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How this pastor became disillusioned with bridge-building
with Angela Denker
The latest from Beyond Polarization: Pastor Angela Denker says a focus on polarization may be holding the Church back from tackling bigger threats, like Christian Nationalism.
EPISODE NOTES
Our guest this episode is a chaplain and journalist who's traveled the country speaking to conservative Christians, and facilitating discussions about politics and division. But she's come to believer those efforts are ineffective, and shifted her focus to combating Christian Nationalism.
This is episode six in Making Peace Visible's special series, Beyond Polarization. In episodes 1 through 5, we spoke to Americans invested in bridging political divides through journalism, social media, higher education and in civil society. This episode, with a spotlight on religion, examines the limits of trying to find common cause with people you disagree with.
Angela Denker is an ordained Lutheran pastor and a journalist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She's the author of two books: Red State Christians (2019), and Disciples of White Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood (2025). Having grown up with a mix of Baptist, Evangelical and mainline Protestant influences, Angela eventually embraced a more liberal Christianity and progressive politics.
While researching her first book, she saw some openness to dialogue and empathy for immigrants, for instance. But she says, by and large, efforts at bridge building between liberal and conservative Christians have fallen flat.
Her second book focuses on the threat of Christian Nationalism, particularly among young white men and boys. In this interview, Denker speaks about why she thinks there are more important threats to the country and the church than polarization. And she makes a case for why we should be paying more attention to the role of religion in American politics today. We also touch on Denker's experiences and writing during ICE's Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.
More from Angela Denker:
"I Am a Minneapolis Mother and Pastor, and I Know Where I Stand", The New Republic, January 2026
Writer and pastor Angela Denker investigates what's going on with young white men in America, interview by Sarah McCammon, March 2025
"The End of Dialogue?" Church Anew, December 2020
"Why I’m Teaching a Class on Political Dialogue When No One Wants to Talk to Each Other", Faith+Lead, February 2020