Case Study: Conservative, evangelical takeover of Western horsemanship

Status
Not open for further replies.

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
6,696
Reaction score
1,534
Location
The City Different
Website
www.chrisjohnsonmd.com
This is a progressive process I've noticed for many years. I've been a horseman my entire life. I come from ranching people, like my Uncle Charles, a rancher in South Dakota, and my grandfather, a life-long horse dealer and trader. Both taught me to rope and ride. I live in New Mexico and help various friends push cattle around the forest on horseback. I'm a fair roper. Now, apparently, we're all supposed to be right-wing Christian evangelicals or we're not real ranching people. My evidence? It's everywhere, and quite depressing. For example, I go to many regional horse shows, where I'm afflicted by calls to Jesus and worse. I have subscribed to the more and more right-wing Western Horseman (established 1937), the main journal in the field, all my life. I'm about ready to cancel my subscription. I've about had it with these people. Now when I walk around a horse show or sales barn I see endless crosses on peoples' hats, huge dangly silver cross earrings, and monster crosses on their belt buckles. And all of these folks are half my age or younger. Where on earth did they come from? Ranching has nothing to do with Jesus. It has a lot to do with water, fencing, and hay fields. But Jesus? Not at all. And, of course, being a registered Democrat I'm an agent of the devil. Or worse.

The whole process is interesting to me in the way that a particular view of the world can just take over and make other viewpoints invalid. The takeover of the public face of Western ranching by evangelical Christians is a small thing, I suppose. But I notice it and resent it.

I suspect similar things happen in other areas of life. But this assumption that you can't really rope and ride if you're not a born again evangelical really annoys me. It's enough to make me light up a smoke and crack open a can of beer at 8 AM in front of them just to get their goat. Cowboys have, traditionally, been young guys who drink and whore around as much as possible. But knowing history has never been a strength of these folks.

Your milage may vary, of course. Photo of me and my trusty horse below. Notice the absence of crosses.

Snapseed_zps3eb1d1de.jpg


I know a lesbian couple who run a big ranch south of town. Boy-oh-boy do they blow the minds of the newly born again. Especially because they inherited their ranch from one of the couple's parents, also a lesbian. Does not compute, must be wrong.
 
Last edited:

bombergirl69

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
1,594
Reaction score
400
Location
Montana
Wow, interesting ColoradoGuy! I am also a lifelong horse person. In Colorado, where I went to grad school, I did not compete but I would say (not a scientific study) that most of the ranching communities tended to the more conservative end of things, never noted the religious angle but certainly less likely to be Dems. And I have heard the Lord's Prayer at rodeos, or some prayer anyway, maybe a spontaneous one by the announcer. I do not remember anything religious in the small town Wyoming rodeos I've attended, but then I wasn't really looking and the people I was with were not.

Interestingly, I have NOT noticed that in Montana, although I'm not really in that (roping) community. My neighbors sure were though, very successful ropers, although they are not at all religious (that I know of) I have not read Western Horseman in years, but that saddens me. Used to find interesting articles by John Lyons and so forth, good training tips, all that.

Im very surprised to hear about that in NM. Spent a year in ABQ working at the VA there, and had my horses. Very laid back, friendly horse community, but again, not roping. And ABQ which, along with Santa Fe, tends to be Dem. I'll ask some of my friends and see what their experiences are. I can say Montana horse people are, like the state, a pretty mixed bag!

Nice looking horse!
 

StarryEyes

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 9, 2012
Messages
224
Reaction score
29
I'm not a horse rider and I'm not American, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but I do know several young conservative evangelical men from the US who, given the opportunity, would probably love to be ranchers. I think this stems from conservatism itself. Conservatives tend to have a fondness for the "good old days" and will want to keep things, or revert to things, how they were in the past. Cowboys, as far as I know, are one of the most prevalent symbols of the Wild West before the state started interfering and changing people's way of life, so it makes sense that conservatives would want to take up horsemanship as a way of reconnecting with their past and their values. Whether cowboys were historically how these people imagine them to be doesn't seem to matter. The point, I guess, is to reconnect with their traditions. And of course, since the right wing is also overwhelmingly Christian, it makes sense that many of these young people are born-again evangelicals.

Cool picture, by the way!
 

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 18, 2007
Messages
38,197
Reaction score
4,544
Location
The End of the World
Never realized you were a fellow New Mexican.

All the cowboys I know are Navajos.
 

TerzaRima

Absinthe O'Malice
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
3,340
Reaction score
892
Location
the foulest in the land
On behalf of my enormous passel of Morgan raising relatives, I have to apologize. They're very much as you describe--posting Facebook memes saying things like, "If you are grateful that he died for YOUR sins, please SHARE! I know that 9 out of 10 of you won't pass this on, but I know there is one who won't deny Our Lord!!!"

I wonder about a general misconceived nostalgia for the past, and also about megachurch demographics, as they tend to attract young people and rural/suburban families.
 
Last edited:

blacbird

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 21, 2005
Messages
36,987
Reaction score
6,158
Location
The right earlobe of North America
There's a weird schizophrenia in the country-western music genre, between hardcore evangelical Christianity and knee-jerk flag-waving "patriotism", and celebration of drinking, promiscuity, infidelity, divorce, general carousing, jail, and even, today, casual recreational drug use. Somehow all those things have managed to be amalgamated into a musical art form.

My all-time favorite C&W anthem is "Faster Horses", which features the lines: "It's faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money." Find Jesus anywhere in that one, and you're ahead of me.

caw
 
Last edited:

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,311
This is a progressive process I've noticed for many years. I've been a horseman my entire life. I come from ranching people, like my Uncle Charles, a rancher in South Dakota, and my grandfather, a life-long horse dealer and trader. Both taught me to rope and ride. I live in New Mexico and help various friends push cattle around the forest on horseback. I'm a fair roper. Now, apparently, we're all supposed to be right-wing Christian evangelicals or we're not real ranching people.
I know a lesbian couple who run a big ranch south of town. Boy-oh-boy do they blow the minds of the newly born again. Especially because they inherited their ranch from one of the couple's parents, also a lesbian. Does not compute, must be wrong.

It's not that you're supposed to be these things, it's just that if you aren't, then you have to be something else, and that something else is what's destroying this country. Whether it's perverts, plain old immorality, or just liberalism, you can be whatever you want, but do not expect to be applauded for it except by other perverts, or other immoral people, or liberals who would sell the country for a dime, if it meant getting more votes.

Just as you can be whatever you wish, so can those who disagree with you. I'm glad you can rope, and I'm glad there are lesbian ranchers, but this changes nothing.
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
I am not a horse person but I have a couple of friends who own horses and ride. They live in Dodge City, Kansas, where I lived for 30 years. They are in their sixties, a couple, not married but with twenty some years behind them. Both are professionals, a social worker and a counselor, neither had been raised in a religious family.

A couple years ago they heard a lot about Cowboy Churches and decided that a little religion would make them better folks. At the first service they were shocked and appalled at the thinly veiled bigotry-- no Hispanics--Dodge City is full of Mexican Riding Clubs. They asked why the congregation was so white. (My friend is Kiowa Comanche and sensitive to all white gatherings.)

This was explained by a member saying that Mexicans are Catholic and not welcome. Asked about Black church members the minister only rolled his eyes and said that Blacks and cowboys don't mix. Not exactly the true Old West where there were Mexican and Black cowboys. In fact the first cowboys were Mexican Vaqueros.

They decided to stick it out for six months because church should be a hospital for sinners and not a museum for saints. They did not make four months before the hypocrisy and intolerance drove them out. Made me kind of sad because there at the end it was really entertaining to hear my friends go on about their unChristian church. Funny stuff.

I think the last straw was that a member of the congregation had a family member in a bad car accident and stopped coming to the services. Not one member or the minister ever visited the member who was working two jobs and taking care of her daughter. When she did return to church several of the members told her she had endangered her soul by missing church. AS IF!

My friends left and never looked back. I hope the poor woman with the injured daughter left too. So much for horseback (or horseshit) Christianity--s6
 
Last edited:

Latina Bunny

Lover of Contemporary/Fantasy Romance (she/her)
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 26, 2011
Messages
3,820
Reaction score
738
I'm not a horse rider and I'm not American, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but I do know several young conservative evangelical men from the US who, given the opportunity, would probably love to be ranchers. I think this stems from conservatism itself. Conservatives tend to have a fondness for the "good old days" and will want to keep things, or revert to things, how they were in the past. Cowboys, as far as I know, are one of the most prevalent symbols of the Wild West before the state started interfering and changing people's way of life, so it makes sense that conservatives would want to take up horsemanship as a way of reconnecting with their past and their values. Whether cowboys were historically how these people imagine them to be doesn't seem to matter. The point, I guess, is to reconnect with their traditions. And of course, since the right wing is also overwhelmingly Christian, it makes sense that many of these young people are born-again evangelicals.

Cool picture, by the way!

^I think this may be why, too. I notice that many conservatives tend to like remembering the "good old days" before the evil government/state stuck its nose in, and before "political correctness" became a "thing", and when people didn't have to treat different people equally, and the status quo was perfect, etc, etc.
 

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
6,696
Reaction score
1,534
Location
The City Different
Website
www.chrisjohnsonmd.com
It's not that you're supposed to be these things, it's just that if you aren't, then you have to be something else, and that something else is what's destroying this country. Whether it's perverts, plain old immorality, or just liberalism, you can be whatever you want, but do not expect to be applauded for it except by other perverts, or other immoral people, or liberals who would sell the country for a dime, if it meant getting more votes.

Just as you can be whatever you wish, so can those who disagree with you. I'm glad you can rope, and I'm glad there are lesbian ranchers, but this changes nothing.

James, this is nonsense, and arrogant nonsense at that. "liberals who would sell the country for a dime, if it meant getting more votes." What?? I'm liberal and therefore patriotically suspect? That comment doesn't even deserve a response.

My point was that conservative, evangelical Christianity has muscled itself into a way of life that is complex and has a history of it's own. (See Richard White's and especially Patricia Limerick's work on Western land use history). That real history is not at all consistent with what conservative Christians think it is, or was. So they pretend. Their image of America circa 1870-1900 is being shoehorned into their theology. And I think that's wrong. Because of my interests I see that steadily happening right in front of me, and it is becoming more and more pervasive. I object.

And, as shakeysix points out, those "cowboy churches" are the worst at the historical revisionism. There is one near my home. For example, Hispanic and Native American cultures have a long, long history of horsemanship and stock raising that extends for many decades, even centuries, prior to the time Anglos took it up. Most of the terms we use to describe daily ranching activities are Hispanic in origin. The tools of horsemanship -- the bits, the bridles, the reins, the saddles -- are Hispanic in origin.
 
Last edited:

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.
Staff member
Moderator
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Oct 11, 2005
Messages
6,696
Reaction score
1,534
Location
The City Different
Website
www.chrisjohnsonmd.com
^I think this may be why, too. I notice that many conservatives tend to like remembering the "good old days" before the evil government/state stuck its nose in, and before "political correctness" became a "thing", and when people didn't have to treat different people equally, and the status quo was perfect, etc, etc.

Yes, I agree that this is a large part of it. Of course it is particularly ironic when applied to Anglo Western ranching culture, which is historically quite recent and actually depends quite substantially on governmental largess (via water rights, BLM and national forest grazing rights, etc) to succeed.
 

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
The first cowboys were Native Americans living in the Catholic Spanish Missions. The padres provided food by keeping herds of cattle. Spain was a cattle raising country. The first vaqueros tied spurs onto their bare feet with rags and carried long lances called lunas. Dally is short for "da la vuelta." Lariat is really La Reata. Rodeo, corral and stampede are all Spanish words. Those despised Mexican aliens were the first to settle the western lands, to graze cattle, to build towns like Las Animas, Pueblo, Amarillo. We paid them back by taking their land after they had done all the work, demonizing them, their religion and culture.

Fort Larned, Fort Zarah and Fort Hays on the Santa Fe Trail were manned by Buffalo Soldiers. Many took homesteads when they retired from the military. Just a few miles from my house there is a cemetery of Exodusters--Black Cowboys. Don't get me started on the worm eaten White Bread version of the Old West--s6
 
Last edited:

shakeysix

blue eyed floozy
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 1, 2007
Messages
10,839
Reaction score
2,426
Location
St. John, Kansas
Website
shakey6wordsmith.webs.com
Oh, and back in the days of the frontier Mountain Men danced with Mountain Men. Butch and Sundance? Doc and Wyatt? Dalton and Doolin? Ever wonder why every cowboy had a "pardner"? --s6
 

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Messages
3,396
Reaction score
829
Location
Scottsdale, Arizona
In my experience the truly "Christian" folk (regardless of their denomination) don't have to go around advertising it. They simply live it. blacbird mentioned the dichotomy in country music. I find all those huge crosses hung around entertainers' necks to just be rather tacky fashion statements. And, yes, we have one of those overtly "Christian" horse riding people in hubby's family too. You can't have a five minute conversation without him bringing up religion.

CG, I'll join you in your 8am smoke and adult beverage. I'd probably still be up from the night before, that's the only reason I want to see the sunrise.

MM
 

Filigree

Mildly Disturbing
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 16, 2010
Messages
16,441
Reaction score
1,529
Location
between rising apes and falling angels
Website
www.cranehanabooks.com
I grew up in NW New Mexico in the 1970s: lots of cowboys and ranchers, most of them salt-of-the-earth drinkers and fornicators whenever they got the chance. The really 'Christian' evangelicals tended to live in town or in the semi-rural subdivisions with fake wagon-wheels on their fences. The Catholics and Methodists who were my best intro to Christianity simply lived the life and tried to do right by people. Without rubbing noses in it, preaching stridently, or demanding that everyone live as they did. I miss those Christians. It seems like in AZ, a more virulent strain has shouldered out most of the quiet good.
 

TerzaRima

Absinthe O'Malice
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
3,340
Reaction score
892
Location
the foulest in the land
I don't know enough history to understand what forces, in the past few decades, propelled evangelical Christianity to become the cultural juggernaut that it is--maybe Reagan's relationship with the Moral Majority was a big part of it? Something happened in the eighties or thereabouts. I was into adulthood before I met anyone who was homeschooled, who announced an acceptance of Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior, or who had Satan-related concerns about trick or treating.
 

bombergirl69

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 12, 2015
Messages
1,594
Reaction score
400
Location
Montana
There's a weird schizophrenia in the country-western music genre, between hardcore evangelical Christianity and knee-jerk flag-waving "patriotism", and celebration of drinking, promiscuity, infidelity, divorce, general carousing, jail, and even, today, casual recreational drug use. Somehow all those things have managed to be amalgamated into a musical art form.

My all-time favorite C&W anthem is "Faster Horses", which features the lines: "It's faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money." Find Jesus anywhere in that one, and you're ahead of me.

caw

Pretty much sums up country music-a mix. Although having worked in country radio for years (but not since the 90s), I don't remember a lot of Jesus/Christianity in most of the songs. They were generally about wimmin, beer, occasionally a truck (kind of bro country), we were still playing a bit of Hank, Jr., so there was that bad boy flavor as well (I WISH that station would play Waylon's kid Shooter, whose album "put the O back in country" (how can you beat the title?) was killer. And there are those who "found Jesus on the jailhouse floor" as George Strait would say, so I guess kind of a bad boy/Christian theme!

Actually country became a lot more rock oriented. We certainly were not playing anything like Big and Rich, which sounds a lot more like rock than straight ahead country, but then again, some of Shania's stuff (most of her stuff) was hard to classify as "country." for rodeos, they'll sometimes have music on for the bulls and it's not country--usually some balls to the wall metal to get the adrenalin going!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.