Description
Jesus is not white. Jesus is not American. Jesus does not want to make America great. While many of us grew up looking at gleaming portraits of Jesus with blond, flowing hair and hearing sermons reaffirming that we have the answers to save a fallen world, the real Jesus—a Middle Eastern Jew preaching radical, humble, self-emptying love—calls us to a different life.
As we see oppression and hate run rampant in our nation, it’s as if Christianity has lost sight of the red letters altogether. Sheri Faye Rosendahl takes a look at important social issues in our society, the responses of American Christians, and the true ways behind the red letters. Not Your White Jesus addresses the need to reexamine the true ways of Jesus that we find clearly in the red letters, enabling readers to discover what it truly means to follow the ways of Jesus in contrast to following the ways of the American Christian elite.
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Reviews
"In the manner of the Reformers through the church's history, Sheri Rosendahl invites us to step out of our institutional thinking about church and become followers of the radical, refugee Jew. In a bold way, she takes on the church that has become so closely entwined with the American cultural and nationalistic identity that Christianity in this country has become warped and does not represent what the Jesus of the Gospels taught and lived...There is enough here for all Christians to look in the mirror she holds up if we are willing to honestly examine ourselves in the light of the words of Jesus. We could all learn from Rosendahl's courage." —The Presbyterian Outlook
"Settle in with this book like you would with your most to-the-point, say-anything, faithful friend." —Horizons
“Sheri Faye Rosendahl gives those of us who follow Jesus a tremendous gift. She holds his life and words up to us like a well-lit mirror, and asks us to look closely, unflinchingly. With boldness and brutal honesty, Sheri invites we who call ourselves Christians, to decide if we're okay with what we see—or if we want to aspire to something more beautiful. I'm grateful for her courageous challenge.”
—John Pavlovitz, author of A Bigger Table and Hope and Other Superpowers
“Be moved by the passionate, heartfelt reflections of a brutally honest, refreshingly real woman who is totally devoted to following Jesus into the hard places and among those often overlooked by the church. Yes, she’s forthright and candid. Yes, she says things that will likely rub you up the wrong way. She’s just trying to be true to Jesus – the radical, brown-skinned, refugee Jesus.”
—Michael Frost, author of Keep Christianity Weird, and Surprise the World!
“Dust off your hope and ditch the despair as Sheri Faye Rosendahl unleashes us to breathe deeply and love as boldly as the Jesus we follow. Not Your White Jesus challenges us to love our Palestinian, refugee, pro-choice, Muslim, marginalized brown and black neighbors, like Jesus’s reputation depends on it.”
—Diana Oestreich, writer, speaker, and justice activist
“If you are over it with the blonde haired, blue-eyed, white Jesus…
If you struggle to see the connection between Jesus and the actions of his ‘followers’…
If you believe that Jesus was a badass but are having a hard time finding him in today’s world…
Look no further. Sheri Faye Rosendahl delivers that Jesus and so much more. Not Your White Jesus will have you nodding your head and saying, ‘There you are, Jesus. Welcome back. I thought I lost ya.’”
—Jerry Herships, Founder/Pastor of AfterHours Denver and Auth
"In her persuasive debut, Rosendahl, codirector of the Nations, a humanitarian organization, challenges the image and ideals of the Americanized, blond-haired, and blue-eyed Jesus. Addressing the recent election of Donald Trump, she writes directly to a Christian audience that, she believes, has forgotten Jesus’s original message. Well-researched and sometimes tinged with sarcasm and disbelief, Rosendahl’s forceful book will appeal to progressive Christians." —Publishers Weekly
"In her debut book Not Your White Jesus, Sheri Faye Rosendahl addresses where [the American church] has gone wrong and how we can emphasize the teachings of Jesus to return to a faith that, in practice, looks more like him. To be clear, she goes after not all Americans, but the visible white, conservative version that makes political noise and votes as a block. We need her message now, and her anger and frustration brings a needed spark to a conversation that too often turns toward either anonymous internet shouting or dry contemplation." —The Englewood Review of Books