During the Civil War, evangelical Christianity became tightly connected to the violence and hyper-masculinity that had not previously been associated with it as Christian men went to war in the name of both God and the Confederacy (Friend 26). Through the war, manhood and piety became one, as well as the ideal of preserving independence from God. This new prototype of the Christian man reverberated throughout the region and eventually became the norm. Just as C.S. Lewis believed in free will, southern evangelical men came to believe that they could make decisions that violated moral or religious law. Unlike Lewis; however, these men believed that acting independently from moral law, or even acting in violation to it, allowed them to become “God’s male moral agents” (Friend 27). Sonny exemplifies this belief. He justifies his actions, both the moral and immoral ones, with his conviction that they are God’s wishes or that he doesn’t need God’s permission before acting on his rage. When Sonny encounters the Troublemaker he says, “you want the Lord to watch me kick your ass? I don’t need the Lord, son.” Sonny believes he can go against religious moral law because, as his culture decrees, he is partially independent from God. The film’s stylistic choices also confirm this idea.