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Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood
White boys and men are dangerous.
White boys and men are struggling.
Both of these statements are staggeringly true in America today. By far, most large-scale mass shooters are white men. White men also die by suicide more often than any other demographic. In this sensitive, searing, and unsparing look at American boyhood, journalist, mother, and pastor Angela Denker investigates the sometimes-tragic stories of boyhood across the United States.
Disciples of White Jesus is a comprehensive look at the rise in radicalization among young white men in America, especially focused on the role of right-wing Christianity in the increase of religious-based hatred and violence. Denker goes deep into the online rabbit holes of right-wing Christian influencers and conservative Christian ideology to understand how the preaching of "traditional gender roles" and "submission of women" has led to anger, outrage, loneliness, depression, and limiting identities for young white Christian men across America.
Casting her journalist's eye across the US, Denker retraces the steps of a racist South Carolina mass shooter and a Phoenix skinhead turned Evangelical pastor, interviews middle school teachers and coaches in the Midwest, and introduces us to young men across the country who will both confirm and confound our ideas about American boyhood--stories about boys and men who are forging new identities grounded in kindness, grace, respect, and even joy. A must-listen for parents, grandparents, educators, coaches, faith leaders, researchers, and all who care about the state of American families, boys themselves, and the safety of American society at large.
White boys and men are struggling.
Both of these statements are staggeringly true in America today. By far, most large-scale mass shooters are white men. White men also die by suicide more often than any other demographic. In this sensitive, searing, and unsparing look at American boyhood, journalist, mother, and pastor Angela Denker investigates the sometimes-tragic stories of boyhood across the United States.
Disciples of White Jesus is a comprehensive look at the rise in radicalization among young white men in America, especially focused on the role of right-wing Christianity in the increase of religious-based hatred and violence. Denker goes deep into the online rabbit holes of right-wing Christian influencers and conservative Christian ideology to understand how the preaching of "traditional gender roles" and "submission of women" has led to anger, outrage, loneliness, depression, and limiting identities for young white Christian men across America.
Casting her journalist's eye across the US, Denker retraces the steps of a racist South Carolina mass shooter and a Phoenix skinhead turned Evangelical pastor, interviews middle school teachers and coaches in the Midwest, and introduces us to young men across the country who will both confirm and confound our ideas about American boyhood--stories about boys and men who are forging new identities grounded in kindness, grace, respect, and even joy. A must-listen for parents, grandparents, educators, coaches, faith leaders, researchers, and all who care about the state of American families, boys themselves, and the safety of American society at large.
8 pages, Audible Audio
Published March 21, 2025
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January 17, 2025
This book was an ambitious attempt to confront the intersection of white evangelical Christianity, race, and politics in America, but it's reliance on the author’s own whiteness and perspective often limits its effectiveness. While it offers an insider’s view of evangelicalism, it struggles to provide a nuanced understanding of race, making its critique feel at times more self-reflective of Denker’s own experience as a white person than a truly critical analysis of the broader issues at hand.
At its core, Denker’s book takes issue with the way that white evangelical Christianity has become intertwined with political conservatism and white supremacy, suggesting that the image of a "White Jesus" has been weaponized to uphold these ideologies. There is certainly merit in this critique, especially in light of the increasing prominence of Christian nationalism and its damaging effects on racial and social justice movements. However, Denker’s writing at times leans too heavily on her own personal journey of disillusionment, making it more about her experience as a white evangelical woman than about exploring the systemic racial issues that the book attempts to critique.
Denker occasionally frames her own journey as central to understanding evangelicalism’s racial entanglements, which can come across as a bit self-centered and even inadvertently minimize the voices and experiences of people of color who have long been fighting against the very systems she critiques. Moreover, the author's critique tends to focus on evangelicalism from the standpoint of a white person who is coming to terms with her own complicity, rather than offering a truly intersectional approach to understanding the lived realities of marginalized communities within or outside of evangelical spaces.
While Denker rightly critiques the political entanglement of evangelicalism, the book’s treatment of the issue sometimes feels too generalized. Denker draws broad strokes about evangelicalism’s relationship with political conservatism, yet her analysis could have benefitted from a more critical examination of the nuances within the movement, especially considering that many evangelical communities are diverse and there are efforts within these communities to actively challenge racism and nationalism. Instead, the book too often resorts to a binary of “us versus them,” where the “us” is progressive Christians like Denker and “them” are the evangelical conservatives she criticizes.
Ultimately, the book can be seen as a call for white Christians to take responsibility for the ways their faith has been co-opted by harmful ideologies. However, its over-reliance on the author’s personal narrative and the lens of whiteness detracts from the broader structural critique that is needed to fully engage with the complexities of race, politics, and religion in America. While the book will likely resonate with those who share Denker’s perspective, it falls short of offering a comprehensive or transformative critique that addresses the deeper, more systemic issues at play. It’s a book that feels too rooted in one person’s journey and not fully attuned to the complexities of the racial justice struggle within and beyond evangelicalism.
At its core, Denker’s book takes issue with the way that white evangelical Christianity has become intertwined with political conservatism and white supremacy, suggesting that the image of a "White Jesus" has been weaponized to uphold these ideologies. There is certainly merit in this critique, especially in light of the increasing prominence of Christian nationalism and its damaging effects on racial and social justice movements. However, Denker’s writing at times leans too heavily on her own personal journey of disillusionment, making it more about her experience as a white evangelical woman than about exploring the systemic racial issues that the book attempts to critique.
Denker occasionally frames her own journey as central to understanding evangelicalism’s racial entanglements, which can come across as a bit self-centered and even inadvertently minimize the voices and experiences of people of color who have long been fighting against the very systems she critiques. Moreover, the author's critique tends to focus on evangelicalism from the standpoint of a white person who is coming to terms with her own complicity, rather than offering a truly intersectional approach to understanding the lived realities of marginalized communities within or outside of evangelical spaces.
While Denker rightly critiques the political entanglement of evangelicalism, the book’s treatment of the issue sometimes feels too generalized. Denker draws broad strokes about evangelicalism’s relationship with political conservatism, yet her analysis could have benefitted from a more critical examination of the nuances within the movement, especially considering that many evangelical communities are diverse and there are efforts within these communities to actively challenge racism and nationalism. Instead, the book too often resorts to a binary of “us versus them,” where the “us” is progressive Christians like Denker and “them” are the evangelical conservatives she criticizes.
Ultimately, the book can be seen as a call for white Christians to take responsibility for the ways their faith has been co-opted by harmful ideologies. However, its over-reliance on the author’s personal narrative and the lens of whiteness detracts from the broader structural critique that is needed to fully engage with the complexities of race, politics, and religion in America. While the book will likely resonate with those who share Denker’s perspective, it falls short of offering a comprehensive or transformative critique that addresses the deeper, more systemic issues at play. It’s a book that feels too rooted in one person’s journey and not fully attuned to the complexities of the racial justice struggle within and beyond evangelicalism.
January 14, 2026
Quite a bit to unpack in this relatively short book.
1. Women do NOT appreciate men who are sensitive and kind. Every "toxic" male has a story about being abused by a woman he tried to love unconditionally. The Kara and Noah couple are abusing their sons by raising them with dolls and liberalism.
2. Eden was supposedly an egalitarian place disrupted by the Fall. Ok, but it was Eve who precipitated the Fall and Patriarchy's rise, almost like women kindle the fire of their own subjugation.
3. Author repeats the "mostly peaceful" lie about 2020, while refusing to capitalize White, even though she pretends to humanize such people.
4. There is no incel "movement". She creates this out of thin air to cast a foreboding shadow on disenfranchised men.
5. Most incels are in fact non-White. If she bothered researching her subject she would comprehend this reality. Start with Savvy Guy.
6. Eliot Rodger was a mixed race byproduct of diversity. He received emotional and mental abuse both from his Asian mother and Arab stepmother. Of course mentioning these dynamics would destroy the author's anti-White framing.
7. She tries to blame Andrew Tate (a mixed race Muslim), for radicalizing White men, but also complains about Islamophobia.
8. How does Jesus being brown make White boys more tolerant? Arabs and Jews tend to be quite racist against black people.
9. She tries to dismiss appreciation for the Roman Empire before admitting it was the wellspring of a great civilization.
10. The Richard Blooper section reveals the ignorant fashion by which feminists dismiss male concerns. Where are the women advising girls to date good men instead of the narcissistic red pill types? Just keep blaming men for the nature of women, I suppose.
11. "Going to private schools won't protect you from school shootings" ~ To justify this, she cites the 2023 TN incident perpetrated by a TRANS activist.
12. Parents concerned about the psychotic Branch Covidian regime, which cost people access to their families and jobs, are portrayed as fearful radicals.
1. Women do NOT appreciate men who are sensitive and kind. Every "toxic" male has a story about being abused by a woman he tried to love unconditionally. The Kara and Noah couple are abusing their sons by raising them with dolls and liberalism.
2. Eden was supposedly an egalitarian place disrupted by the Fall. Ok, but it was Eve who precipitated the Fall and Patriarchy's rise, almost like women kindle the fire of their own subjugation.
3. Author repeats the "mostly peaceful" lie about 2020, while refusing to capitalize White, even though she pretends to humanize such people.
4. There is no incel "movement". She creates this out of thin air to cast a foreboding shadow on disenfranchised men.
5. Most incels are in fact non-White. If she bothered researching her subject she would comprehend this reality. Start with Savvy Guy.
6. Eliot Rodger was a mixed race byproduct of diversity. He received emotional and mental abuse both from his Asian mother and Arab stepmother. Of course mentioning these dynamics would destroy the author's anti-White framing.
7. She tries to blame Andrew Tate (a mixed race Muslim), for radicalizing White men, but also complains about Islamophobia.
8. How does Jesus being brown make White boys more tolerant? Arabs and Jews tend to be quite racist against black people.
9. She tries to dismiss appreciation for the Roman Empire before admitting it was the wellspring of a great civilization.
10. The Richard Blooper section reveals the ignorant fashion by which feminists dismiss male concerns. Where are the women advising girls to date good men instead of the narcissistic red pill types? Just keep blaming men for the nature of women, I suppose.
11. "Going to private schools won't protect you from school shootings" ~ To justify this, she cites the 2023 TN incident perpetrated by a TRANS activist.
12. Parents concerned about the psychotic Branch Covidian regime, which cost people access to their families and jobs, are portrayed as fearful radicals.
May 21, 2025
Raise your hand if your Jesus is a brown-skinned immigrant who consistently aligned himself with the marginalized, loved the poor, and showed kindness and vulnerability to everyone he met? 🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️🙋🏻♀️
Unfortunately, modern-day American Christianity has poisoned the well in the minds of young boys, teenagers, and men, preaching a violent, angry, hierarchical, masculine God. Of course, this isn't all Christians preaching that message, but enough of an alarming amount to look further into how it started and how deep this rhetoric goes.
Angela Denker is an ordained pastor with a Master's degree in Divinity, a journalist, and maybe most importantly, a mom to two boys. She is, needless to say, very qualified to write this kind of book.
“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.”
This book is filled with her own experience and musings, along with interviews from men all over the country. Throughout the book, she's trying to find a connection between white supremacy, toxic evangelicalism, racism, mental health, patriarchy, and politics.
“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.”
---
Despite the heavy subject matter, I really enjoyed reading this book. As a believer myself, I wish that I had a pastor like her in my own church growing up. I think it says a lot about her character that she saw these problems play out in the world around her, and to better understand them and help protect her own sons, she set off on a cross-country tour to learn more and write this book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Broadleaf Books, and the author for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest feedback!
Unfortunately, modern-day American Christianity has poisoned the well in the minds of young boys, teenagers, and men, preaching a violent, angry, hierarchical, masculine God. Of course, this isn't all Christians preaching that message, but enough of an alarming amount to look further into how it started and how deep this rhetoric goes.
Angela Denker is an ordained pastor with a Master's degree in Divinity, a journalist, and maybe most importantly, a mom to two boys. She is, needless to say, very qualified to write this kind of book.
“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.”
This book is filled with her own experience and musings, along with interviews from men all over the country. Throughout the book, she's trying to find a connection between white supremacy, toxic evangelicalism, racism, mental health, patriarchy, and politics.
“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.”
---
Despite the heavy subject matter, I really enjoyed reading this book. As a believer myself, I wish that I had a pastor like her in my own church growing up. I think it says a lot about her character that she saw these problems play out in the world around her, and to better understand them and help protect her own sons, she set off on a cross-country tour to learn more and write this book.
Thank you to NetGalley, Broadleaf Books, and the author for sharing this book with me in exchange for my honest feedback!
November 17, 2024
Too much elegy; not enough hillbilly.
The author is worried. As a Lutheran pastor she looks out on the situation of men these days and finds cause. Men are in trouble, looking at suicide rates and loneliness. But men are the trouble, looking at terrorism and abuses of power. As a mother of two sons entering their teenage years, she is concerned with the inflection point, the way in which the shift to terrorism is a slight turn from an ordinary, or even healthy, life for men, particularly young men.
This book investigates the question. It primarily consists of the author doing interviews and longer form character sketches on people, primarily men, and primarily younger men or those who work closely with them.
A thesis shows up about unity of the problem. Looking at the worries, predominately originating in Right-leaning media, and the fears, predominately originating in Left-leaning media, both are functionally the same set of problems with different sets of framing. I particularly liked these sections of the book. They are where the author's journalistic background shines the most in breaking apart the understanding of the problem. It is a thesis that seems obvious on stating, but the author picks apart is obvious but with less obvious implications and questions upon study.
As the title suggests this is about Christian boys and men and the role of Christianity in radicalization. This makes sense owing to the religious nature of much of the terrorism and the centrality of 'tradition' to the revanchists, which is usually Christianity. This is the "White Jesus" of the title, the small-l illiberal emphasis on the glory rather than the Cross and the marketing of God, which leads to excesses and unchristian-like actions in the social and political sphere.
When the polemic kicks in, it is good. A lot of the charlatans have made masculinity an issue, preying on the (valid) insecticides of men for personal advantage. The author has no tolerance for this, and shows why it is wrong. I am certain that the people she attacks would justify their behavior by calling the author's belief in tolerance and Left political views as foreclosed by their particular reading of the Bible, but when the author has it out with the abusers, the book is on point. However, some of the more outright political sections are weak. All the book is political, but there are sections of the book, particularly at the end and beginning, where it feels more like filler, or even shibboleth, in establishing the author's views.
The weakest section is the interviews, which is unfortunate as how many there are. On one hand, the interviews are deep and the author shows journalistic flair in knowing how to get people to talk. But the same fire that is applied to the public pastors is missing with the people she interviews. A section with a youth pastor is egregious. They make some awful comments, but the author does not challenge them. She even goes so far as to try and rationalize their bigotry. I can understand why avoiding some possible interviews is a reasonable choice - I would pause before platforming a Nazi - but most of what shows up is bland.
The interviews are an example of how the book's problem is the Nihilist's paradox. Men are in trouble, more than they are trouble, I contend, and fixing it through a resumption of patriarchy is morally repugnant and wholly ineffective at solving the problems men face. It is the spherical cow of psychological well-being, getting to a solution by removing enough parts of the equation.
But what, exactly, is the author arguing for? This is calculated in the sense that the author does not want to provide a list of solutions. The author is cognizant that she is not a man, but also of how this sort of itemization is what the grifters promote. Yet while toxic masculinity is denoted, a positive definition of masculinity is missing. Except that it seems to involve crying. (I would argue here that traditional masculinity is less about that men cry and where men cry, but we get far afield here.) In a worst-case scenario, this is the Texas Sharpshooter on the part of the author in finding men that have behaviors she agrees with, then writing the masculinity around that. But other interviews do not follow that course. A particularly odd one is with a Citadel cadet, complete with Political Officer at the side to oversee his comments. The author does good work by approaching the topic with wonder, but gets stuck.
The book feels outdated already. The least charitable reading of the text is that it is an audition for the New York Times opinion page, reactionary centrism complete with a cultural moral panic, here about...heavy metal? Whoo, that is old school. But I liked it more than that. I like the topic and the author was looking in the right places, even if the sense is that she was stymied in her investigations there. But the discourse has moved on. History started up again, and Enlightenment values as a shared aspiration is no given. The more argumentative parts of the book still function in this paradigm, but a lot of the gauzy introspection does not.
My thanks to the author, Angela Denker, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Broadleaf Books, for making the ARC available to me.
The author is worried. As a Lutheran pastor she looks out on the situation of men these days and finds cause. Men are in trouble, looking at suicide rates and loneliness. But men are the trouble, looking at terrorism and abuses of power. As a mother of two sons entering their teenage years, she is concerned with the inflection point, the way in which the shift to terrorism is a slight turn from an ordinary, or even healthy, life for men, particularly young men.
This book investigates the question. It primarily consists of the author doing interviews and longer form character sketches on people, primarily men, and primarily younger men or those who work closely with them.
A thesis shows up about unity of the problem. Looking at the worries, predominately originating in Right-leaning media, and the fears, predominately originating in Left-leaning media, both are functionally the same set of problems with different sets of framing. I particularly liked these sections of the book. They are where the author's journalistic background shines the most in breaking apart the understanding of the problem. It is a thesis that seems obvious on stating, but the author picks apart is obvious but with less obvious implications and questions upon study.
As the title suggests this is about Christian boys and men and the role of Christianity in radicalization. This makes sense owing to the religious nature of much of the terrorism and the centrality of 'tradition' to the revanchists, which is usually Christianity. This is the "White Jesus" of the title, the small-l illiberal emphasis on the glory rather than the Cross and the marketing of God, which leads to excesses and unchristian-like actions in the social and political sphere.
When the polemic kicks in, it is good. A lot of the charlatans have made masculinity an issue, preying on the (valid) insecticides of men for personal advantage. The author has no tolerance for this, and shows why it is wrong. I am certain that the people she attacks would justify their behavior by calling the author's belief in tolerance and Left political views as foreclosed by their particular reading of the Bible, but when the author has it out with the abusers, the book is on point. However, some of the more outright political sections are weak. All the book is political, but there are sections of the book, particularly at the end and beginning, where it feels more like filler, or even shibboleth, in establishing the author's views.
The weakest section is the interviews, which is unfortunate as how many there are. On one hand, the interviews are deep and the author shows journalistic flair in knowing how to get people to talk. But the same fire that is applied to the public pastors is missing with the people she interviews. A section with a youth pastor is egregious. They make some awful comments, but the author does not challenge them. She even goes so far as to try and rationalize their bigotry. I can understand why avoiding some possible interviews is a reasonable choice - I would pause before platforming a Nazi - but most of what shows up is bland.
The interviews are an example of how the book's problem is the Nihilist's paradox. Men are in trouble, more than they are trouble, I contend, and fixing it through a resumption of patriarchy is morally repugnant and wholly ineffective at solving the problems men face. It is the spherical cow of psychological well-being, getting to a solution by removing enough parts of the equation.
But what, exactly, is the author arguing for? This is calculated in the sense that the author does not want to provide a list of solutions. The author is cognizant that she is not a man, but also of how this sort of itemization is what the grifters promote. Yet while toxic masculinity is denoted, a positive definition of masculinity is missing. Except that it seems to involve crying. (I would argue here that traditional masculinity is less about that men cry and where men cry, but we get far afield here.) In a worst-case scenario, this is the Texas Sharpshooter on the part of the author in finding men that have behaviors she agrees with, then writing the masculinity around that. But other interviews do not follow that course. A particularly odd one is with a Citadel cadet, complete with Political Officer at the side to oversee his comments. The author does good work by approaching the topic with wonder, but gets stuck.
The book feels outdated already. The least charitable reading of the text is that it is an audition for the New York Times opinion page, reactionary centrism complete with a cultural moral panic, here about...heavy metal? Whoo, that is old school. But I liked it more than that. I like the topic and the author was looking in the right places, even if the sense is that she was stymied in her investigations there. But the discourse has moved on. History started up again, and Enlightenment values as a shared aspiration is no given. The more argumentative parts of the book still function in this paradigm, but a lot of the gauzy introspection does not.
My thanks to the author, Angela Denker, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Broadleaf Books, for making the ARC available to me.
September 11, 2025
This wasn't what I was looking for when it comes to info on the radicalization of young men in America. There's a lot of interviews with young men and people around them but there wasn't much beyond that. There also wasn't as much emphasis on the whiteness as I was expecting considering the title.
August 25, 2025
Quick listen. Did not help doomerism.
September 27, 2025
I saw someone I respect recommend this book on Instagram, so I thought I’d give this a go. I see many white Christian men in America (and to a lesser extent in my own country) taking a path that is so far removed from Jesus’ teachings, common sense and human decency, I was curious to learn more about how they ended up there in such large numbers.
The conclusion, in short, is that a skewed sense of what “masculinity” is, plays a huge part. And that skewed view is taught and fueled by certain misguided “Christian” teachings. The book also goes into the role of history, culture, racism, sexism, education, media and much more. As it is all interconnected.
This is not a Christian-hating book, nor a man-hating book. At all. The author herself is a Christian pastor and has sons. She just critiques certain extreme right and unbiblical teachings. For the most part I agreed with her.
Incel groups, Christian nationalist churches, MAGA, neo nazism, Charlie Kirk’s “Turning Point,” etc. all come up. These groups emphasize an “us vs. them” mentality and are very destructive. These young white men perceive a threat when minorities (women, people of color, immigrants, etc.) start to gain privileges that white men have had all along. They feel like they are the victims when others gain freedom. They might be victims, but not in the way they think. They’re victims of misguided ideas of who they are supposed to be and what God’s plan is.
The question remains: How do we break the chain of misguided ideas that lead to murders, abuse, insurrection, oppression and the hijack of Christianity? The book only answers it in part and at the end explains why there is no clear solution in the book.
I thought the book was well written and touches on a lot of good points. I could have done without some of the examples of people’s specific experiences though. Those were long and not really necessary to strengthen the author’s claims.
This is a terrible topic to read about, but it is interesting and important.
The conclusion, in short, is that a skewed sense of what “masculinity” is, plays a huge part. And that skewed view is taught and fueled by certain misguided “Christian” teachings. The book also goes into the role of history, culture, racism, sexism, education, media and much more. As it is all interconnected.
This is not a Christian-hating book, nor a man-hating book. At all. The author herself is a Christian pastor and has sons. She just critiques certain extreme right and unbiblical teachings. For the most part I agreed with her.
Incel groups, Christian nationalist churches, MAGA, neo nazism, Charlie Kirk’s “Turning Point,” etc. all come up. These groups emphasize an “us vs. them” mentality and are very destructive. These young white men perceive a threat when minorities (women, people of color, immigrants, etc.) start to gain privileges that white men have had all along. They feel like they are the victims when others gain freedom. They might be victims, but not in the way they think. They’re victims of misguided ideas of who they are supposed to be and what God’s plan is.
The question remains: How do we break the chain of misguided ideas that lead to murders, abuse, insurrection, oppression and the hijack of Christianity? The book only answers it in part and at the end explains why there is no clear solution in the book.
I thought the book was well written and touches on a lot of good points. I could have done without some of the examples of people’s specific experiences though. Those were long and not really necessary to strengthen the author’s claims.
This is a terrible topic to read about, but it is interesting and important.
August 13, 2025
This book was marketed extraordinarily well as I and probably many of you would find if you read this.
I’d say this book is better suited for white moms in evangelical and protestant spaces with sons. Still Denker’s argument felt extremely disjointed, addressing race and the church, race and jesus, race and boys but not until the actual last chapter of the book provides a compelling example of “the radicalization of american boyhood” when it comes to religion with a young man named Caleb.
Yet, Denker doesn’t use Caleb as her main example. She uses Dylan Roof who just so happened to go to a predominantly white Lutheran church (of which she is a part) before he shot up an AME one. She also significantly downplays the role of the internet and the manosphere in her argument. At times, she uses examples of GBV that occurred in other countries. It didn’t adequately serve her overall point.
For someone who wrote a book on the radicalization of american boyhood… Denker addresses few young men throughout, resorting to talk to many, many pastors instead. Not that certain pastors don’t have a claim to their boyhood but the radicalization that might have occurred is far different than what young men are experiencing today.
Ultimately I feel like the point she was trying to make was half baked at best and a true exploration of the radicalization of american boyhood under the auspices of “white jesus” would require the level of analysis conducted by Laura Bates’ “Men Who Hate Women”. Read that and Jesus and John Wayne instead!
I’d say this book is better suited for white moms in evangelical and protestant spaces with sons. Still Denker’s argument felt extremely disjointed, addressing race and the church, race and jesus, race and boys but not until the actual last chapter of the book provides a compelling example of “the radicalization of american boyhood” when it comes to religion with a young man named Caleb.
Yet, Denker doesn’t use Caleb as her main example. She uses Dylan Roof who just so happened to go to a predominantly white Lutheran church (of which she is a part) before he shot up an AME one. She also significantly downplays the role of the internet and the manosphere in her argument. At times, she uses examples of GBV that occurred in other countries. It didn’t adequately serve her overall point.
For someone who wrote a book on the radicalization of american boyhood… Denker addresses few young men throughout, resorting to talk to many, many pastors instead. Not that certain pastors don’t have a claim to their boyhood but the radicalization that might have occurred is far different than what young men are experiencing today.
Ultimately I feel like the point she was trying to make was half baked at best and a true exploration of the radicalization of american boyhood under the auspices of “white jesus” would require the level of analysis conducted by Laura Bates’ “Men Who Hate Women”. Read that and Jesus and John Wayne instead!
November 5, 2025
I found this really informative. I have a son, and I definitely don’t want him to fall into the misogynistic and racist radicalism that many young men seem to find these days. I know many Christians may get defensive just looking at the title of this book, and perhaps think it’s anti-religious, but the author is a mother to sons and actively involved in her faith. As someone who has moved away from organized religion, but felt the prevalent sexism that exists in a lot of churches her whole religious life, it was nice to actually hear about some churches and their work to be more inclusive, and ultimately this book made me feel a little hopeful, especially hearing the stories of young men who found their way out of white supremacist groups and who are working hard to be better men and examples to everyone in their life. If you are interested in this subject and or have read “Jesus and John Wayne” then this would be a worthwhile read.
September 4, 2025
A pastor and boy mom gives her take on The Boy Crisis. Could it be that making Jesus Christ into a combo of Rambo and JP Morgan as American Christians have done is a problem? Could we use more good, kind men and less big mouthed braggarts? When you make a fake macho Jesus, a disgraced human trafficker and rapist like Andrew Tate looks downright churchy to the young impressionable mind.
November 9, 2025
This book looks beyond religion and into the psychology and sociology behind power, belonging, and fear. I found myself mapping how emotional neglect, isolation, and suppression are passed down and disguised as strength, especially in white Christian masculinity. What stood out was how denial of vulnerability creates the perfect environment for grievance and radicalization, not just in church but across schools, families, and small communities.
March 18, 2025
3.5, rounded up. If Angela Denker were a part of my religious experience, there is a much stronger chance that I would have stayed with the church. Denker is a pastor (I think? I apologize if the title is incorrect) in Minnesota who is one of the few Christians (it seems) to have realized the connection between modern Christianity and the crisis we have facing young white men moving toward extremist views. In this examination of how we got here, she starts with examining Dylan Roof and moves toward where she's comfortable, the rural Midwest. This book is full of anecdotes, and a little bit of research. There's not a lot of what we can do, other than do what we can to raise our boys with values of kindness and empathy. This book feels like a needed start to this conversation, but it needs to go further.
As an ex-vangelical, I found Denker's writing to be healing. She's a pastor, so she clearly writes from a place of believing, but she also writes in such a way that reminded me of the comfort I used to get from Christianity. She is a good reminder that not all Christians feel as angry and bigoted as many of us have experienced -- she writes Christianity the way Jesus meant it to be. That all being said, if you have a different experience with the church than I do, you may be triggered by this. Be kind to yourself.
Thank you to Broadleaf and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
As an ex-vangelical, I found Denker's writing to be healing. She's a pastor, so she clearly writes from a place of believing, but she also writes in such a way that reminded me of the comfort I used to get from Christianity. She is a good reminder that not all Christians feel as angry and bigoted as many of us have experienced -- she writes Christianity the way Jesus meant it to be. That all being said, if you have a different experience with the church than I do, you may be triggered by this. Be kind to yourself.
Thank you to Broadleaf and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 6, 2025
This book undertakes a lofty premise: to distill and uncover why white Americans, particularly men, share similar circles of Evangelicalism and White Supremacy/Christian Nationalism. But this book falls off the mark many times, and the reason why is because it is so firmly rooted in this author’s personal experience - as a white, midwestern, Lutheran mom to two boys. And that personal experience clouds the whole perspective of this book and is a sore blind spot for anyone reading this book who isn’t white.
That’s not to say this book is all bad - there are elements the author gets right. She rightly consolidates the complicated intersection between “white Jesus” and the underlying theology (or lack thereof) that is espoused from the pulpit of evangelical denominations. She accurately labels the problem as multi faceted and comes to perhaps one of the sole correct statements of the book, which is that she cannot give readers a list of things to do to prevent the white men they love from being white supremacists.
However, that’s where the good of this novel ends. The author is a Lutheran pastor, and wants you to know right off the bat that she is from the “liberal” denomination of the Lutheran church. She doesn’t hesitate to punch down at more “conservative” denominations such as Southern Baptist or Presbyterian Church in America. The author takes great pains to talk about how these denominations are the scaffold for Christian nationalism, and yet does not address ways in which the Lutheran denomination (both the “conservative” and “liberal” branches) have also contributed to the rise of Christian nationalism.
If the author wants to eviscerate Christian evangelicalism (which she absolutely should for its complictness), she should have dealt with a heavier hand to her own denomination. Instead, we see this argument devolve into something where the author is making herself out to be part of the “good Christians” because they’re pro social justice reform, while southern baptists and Presbyterians are the “bad Christians” for their refusal to accept any egalitarian practices. How is this any different than the political climate we are in today?
Additionally, this book relies on subjective interviews (conducted without a lot of journalistic depth, might I add) that are just… there. The author interviews extremely right wing and Christofacist people, as well as neo-nazis, and almost gloats at her ability to infiltrate a white supremacist group to get an interview. She doesn’t push these people much to question their beliefs, and instead remarks on how they made “her” feel. Instead of using her preference for interviews to interview more people of color and marginalized communities, she focuses on white people. And the narrative revolves around her experience with white supremacy, rather than detailing how that experience is for other marginalized communities. The book is more a stream of consciousness about the author’s disillusionment as a white evangelical woman, instead of offering a more neutral approach. And the fact that this is such a massive blind spot in the book precludes any of this author’s findings.
There is a time and place for white people to address their own complicit nature in racist structures that have perpetuated their dominance in the culture of today. But addressing complicitness is incomplete if there is not a path forward towards reconciliation and an intersectional approach. To a white audience reading this book, I envision this to be quite eye opening, profound, and thought provoking. For non white audiences who have suffered at the hands of the systems the author promotes through her religious affiliation, this book is another example of social justice reform that falls shy of the mark, because it’s too far rooted in one white person’s experience, thoughts, and feelings.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, broadleaf books, and the author for this advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
That’s not to say this book is all bad - there are elements the author gets right. She rightly consolidates the complicated intersection between “white Jesus” and the underlying theology (or lack thereof) that is espoused from the pulpit of evangelical denominations. She accurately labels the problem as multi faceted and comes to perhaps one of the sole correct statements of the book, which is that she cannot give readers a list of things to do to prevent the white men they love from being white supremacists.
However, that’s where the good of this novel ends. The author is a Lutheran pastor, and wants you to know right off the bat that she is from the “liberal” denomination of the Lutheran church. She doesn’t hesitate to punch down at more “conservative” denominations such as Southern Baptist or Presbyterian Church in America. The author takes great pains to talk about how these denominations are the scaffold for Christian nationalism, and yet does not address ways in which the Lutheran denomination (both the “conservative” and “liberal” branches) have also contributed to the rise of Christian nationalism.
If the author wants to eviscerate Christian evangelicalism (which she absolutely should for its complictness), she should have dealt with a heavier hand to her own denomination. Instead, we see this argument devolve into something where the author is making herself out to be part of the “good Christians” because they’re pro social justice reform, while southern baptists and Presbyterians are the “bad Christians” for their refusal to accept any egalitarian practices. How is this any different than the political climate we are in today?
Additionally, this book relies on subjective interviews (conducted without a lot of journalistic depth, might I add) that are just… there. The author interviews extremely right wing and Christofacist people, as well as neo-nazis, and almost gloats at her ability to infiltrate a white supremacist group to get an interview. She doesn’t push these people much to question their beliefs, and instead remarks on how they made “her” feel. Instead of using her preference for interviews to interview more people of color and marginalized communities, she focuses on white people. And the narrative revolves around her experience with white supremacy, rather than detailing how that experience is for other marginalized communities. The book is more a stream of consciousness about the author’s disillusionment as a white evangelical woman, instead of offering a more neutral approach. And the fact that this is such a massive blind spot in the book precludes any of this author’s findings.
There is a time and place for white people to address their own complicit nature in racist structures that have perpetuated their dominance in the culture of today. But addressing complicitness is incomplete if there is not a path forward towards reconciliation and an intersectional approach. To a white audience reading this book, I envision this to be quite eye opening, profound, and thought provoking. For non white audiences who have suffered at the hands of the systems the author promotes through her religious affiliation, this book is another example of social justice reform that falls shy of the mark, because it’s too far rooted in one white person’s experience, thoughts, and feelings.
Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, broadleaf books, and the author for this advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.
April 20, 2025
Raising sons in the early twenty-first century is quite the experience. There are a lot of voices out there trying to turn them into patriarchal reactionaries, and recent polling data is showing how effective those voices have proven. Angela Denker did a lot of research and had a lot of conversations about this subject predominantly within White Evangelicalism, and the fruit of those endeavors is Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood (galley received as part of early review program).
There’s the substance of the work and there’s the framing of the work, and both of them need to be addressed.
The substance of the work features the conversations the author has with an array of characters across the country. She visits both the church which Dylann Roof attacked and the church with which his family was associated. She interviews a young man at The Citadel regarding his experiences and viewpoints. She spoke with a Black minister working with young men in Chicago as well as a woman teaching children in a Minnesota church to honor and value everyone. In Phoenix she interviewed a family which was trying to get away from the patriarchal White Evangelical and Republican framework they had inherited while still trying to maintain faith in Jesus and His ways and a pastor, Caleb, the author of Disarming Leviathan, and Antonio, a transgender man who engages in conversations at MAGA rallies. There’s also the stories of others who, in various contexts, attempt to work with young men and help them to think critically about all the things they are hearing and to remember those with less advantage and benefit than they have received.
This is a great book in its substance, capturing the challenges and difficulties which surround young men growing up in the early twenty-first century. There are plenty of voices encouraging patriarchal, incel, and white supremacist attitudes; there are plenty of others working diligently to encourage young men toward values which better value and honor women and people of color. It’s rough out there.
And then there’s the framing of the work. “Disciples of White Jesus” and “The Radicalization of American Boyhood” are very menacing in how they are presented. The whole point within the book is how many are attempting to make sure boys realize Jesus was not white; this is the kind of title which is going to keep those who might really benefit from the substance of the book far away from it. And even the idea of the “radicalization of American boyhood”: there are unique challenges which have come from the access to technology and firearms in the early 21st century, but plenty of American boys for generations have believed the same kinds of things, if not even worse.
It’s not like the book even intends to give some kind of prescription about what to do regarding these matters, which is why its framing is all the more irresponsible. Well, this is what we need to do in order to get people to read books. Maybe part of our problem in the early twenty-first century is this pathological drive to sensationalize to generate clicks and interest. It’s not helping American boys, or, for that matter, the rest of us.
There’s a lot of great material here as stories regarding the challenges and crises of American boys in the early twenty-first century. Pity it wasn’t better titled and framed.
There’s the substance of the work and there’s the framing of the work, and both of them need to be addressed.
The substance of the work features the conversations the author has with an array of characters across the country. She visits both the church which Dylann Roof attacked and the church with which his family was associated. She interviews a young man at The Citadel regarding his experiences and viewpoints. She spoke with a Black minister working with young men in Chicago as well as a woman teaching children in a Minnesota church to honor and value everyone. In Phoenix she interviewed a family which was trying to get away from the patriarchal White Evangelical and Republican framework they had inherited while still trying to maintain faith in Jesus and His ways and a pastor, Caleb, the author of Disarming Leviathan, and Antonio, a transgender man who engages in conversations at MAGA rallies. There’s also the stories of others who, in various contexts, attempt to work with young men and help them to think critically about all the things they are hearing and to remember those with less advantage and benefit than they have received.
This is a great book in its substance, capturing the challenges and difficulties which surround young men growing up in the early twenty-first century. There are plenty of voices encouraging patriarchal, incel, and white supremacist attitudes; there are plenty of others working diligently to encourage young men toward values which better value and honor women and people of color. It’s rough out there.
And then there’s the framing of the work. “Disciples of White Jesus” and “The Radicalization of American Boyhood” are very menacing in how they are presented. The whole point within the book is how many are attempting to make sure boys realize Jesus was not white; this is the kind of title which is going to keep those who might really benefit from the substance of the book far away from it. And even the idea of the “radicalization of American boyhood”: there are unique challenges which have come from the access to technology and firearms in the early 21st century, but plenty of American boys for generations have believed the same kinds of things, if not even worse.
It’s not like the book even intends to give some kind of prescription about what to do regarding these matters, which is why its framing is all the more irresponsible. Well, this is what we need to do in order to get people to read books. Maybe part of our problem in the early twenty-first century is this pathological drive to sensationalize to generate clicks and interest. It’s not helping American boys, or, for that matter, the rest of us.
There’s a lot of great material here as stories regarding the challenges and crises of American boys in the early twenty-first century. Pity it wasn’t better titled and framed.
August 7, 2025
2.5 stars. This unfortunately fell flat for me and I honestly almost dnf’d it a few times. I appreciate what this book set out to do, but the execution really wasn’t there.
For a book set on unpacking whiteness, masculinity, and Christianity, the criticisms and explorations really lukewarm at best. I think the author’s whiteness, while allowing access to some of the spaces and conversations in a meaningful way, was also a hinderance to digging deeper. Coming from someone who grew up in and loves the ELCA, I am aware of the feelings she shared about how in these spaces change is hard and slow. But reading about Bishop Curry (who I met many years ago through some really wonderful antiracism work in the ELCA in the Midwest) who was just elected bishop of the whole ELCA this week, later followed by the sentiment that change is hard, it feels hollow and like there was so much more opportunity to push back against commonly held beliefs.
I didn’t love how the discussions about access to reproductive healthcare were so steeped in the binary, and there was no consideration of how queer and trans people also intersect with repro spaces. In discussing a faith based militant masculinity, there was a missed opportunity to look at how disability and ableism play a role in this, since disabled men and boys do not fit into this militant masculinity aimed to protect and conquer.
I think the parts that worked the best for me were where she talks about rural and small town midwestern communities. I think her conversations with the older white women about their experiences with white men and boys and faith were done really well.
For a book set on unpacking whiteness, masculinity, and Christianity, the criticisms and explorations really lukewarm at best. I think the author’s whiteness, while allowing access to some of the spaces and conversations in a meaningful way, was also a hinderance to digging deeper. Coming from someone who grew up in and loves the ELCA, I am aware of the feelings she shared about how in these spaces change is hard and slow. But reading about Bishop Curry (who I met many years ago through some really wonderful antiracism work in the ELCA in the Midwest) who was just elected bishop of the whole ELCA this week, later followed by the sentiment that change is hard, it feels hollow and like there was so much more opportunity to push back against commonly held beliefs.
I didn’t love how the discussions about access to reproductive healthcare were so steeped in the binary, and there was no consideration of how queer and trans people also intersect with repro spaces. In discussing a faith based militant masculinity, there was a missed opportunity to look at how disability and ableism play a role in this, since disabled men and boys do not fit into this militant masculinity aimed to protect and conquer.
I think the parts that worked the best for me were where she talks about rural and small town midwestern communities. I think her conversations with the older white women about their experiences with white men and boys and faith were done really well.
December 30, 2025
An excellent overview of how we have come to this point in the general US culture of polarization, isolation, and the yearning to belong, to be noticed, to be important. one of the important distinctives I think Denker makes is that we have not done well in teaching the history of oppression, racism, slavery and genocide in the U.S. Teaching history shouldn't be about something that happened a long time and is now over but what continues to have repercussions today and how we might help bring about change. Instead, the way white folks teach about the history of slavery, genocide and racism is one that instills a "white guilt:"
"I think these boys needed to understand more about what has happened: that anti-racism isn't about saying that they're 'bad' but about atoning for past wrongs and ongoing present discrimination ..."
Denker only lightly touches on the cultures these boys come from -Scandinavian, German, English, etc - but I think the connection with the encompassing "whiteness" vs our culture of origin is also part of the problem. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where do we belong? She addresses the questions of identity and belonging, and really only offers the counter to the problem as telling our stories, but I think it goes a step beyond that - connecting with stories to deepen our sense of community and belonging beyond racial identity. It's through shared stories that we find belonging with people of all different backgrounds, reckon with the pain and continued suffering and struggles from racism and the aftermath of genocide and slavery. It's how we hear each other, learn, and live into healing.
"I think these boys needed to understand more about what has happened: that anti-racism isn't about saying that they're 'bad' but about atoning for past wrongs and ongoing present discrimination ..."
Denker only lightly touches on the cultures these boys come from -Scandinavian, German, English, etc - but I think the connection with the encompassing "whiteness" vs our culture of origin is also part of the problem. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where do we belong? She addresses the questions of identity and belonging, and really only offers the counter to the problem as telling our stories, but I think it goes a step beyond that - connecting with stories to deepen our sense of community and belonging beyond racial identity. It's through shared stories that we find belonging with people of all different backgrounds, reckon with the pain and continued suffering and struggles from racism and the aftermath of genocide and slavery. It's how we hear each other, learn, and live into healing.
March 27, 2025
Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood by Reverend Angela Denker is a very timely book, and one that I think everyone should read. Unfortunately most of the people who really need to read it, probably won’t.
Reverend Denker is a Lutheran pastor and a veteran journalist who has written for a lot of publications and appeared on many media shows. Her insight into right-wing Christianity has been experienced first hand, and she has an in-depth knowledge of the subject.
Disciples of White Jesus took the reader across the United States, but a lot of it focused on the Midwest since this is where she resides with her husband and boys. Rev. Denker’s story telling helped to make a very tough subject a bit easier to read by the compassion she showed towards tragic events. And by talking to people who have actually experienced these tragedies it took the “this would never happen in our community”, and made the reader realize it can happen anywhere, especially in tight-knit, small towns.
If you are looking for a quick 10 point list to help your family and community, you will not find it here. But Rev. Denker does give the reader hope that by opening yourself to the loving and caring Jesus, and showing your children, family members, and community how to do the same by example, is a step in a positive direction. Also having open lines of communication, especially with tough subjects like the radicalization of American boyhood, is another way to help families and communities in the very troubling times we are experiencing.
Reverend Denker is a Lutheran pastor and a veteran journalist who has written for a lot of publications and appeared on many media shows. Her insight into right-wing Christianity has been experienced first hand, and she has an in-depth knowledge of the subject.
Disciples of White Jesus took the reader across the United States, but a lot of it focused on the Midwest since this is where she resides with her husband and boys. Rev. Denker’s story telling helped to make a very tough subject a bit easier to read by the compassion she showed towards tragic events. And by talking to people who have actually experienced these tragedies it took the “this would never happen in our community”, and made the reader realize it can happen anywhere, especially in tight-knit, small towns.
If you are looking for a quick 10 point list to help your family and community, you will not find it here. But Rev. Denker does give the reader hope that by opening yourself to the loving and caring Jesus, and showing your children, family members, and community how to do the same by example, is a step in a positive direction. Also having open lines of communication, especially with tough subjects like the radicalization of American boyhood, is another way to help families and communities in the very troubling times we are experiencing.
January 27, 2026
Not the book I was hoping for given the title, but through stories of individuals, author Lutheran pastor Denker offers ideas to explain the problem of men and boys and the trouble they face as disciples of white Jesus. Her stories also offer hope.
I was anticipating a more objective approach to understand the depth of the issue of misogynistic, racist and patriarchal males in our country. One concerned with the "manosphere" issues highlighted in the 2024 political campaign can easily be drawn in by the book title as I was. But I was expecting an argument borne out by sociological studies and data of a more historical and statistical nature. Denker made extensive use of the media clippings she collected in her research, but we know that excitement sells newspapers, holds one's TV attention and attracts Internet eyebals.
With her theological background, Denker emphasized some individual religious leaders mistakenly Bible-based arguments for leading males down a "path well worn, trod and entrenched ... who have learned there's a lot of money in preaching violent masculinity to lonely white teen boys longing for belonging and clear identities." Rather than focus on Christ's anger at driving the money changers out of the temple, the only New Testament reference to a raging Jesus, they need to point out his gentle kindness, love and care for others, and his ability to weep when faced with the death of Lazarus.
I was anticipating a more objective approach to understand the depth of the issue of misogynistic, racist and patriarchal males in our country. One concerned with the "manosphere" issues highlighted in the 2024 political campaign can easily be drawn in by the book title as I was. But I was expecting an argument borne out by sociological studies and data of a more historical and statistical nature. Denker made extensive use of the media clippings she collected in her research, but we know that excitement sells newspapers, holds one's TV attention and attracts Internet eyebals.
With her theological background, Denker emphasized some individual religious leaders mistakenly Bible-based arguments for leading males down a "path well worn, trod and entrenched ... who have learned there's a lot of money in preaching violent masculinity to lonely white teen boys longing for belonging and clear identities." Rather than focus on Christ's anger at driving the money changers out of the temple, the only New Testament reference to a raging Jesus, they need to point out his gentle kindness, love and care for others, and his ability to weep when faced with the death of Lazarus.
March 29, 2025
In this book Angela Denker argues that young white men are simultaneously a cause of a toxic culture, as well as its victims. This excerpt from the book sums things up well:
"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. At the same time these young men and boys have not been given the tools, for building mutual relationships that are bound together, not by control, authority, or obligation but instead by love and respect."
Denker is an expert wordsmith, and her pages turn quickly and effortlessly. But she's also the mother of two sons, whose writing is filled with genuine kindness and empathy. So too the book benefits from multiple interviews she's done with a number of pastors, including the minister of the church where SC church shooter Dylan Roof attended. The work concludes with suggestions on how to do better for our boys forward, with a vision of a more gentle masculinity, lifted from and looking to the pages of the Gospels.
Highly recommended!
"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. At the same time these young men and boys have not been given the tools, for building mutual relationships that are bound together, not by control, authority, or obligation but instead by love and respect."
Denker is an expert wordsmith, and her pages turn quickly and effortlessly. But she's also the mother of two sons, whose writing is filled with genuine kindness and empathy. So too the book benefits from multiple interviews she's done with a number of pastors, including the minister of the church where SC church shooter Dylan Roof attended. The work concludes with suggestions on how to do better for our boys forward, with a vision of a more gentle masculinity, lifted from and looking to the pages of the Gospels.
Highly recommended!
September 26, 2025
I picked up this book through Broadleaf Publishing at a Book Fair. I was looking at other social justice books when the lady said, "Oh, you'd probably like this one too." LIKE? Hmmm, strange word when it comes to this book.
It took me awhile to get into this book with all the religious proverbs throughout the first 1/3. I was not raised in any religion and am not religious now. It was cumbersome for me to read scripture and have the author explain it but I did learn stuff. Not wasted time but a slog.
This book got more interesting at the halfway mark but fell flat with how much the author made it into almost an autobiography for herself. The interviews were awkward and didn't really add much.
She didn't offer definitive answers to how to prevent radicalization and ignored the big culprit: the internet. For some reason, this really bothered me. Documentaries on this topic largely reference the internet. Especially when it comes to the "well known" culprits: Andrew Tate and Mark Driscoll.
Glad I read it. Not hopeful that this problem won't continue to grow given the current state of the world. Sad times.
It took me awhile to get into this book with all the religious proverbs throughout the first 1/3. I was not raised in any religion and am not religious now. It was cumbersome for me to read scripture and have the author explain it but I did learn stuff. Not wasted time but a slog.
This book got more interesting at the halfway mark but fell flat with how much the author made it into almost an autobiography for herself. The interviews were awkward and didn't really add much.
She didn't offer definitive answers to how to prevent radicalization and ignored the big culprit: the internet. For some reason, this really bothered me. Documentaries on this topic largely reference the internet. Especially when it comes to the "well known" culprits: Andrew Tate and Mark Driscoll.
Glad I read it. Not hopeful that this problem won't continue to grow given the current state of the world. Sad times.
June 1, 2025
Great book. What makes this book a bit different than other “the Christians in America are not all right” books is that it’s not coming from the evangelical world and it’s not just about evangelicals. The author is part of the mainline Christian tradition and she talks about that tradition’s part in all this mess. She uses stories from real life to show how folks are influenced by bad theology, and these stories also show how some folks are breaking that cycle.
It’s short and to the point, and I think it’s a great addition to the conversation about what’s going on with the church in the USA.
I’ve noticed a few reviews on here complain that the book was all “vibes” and anecdotes. Did y’all not see all the footnotes? Did you not turn to the back of the book and see the links/titles to the articles and studies and books the author references to make her points? I feel like everyone who read this book in a digital format did not understand how to use footnotes. This book was hella researched. The author did the work and this book reflects that.
It’s short and to the point, and I think it’s a great addition to the conversation about what’s going on with the church in the USA.
I’ve noticed a few reviews on here complain that the book was all “vibes” and anecdotes. Did y’all not see all the footnotes? Did you not turn to the back of the book and see the links/titles to the articles and studies and books the author references to make her points? I feel like everyone who read this book in a digital format did not understand how to use footnotes. This book was hella researched. The author did the work and this book reflects that.
April 3, 2025
Wow, Angela’s deep dive into such a timely topic is both amazing and challenging. The incredible way in which she gets to the heart of the individual stories of those who have fallen into the trap of White Christian Nationalism is extraordinary. With a journalist and pastor’s heart she shares the stories of real people and the real challenges facing this nation (and I would say internationally) and invites the reader to sit with each person and see both their humanity and the implications of the paths they have chosen to follow. Angela doesn’t give us easy or “pat” answers. Instead she invites the reader to sit in the uncomfortable reality and see beyond “stereotypes” and really confront our own experiences and complicity. Thank you, Angela, for a challenging and hopeful (not in the Pollyanna sort of way) future that is possible for us all.
October 25, 2025
The author is both a journalist and an ELCA Lutheran pastor. As the mother of two boys, she felt that this was a compelling topic. There are two parts to a book such as this one. The larger picture of how pervasive is this issue nationally and the nuances of this issue with individual boys and teens in our churches. I did like the interviews that she did with different young men and pastors that brought out the nuances of this issue, but I was disappointed in how well she introduced the pervasiveness of the issue nationally. I never got a clear answer on the first question. When I checked citations that she cites about them, too many of them were from Wikipedia entries. I wish she had presented strong arguments on the pervasiveness of this problem nationally, with much deeper research into it, and had been as thoughtful as her interviews.
January 11, 2026
Good Lord, the comments on this book are special level of elitism.
Here's a woman who did an earnest job to understanding a topic that is vexing for most of the liberal portions of the country, and all y'all can do is bitch her out for forgetting herself and her whatever privilege. At least she tried to ask the questions and figure out the problems. Most of y'all wouldn't step in those communities in the first place (oh, the trauma of your stories of personal woe....)
As a Conservative Trump-voting White Male, thank you Angela. You got most of it wrong, and this book needs a follow-up, but thank you. Whatever the haters want to hate on, at least you put this and yourself out there.
Lotta you folks should try and visit a Dollar General once in a while. Better yet, work at one and go to a few AA meetings, then tell me what you think of White Men.
Here's a woman who did an earnest job to understanding a topic that is vexing for most of the liberal portions of the country, and all y'all can do is bitch her out for forgetting herself and her whatever privilege. At least she tried to ask the questions and figure out the problems. Most of y'all wouldn't step in those communities in the first place (oh, the trauma of your stories of personal woe....)
As a Conservative Trump-voting White Male, thank you Angela. You got most of it wrong, and this book needs a follow-up, but thank you. Whatever the haters want to hate on, at least you put this and yourself out there.
Lotta you folks should try and visit a Dollar General once in a while. Better yet, work at one and go to a few AA meetings, then tell me what you think of White Men.
February 28, 2025
There were parts I really appreciated, for example, her breakdown of evangeligcal pastors like Mark Driscoll and toxic masculinity. Often, there were some comments that didn't seem to add to the conversation or the arguments made in the book. I really appreciate what the author set out to do, and I think it is an extremely important topic.
I think this book would have benefited from re-writes or major edits. Some sections seem to jump all over the place. One minute, I'm reading about toxic masculinity, the next I'm reading about abortion, and then I'm reading about Charlie Kirk. While I think these need to be discussed, the flow of the material felt disjointed and jarring to me.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the book for me.
I think this book would have benefited from re-writes or major edits. Some sections seem to jump all over the place. One minute, I'm reading about toxic masculinity, the next I'm reading about abortion, and then I'm reading about Charlie Kirk. While I think these need to be discussed, the flow of the material felt disjointed and jarring to me.
Unfortunately, this wasn't the book for me.
March 20, 2025
Disciples of White Jesus by Angela Denker illustrates the problem of the mentality of “white man supremacy”. A very chilling book, especially with the wild and dangerous powers of Donald Trump and Elon Musk that exist now. Denker covers mass shooters and suicides that involve white men. The case of Dylann S Roof really puzzles me. How can people stand and watch friends being killed and not stop the shooting? Denker also details the difficult times for the first black male cadet and the first white female cadet to enter the prestigious halls of the Citadel. Progress does happens, but very slowly, and many places still adhere to the power of the white male. An interesting book that shows that religion embraces the white man excellence.
October 20, 2025
Rev. Denker tells compelling stories and tells them well. I would have like to hear a bit more about what the Gospel has to say to the problem of toxic masculinity. She identifies the problem and rightly points out that there is no easy fix, but I think the story of Jesus and the New Testament has much to say to this problem. I wished she would have done more to hold the gospel up next to the deception of Christian nationalism. I also think she overemphasizes the "whiteness" of toxic masculinity. Donald Trump would not have defeated Kamala Harris without the votes of millions of black and Latino men. They voted against their own best interests. Why? Because of the toxic masculinity Trump projects. It's not just a "white boy/man" problem.
October 11, 2025
At 16% through the audiobook, I had to stop. This is a book *for* Evangelicals *by* an Evangelical, and as such, it takes a gentle approach.
If you’re a churchgoer—or Christian/Believer/Jesus-Follower/Saved—who’s both bewildered by the state of the U.S. and trying to understand why self-proclaimed “Christians” are spearheading the alt right, this could be a helpful book for you.
If the “male loneliness epidemic” is something you’re newly curious about, this could be a book for you.
But if you are actively deconstructing (as I am), save yourself the time. This reads more like a primer for Christians who are only newly beginning to wonder about these things.
If you’re a churchgoer—or Christian/Believer/Jesus-Follower/Saved—who’s both bewildered by the state of the U.S. and trying to understand why self-proclaimed “Christians” are spearheading the alt right, this could be a helpful book for you.
If the “male loneliness epidemic” is something you’re newly curious about, this could be a book for you.
But if you are actively deconstructing (as I am), save yourself the time. This reads more like a primer for Christians who are only newly beginning to wonder about these things.
April 17, 2025
I’m not quite sure how to rate this one. It didn’t inherently tell me anything I wasn’t already aware of, nor did it particularly explain certain phenomena regarding masculinity and christian nationalism. BUT that’s because i come from a religious background and have a social awareness that most people don’t. I think if you weren’t raised christian and you want an insight into how people can be both christian and take the words of god and twist them to the point of mass murder, this book is definitely for you.
April 18, 2025
I appreciate what this book covers, especially the many personal stories from interviews. There were a lot of assumptions behind some of the one-off comments that would keep me from recommending it to anyone I wasn't sure had a very broad minded approach to social topics.
Two main things that stuck with me: how angry white conservative Christian men have grown over the past decade (my own father came to mind immediately), and that kindness and gentleness are actual manly traits, not machismo and violence.
Two main things that stuck with me: how angry white conservative Christian men have grown over the past decade (my own father came to mind immediately), and that kindness and gentleness are actual manly traits, not machismo and violence.
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