Brant Hansen

Quick Facts

• Role: Author and first-person narrator of Unoffendable; both teacher and primary case study
• First Appearance: Chapter 1, announcing his radical thesis about choosing to be unoffendable
• Context: Radio host, husband, father, and self-described “nerd” and “preacher’s kid”
• Key Relationships: God/Jesus; his audience and anonymous critics; his grieving neighbor Jarrod

Who He Is

Bold, funny, and unsparing with himself, Brant Hansen embodies the gap between well-intentioned faith and everyday irritability. He presents a modern believer pulled between prideful judgment and The Destructive Nature of Anger on one side and a hard-won path of Humility vs. Self-Righteousness on the other. He’s the “Dumpster Pastor” (Chapter 9)—a self-exposed hypocrite who nevertheless becomes a compelling witness to grace. Crucially, he doesn’t only preach unoffendability; he narrates the daily, awkward, sometimes hilarious practice of it, showing how relinquishing his “right” to be offended becomes a spiritual discipline that gives rest, joy, and a more Christ-like posture toward others.

Personality & Traits

Hansen writes with candid self-awareness, turning his own weaknesses into case studies for transformation. He frames unoffendability not as personality makeover, but as practiced surrender—choosing, again and again, to let offenses go.

• Self-righteous and judgmental (by nature): “By my very nature, I’m a Pharisee. I’m a rules guy. I’m also naturally very resentful” (Chapter 2). This admission sets up the book’s central conflict: the enemy isn’t “them,” but his reflex to judge and resent.
• Analytical and argumentative: The self-styled “Argument Guy” loves logic so much he exhausts classmates and teachers (Chapter 18). His debate-first wiring initially rejects unoffendability as irrational—until Scripture study persuades him it’s not foolish but deeply Christian.
• Humorous and self-deprecating: He turns his own blunders—putting regular gas in a diesel car (Chapter 20); coaching a team to an 0–12 season (Chapter 24)—into parables. Humor becomes a theological tool, disarming defensiveness so readers can see grace at work.
• Vulnerable and honest: He confesses stealing a colleague’s intellectual property (Chapter 10) and discusses social anxiety and Asperger’s syndrome (Chapter 19). This honesty earns trust and grounds his claims in reality rather than moral posturing.
• Growing humility and compassion: With his grieving neighbor Jarrod, Hansen learns ministry by presence, not argument—absorbing pain without taking it personally. This shift from “fixing” to faithful presence signals genuine inner change.

Character Journey

Hansen begins convinced that righteous people must be righteously offended—a way to “take a stand.” The catalyst is almost comically on-the-nose: at a business meeting, someone suggests you can simply choose not to be offended. Offended by the idea itself, he digs into Scripture and his own motives. He confronts the pride behind the mindset he lampoons as “Everybody’s an idiot but me” (Chapter 2) and discovers that his anger hides insecurity and self-righteousness. As his understanding of Grace and Forgiveness deepens, he embraces The Choice to Be Unoffendable not as passivity but as spiritual courage: relinquishing his status, his need to win, and his imagined moral leverage to God. Over time, offense gives way to rest; argument to listening; and self-assertion to a practiced, joyful surrender.

Key Relationships

• God/Jesus: Hansen’s reorientation flows from a growing trust in God’s love and Jesus’s radical forgiveness. As he surrenders his need to “win,” he stops guarding his image and starts receiving correction, viewing even criticism as a chance to love rather than retaliate.
• Anonymous Critics: As a radio host, he’s a lightning rod for snark, like the listener who accuses him of a “stoner bert and ernie shtick” and consorting with Satan (Chapter 5). These emails become laboratories where he practices letting go of offense and answering with calm curiosity instead of wounded pride.
• Jarrod: Hansen’s neighbor suffers a devastating loss. Despite his social awkwardness, Hansen shows up, absorbing sharp edges of grief without taking them as personal insults. The relationship proves unoffendable love is less about clever words and more about steady presence.

Defining Moments

Hansen’s turning points function like mini-parables—ordinary scenes revealing spiritual truths.

• The “Smoking Stinks” T-shirt (Chapter 10): As a kid, he wore his moral stance on his chest, assuming disapproval equals righteousness. The memory exposes how public “rightness” can repel people and obscure grace.
• The “Dumpster Pastor” realization (Chapter 9): Naming himself this, he spotlights his own hypocrisy. The label becomes a mirror—truth-telling that lowers his defenses and makes room for mercy.
• Fueling the diesel car with gasoline (Chapter 20): Expecting to pay dearly for a foolish mistake, he’s stunned when Volkswagen covers the repair. The unearned gift embodies grace—relieving yet humbling—training him to receive mercy he cannot repay.
• Coaching the Rams to 0–12 (Chapter 24): After a 77–6 blowout, the kids climb into a limousine for a celebration. The whiplash illustrates a kingdom logic: joy and worth aren’t performance-based, freeing him from the scoreboard mentality that stokes offense and pride.

Essential Quotes

I used to think it was incumbent upon a Christian to take offense. I now think we should be the most refreshingly unoffendable people on a planet that seems to spin on an axis of offense. — Chapter 1

This reframes offense as optional, not inevitable. By positioning unoffendability as a “refreshing” counterculture, Hansen casts it as both witness and relief in a world addicted to outrage.

Don’t believe me? An experiment: Go to a mall food court, grab a chicken kabob or something, sit down, and listen to the conversations around you. Compare how often people are telling stories about hurtful, wrong things other people did, versus confessing hurtful, wrong things they, themselves, have done. — Chapter 2

The food-court test reveals our narrative bias: we spotlight others’ sins, not our own. Hansen uses a light setup to expose a dark habit—how offense feeds self-exoneration.

Being offended is a tiring business. Letting things go gives you energy. And while I thought the idea of choosing to be “unoffendable” was ludicrous, I’ve tried it. And I’m not perfect at it, but I’m much, much better than I used to be. I just let stuff go. — Chapter 2

Here unoffendability shifts from theory to practice. The payoff isn’t just moral clarity; it’s stamina and joy—evidence that surrender is not loss, but life-giving.

I don’t have to “win,” because I know God is in control, and He loves those people. And I don’t have to “win,” because there’s no status at stake. When people make assertions about me, I can actually think them over, and occasionally say, “You know what? That’s a good point.” — Chapter 18

Letting go of status deflates defensiveness. By removing the scoreboard, he can truly listen—even agree—because correction no longer threatens his identity.

What a relief. God tells us to die to ourselves, and get rid of anger, for a reason: He loves us. And I guess I always knew that, that He loves us. But I’m now less prone to anger, and more prone to forgive, because I’m finally really believing, a bit more, day by day, that He actually loves me. — Chapter 24

The engine of change is love, not sheer willpower. As he trusts that he’s loved, anger loosens its grip, making forgiveness a natural outflow rather than a forced duty.