“Disgust” and “Disgrace”: Cultural Evangelicals’ Reaction to Jimmy Carter’s Draft Evader Pardon and Early Memory of the Vietnam War in Texas

Abstract

This article examines the reactions of cultural evangelicals in Texas to Jimmy Carter’s pardon of Vietnam War draft evaders. This article seeks to answer two questions: Did cultural evangelicals agree or disagree with Carter’s pardon, and why? This article finds that the vast majority vehemently disagreed with the pardon for a variety of reasons, but one reason loomed above all: These cultural evangelicals thought that the pardon was profoundly disrespectful to veterans of the Vietnam War because, in their minds, it appeared to give draft evaders, whom many cultural evangelicals saw as cowards, moral approval from the White House. To make this argument, this article takes a microhistorical approach and focuses on the cities of Waco and Amarillo, Texas, and uses sources like letters to the editor of local newspapers, news articles, opinion editorials, and, most critically, constituent letters to US members of Congress. Ultimately, this article provides another lens for understanding Carter–evangelicals relations and demonstrates how the understanding of white evangelicalism put forth by Kristin Kobes Du Mez in Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation can be used in a political and religious microhistory.