Saturday, February 13, 2016
White Jesus
Andre E. Johnson, writing at Religion Dispatches, reminds us that “Jesus could not have been white”. Although most Christians in America grow up looking at images of Jesus as Scandinavian, the reality is that he was Palestinian.
So why don’t Bible-thumpers in Alabama have Jesus pictures on the wall that look like Yasser Arafat, whom I personally think looks kind of like Ringo Starr? Well, the short answer is that it doesn’t sit too well with white supremacists’ self-image of holier-than-thou antebellum notions of race.
Why the big deal? Well, as Johnson observes, White Jesus makes it possible for the devil to be Black.
Meanwhile, Hollywood and churches continue propagating the White Jesus myth.
Call it an identity crisis.
