portrayals of the rugged individual<\/em> in his westerns to the anti-communism hero<\/em> in his war films, Wayne\u2019s film beliefs and behaviors lined up with those of his real life.<\/p>\n

\u201cSure I wave the American flag,\u201d he once said, \u201cDo you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I\u2019m not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wayne admired the rugged individualism of nineteenth century America, and his worldview did not include food stamps and social security.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019d like to know why the well-educated keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.\u201d<\/p>\n

He refused to be a part of movies<\/a><\/span> that he thought were immoral during a time when immorality was rising in Hollywood. He was a founding member of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, and he had a strong hatred for communism.<\/p>\n

With his Scotch-Irish bloodline, he was raised a Presbyterian.\u00a0 Wayne\u2019s son, Michael thought his father was a man who quietly believed in God. \u201cThere must be a higher power,\u201d Wayne said in the year he died, \u201cOr how does all this stuff work?\u201d<\/p>\n

His grandson, Father Matthew Mu\u00f1oz, further tells about his grandfather, \u201cFrom an early age, he had a good sense of what was right and what was wrong. He was raised with a lot of Christian principles and kind of a ‘Bible faith’ that I think had a strong impact upon him. He wrote beautiful love letters to God, and they were prayers. And they were very childlike and they were very simple, but also very profound at the same time\u2026there was a profound wisdom in his simplicity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Mu\u00f1oz views his grandfather\u2019s values as \u201cGod coming first, then family, then country,\u201d and these beliefs are repeatedly reflected in his films. He believes those values are much needed in Hollywood today, and if \u201cthe Duke\u201d were still here, he\u2019d be leading the charge.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandfather was a fighter,\u201d Father Mu\u00f1oz recently said in a recent article, \u201cAnd I think there would be a lot of things he\u2019d be disappointed and saddened over. But I don\u2019t think he would lose hope. I think he would look at the current time as a moment of faith. People are in crisis and they\u2019re looking for something more meaningful, more real\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Diane Howard, Ph.D. John Wayne\u2014\u201cthe Duke\u201d\u2014 was an embodiment of masculinity and patriotism. He appeared in more than 175 movies and won an Academy Award for his role as Rooster Cogburn in\u00a0\u201cTrue Grit.\u201d He was also a committed patriot. He played this role in public and on screen. From his portrayals of the rugged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-440","page","type-page","status-publish","czr-hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1330,"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/440\/revisions\/1330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fruitinthedesert.com\/NewFruits\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}