An author who spent one year going across the nation talking to people who back Donald Trump to find out their thinking and also how it relates to religion. She will be in Eagle River to talk about the book soon.
Pastor Angela Denker is the author of the soon-to-be-released "Red State Christians". Denker is a veteran journalist who received a calling to the Lutheran ministry.
She says while serving a congregation in Orange County, California, the tone of the conversation changed...
"...So I watched, working with my fellow pastor, watched how politics became destructive to our congregation. I saw the Gospel of Jesus being used to support things that weren't very biblical and I also just saw the pain people were going through as the political divide became so apparent..."
She says her goal was to let people tell their own stories in their own words. Denker set out all of 2018 to find out more about red state Christians, going to Texas multiple times, Missouri, Washington, D.C., Appalachia, Pennsylvania...
"So I really felt fortunate to get to see so much of America. My book is much more about America and Jesus than it is about Trump..."
She says she hopes her book enables Americans to talk to each other. She says we've gotten 'siloed' and live in 'echo chambers' that doesn't give the opportunity to listen to others. On Friday, July 26, at 6:00 p.m.
Pastor Denker will speak at Olson Memorial Library, in Eagle River. Pastor Denker will also be the guest preacher at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Highway 70 West, Eagle River, on Sunday, July 28, 9:00 a.m. and will have a forum on these topics.
There's a longer interview with Pastor Denker in the first segment of WXPR Saturday Edition on our website.
