Disciples of White Jesus Quotes

“This "Trump stuff" can't be understood in rural America, particularly rural Minnesota and the rural Midwest, without mentioning Trump's particular appeal to white men at a time when their overall share of the population in rural America is declining.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“White people here have a hard time saying how we really feel. It's why we're so "nice," and it's also white Minnesotans often carry within ourselves a heavy dose of unexamined racism.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“My grandma's people were Norwegian and German and Polish and Scotch-Irish, so far as I can tell. They came to Minnesota near the end of the nineteenth century, so maybe, like so many of us do, I can tell myself that we are not culpable somehow for the atrocities committed on these lands. But to cut myself off from those stories is like trying to cut yourself off from humanity in general, and, of course, that is impossible. So instead we bury our guilt with niceness and hard work and duty and religion. But what is it doing to our boys?”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“But how can churches help young, white Christian boys and men find compassionate masculinity, when so often American Christianity has instead championed a violent, angry, hierarchical masculine God?”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“It's inescapable that young, white Christian men and boys are both often the problem in modern-day America, and they are also in trouble and in need of care and support in ways that don't ignore the truths about the dangers posed by traditional masculinity, which is too often conservatives’ only solution to the problems facing men and boys.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Militant masculinity forces men to abandon softer emotions like compassion, empathy, or sadness—and it encourages them to buy guns, get bigger muscles, and abuse and diminish women. This is an unequivocal problem for humanity, as well as for American politics.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Otherwise obscure young white men have been able to make huge amounts of money and gain access to political power in recent years for amplifying far-right rhetoric and even conspiracy theories….”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“It's clear that men and boys, and their ongoing embrace of traditional and militant masculinity, are a problem for the rest of humanity, as well as the threat to themselves.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“One of the biggest problems involving men and boys in America is the ways in which social media influencers and advocates of intense masculinity have made their way into positions of political power, particularly in conservative, right-wing circles. This is a problem because many of those same influencers and politicians often find themselves in overlapping circles of influences and ideology with white supremacist groups and leaders….”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“It's indisputable at this point that men and boys are both in trouble and also themselves the direct cause of many of their problems.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“On the other hand, if we only see that men and boys are in trouble, but don't address their roles in the problem, we risk infantilizing them and under-emphasizing the role of choice and agency among men and boys in choosing to step away from radicalization, violence, and brittle masculinity. We want to help them make the healthier and more fruitful, but difficult, choice to relinquish some status, power, and wealth in favor of improved relationships and more equitable and loving communities. This second choice, only to address that men and boys are in trouble but not to address the ways in which they're part of the problem, again often favored by conservatives, also makes a common historical era of privileging the emotional and physical needs of white Christian men and boys ahead of the emotional and physical needs of other human beings. This has led to all sorts of ongoing devastating consequences for human relationships including the persistence of racism, sexism, classism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“The misleading depiction of Jesus as warrior, man's man—as unsympathetic, lonely, and harsh was always a caricature. That White Jesus is always eventually exposed as a straw man, an Oz shouting behind the curtain, a president reliant on spray tan and tax fraud. Jesus as he was and is offers something much more powerful and relatable.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“What we can know, though, is that by offering young boys and men a window into a nonmilitant, peaceful, loving, caring, friendly, hopeful, vulnerable, needy, well-adjusted, occasionally tearful Jesus—we can offer young, white Christian boys and men a much fuller, healthier, and more accessible vision of masculinity: one that's more reflective of the wide spectrum of masculinity and femininity occupied by both boys and girls.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Reminding young, white Christian boys and men that Jesus is not a white man forces them to take Jesus and put him into a seat often occupied by people who are oppressed and marginalized, and whose strength and power are seen more often as a deviant threat than as something to be emulated and admired.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“For all of their claims to be "Bible-based" in a fallen, secular world, most of the influential male pastors trying to influence young, white Christian men and boys spend a lot more time convincing people to read their own books than they do convincing people to actually read the Bible itself.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Young, white Christian boys and men have been sold an image of God, the Creator, that is wholly false and rooted not in heaven but on earth, in the hands of desperate and insecure Christian male leaders who are grasping at power, influence, and wealth.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Trump's boorish comments may not have been what Piper, the proper theologian, had in mind, but they follow naturally from a theological model that privileges a gender hierarchy above all else and creates an image of God as power-hungry and dominating, particularly when it comes to women.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Absent those tools, young, white Christian men and boys instead often cast about for role models who fit the image of God they've been taught about: a strong and violent masculine man who rules over everything in his presence. Many young, white Christian men and boys saw that image in Donald Trump, who spared no words talking about his own proclivity to grab women "by the pussy" and take whatever he wanted from them.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Told again and again that they are the dominant sex, created to rule over and have dominion over not just women but the earth, the land, its animals, and all things on earth—it's often a rude awakening for young, white Christian men when they enter the world and find that most created things are not interested in being ruled over by them.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“The late twentieth century was rife with white, male Christian leaders who wanted to capitalize (and make money) off of the idea that men, in the image of a manly God, were created to be angry, violent and in control.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Many white American Christians are pretty sure they know what God looks like. Most of us won't really say it explicitly, of course: that would invite critique and the possibility that one of our most closely held but unexamined truths could be exposed as false. But most of us heard growing up that we were created in God's image. On first read, maybe you'd think that means we're taught that we look like God. But "no one has ever seen God," so when you learn that you're created in God's image—as most young, white Christian boys and men have learned—then it makes sense that you think, "God must look like me.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“There is profit to be made, online, in white supremacist forums and groups, and in right-wing movements that teeter close to the edge of racist language, couching it as "anti-immigration" or "pro-Christian." Many more young white men and boys besides Dylan [Roof] had found identity there, are finding identity there.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“My ancestors didn't own slaves."
"They were too poor."
"They hadn't come from Europe yet."

It is so much more convenient to locate the problem outside ourselves, to point to those who are increasingly radical and loud and other.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“Racism and violence persist in America often because white Americans convince ourselves we have a certain distance from such ugliness.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“White Jesus comes upon boys and men in their living rooms, on their iPads and in blaring font and catchy music, he says: "Follow me." He leads them toward empty self-aggrandizement, toward anger and violence and grievance.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood

“There is a movement afoot in America that says in order to protect and "save" young boys and men, they must become disciples of the movement of White Jesus. Unlike Jesus Christ, White Jesus is on a violent quest for naked power and influence and wealth.”
― Angela Denker, Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood