In the nineties, David Ladwig was a white power skinhead. Today he's a husband, father and grandfather, active in prison ministry. And he's hearing the old jokes again, this time in church.

David grew up with an abusive, alcoholic father, professed Christ at twelve, joined the Marine Corps, and around 1994 started running with white power guys. He stayed for about six years. He didn’t come in through philosophy. He had a lot of anger, and the movement gave it somewhere to go.

He walks me through what hooked him, the meetings that ran like a liturgy, the street fights, and what he actually won. Then we talk about why the jokes showing up in churches worry him, and what he’d say to his younger self.

In this episode

• How grievance lands on something already broken (“I started feeling like a victim because I’m white”)

• The meetings that ran like a liturgy, and how the talk would “ramp, ramp, ramp”

• RaHoWa, the 14 Words, and the coded language still in the memes

• Why the keyboard warriors stay home while young men end up with blood on their hands

• Why the worldview itself demands action

• Christian Identity and the hunt for biblical warrant

• Why the jokes showing up in churches worry him, and what to do if you see it

• What he’d say to his younger self, and why no man is a lost cause