Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez – New York Times best-selling author of “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation” – will speak at the 2026 Darrell West Lecture on Religion and Politics. The event will take place on Saturday, February 28, 2026, at 7 p.m. at Central Congregational Church in Providence (296 Angell Street / centralchurch.us). The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Du Mez’s lecture will address the intersection between religion and politics in 21st-Century America. The speech will follow a welcome by series sponsor / moderator Darrell M. West, Brookings Institution senior fellow, former Brown University professor, and Central Congregational Church member. The evening will conclude with a question-and-answer forum open to the audience and book signing.

Dr. Du Mez is a professor of history at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich., where she holds the William Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar-in-Residence Chair. She is also a Senior Democracy Fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute and a fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame, where she received her Ph.D. She previously taught at Calvin Theological Seminary and Williams College.

Her most recent book, “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” analyzes how the so-called Christian nationalism of many white evangelicals has led them to embrace rugged masculinity, patriarchal family values, and fear of Islam – while developing a quest for political power and an aggressive foreign policy agenda. Her next book “Live, Laugh, Love” is expected in September 2026.

Dr. Du Mez also writes a regular Substack column, defending our democracy and exploring connections between religion, gender, and politics. Her op-ed pieces have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Christianity Today – and she has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, BBC, and other broadcast outlets.