When God Became White Quotes

“My goal is to work toward reimagining a nonwhite and a non-gendered God – a God who can help us build a more just society, faith community, and loving church.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Many men want to keep the white male God and uphold him as a ticket to success, power, and domination.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“A white, Christian, patriarchal universe is a hospitable place for the dominant, aggressive, and often narcissistic white men.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Since Christianity in North America has a big impact on all aspects of social and private life, it is impossible to ignore the correlation of constantly projecting a white male God and the violence committed against women and people of color.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Mary Daly said, 'If God is male, then the male is God.' We can update this saying in light of whiteness and say, ‘If God is a white male, then the white male is God.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Sexism does not work alone in oppressing women. Sexism works with racism, ethnic discrimination, homophobia, transphobia, and classism to oppress women. These issues are not distinct categories operating in isolated compartments but are all interconnected.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Most conceptions of God are gendered and are conceived and manifested in a patriarchal framework. This gendered God has made a huge impact on society.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“I now see the big problem with the whiteness of God. It can prevent an Asian American woman like myself from seeing oneself as being fully created in the image of God. Further, it prevents white people from accepting people of color as equal and fully made in the image of God.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“White Christians who offer reconciliatory rhetoric while remaining unwilling to give up any of the benefits of whiteness cannot be allowed to define the terms of racial reconciliation.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“White Christianity claims to seek racial harmony and reconciliation, but it is only possible through a personal relationship with their white Jesus who they say can move across all racial and ethnic lines. The problem is that Jesus was never white, and the suggestion that he can reach all people regardless of race is inconsistent with the fact that they robbed him of his true race to make him conform to their ideals.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“White Christian nationalism reinforces white supremacy and a white male patriarchal Christianity by normalizing oppressive policies and laws imposed on people of color and carrying on with the dishonest narratives of the supposed dangers and problems they represent to white America.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Throughout the history of Christian theology, all the major theologians have portrayed God as male and white.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“The whiteness in Christianity is what many nonwhite churches are aspiring to. But whiteness limits our humanity, and it conveys to people of color that we are not worthy, that we are not precious in God's sight because we are not white.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Describing racism and discrimination as ignorant feelings of superiority based on skin color enables white people to exonerate themselves of racism even though this problem is systemic and embedded in society and culture. When white people believe they are not racist, they express indignation and resentment when accused of racism or racist acts. They believe they cannot be racist because they voted for a Black president and have friends and coworkers who are people of color. Racism is not just an overt belief of white superiority but also complicity to an ideology that there is a racial hierarchy.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“White Christianity, which was disseminated by European missionaries and adopted through white enslavers, is not the true Christianity that it has routinely positioned itself to be. True Christianity cannot and should not endorse racism, xenophobia, subjugation, discrimination, domination, colonialism, or enslavement. Christianity through the lens of the powerful, the mighty, or the colonialist cannot be the real Christianity of love, liberation, and hope that Jesus shared as he walked the earth. This is not good news.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“Whiteness was part of the white missionary's message when they went to Asia to share the good news of Jesus Christ. The message of whiteness and the good news were so intertwined that, at times, they became one.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“The racialization of people of color did not occur in isolation. The concepts of whiteness and Christianity are not mutually exclusive of each other. Rather, they feed off each other with Christianity legitimizing whiteness and whiteness enabling Christianity to uphold white superiority and privilege.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“White superiority is the presumption, and white privilege is the material consequence. We need to renegotiate justice by making the privilege visible and dismantling it.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“White is a created category of race that has no biological/scientific foundation. Whiteness, on the other hand, is a compelling and convincing powerful social construct with tangible, destructive, and violent effects. Whiteness is a cultural space with political power and privilege with a goal and an agenda to keep people of color marginalized, oppressed, and subordinated. Whiteness is a learned behavior that is multidimensional, complex, extensive, and systemic, which becomes a powerful tool for white people.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“We have constructed the category of race based on perceptions of different skin color. We have created an inequitable social and economic relationship that is structured by skin color, class, gender and nation. Race was created by and for white people and in service of white supremacists. As a social construct, it has huge ramifications on American society, economics, politics, and religion. Race is not a benign category; it is an oppressive structure and understanding.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity

“No person of any race or ethnicity has a biological or spiritual claim to being better than anyone else. Race has served to separate society into different levels for the benefit of a few people who have been defined as white, to the misfortune of anyone considered nonwhite or of color.”
― Grace Ji-Sun Kim, When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity