This is our most ambitious and most important podcast series yet”

– Peter Laarman, Episode 1.

Long ago, European Christians cast Jesus in the image of their imperial rulers, who wanted art portraying a fair-skinned Savior. The world still feels those consequences today.

Join Front Row host Peter Laarman and guest Grace Ji-Sun Kim, as she explores the historical and theological implications of Jesus becoming white and God becoming a white male.

Follow them on this challenging intellectual journey, which discusses how whiteness becomes centered, even among people who are not white, and the toll that white supremacy takes on everyone, even those who live under the umbrella of “white.”

We’ll get glimpses at the ways in which the church has the capacity to challenge this modern ideology that allows for misogyny, homophobia, and a violent capitalism, based on violence and extraction.

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Bios

This FRONT ROW podcast features Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Peter Laarman.

Grace Ji-Sun Kim is an American theologian and Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion, Richmond, Indiana. She is the author or editor of 24 books on theology and has served on the American Academy of Religion’s Board of Directors.

Her most recent book, “When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity,” was published in 2024 and is the basis of this provocative podcast series.

Faith and Reason regulars may recall Dr. Kim from our 2024 “Faith and Democracy” webinar, “Confronting White Christian Nationalism.” 

The Reverend Peter Laarman is a retired United Church of Christ minister and activist who led Judson Memorial Church in New York and Progressive Christians Uniting in California. He is currently involved with the King & Breaking Silence webinar project of the National Council of Elders and with the development of a new formation called Social Ethics Energizing Democracy.