What if Jesus wasn't a white dude?

[mooseheadm5]

You speak truth that all Christians should believe in that last bit for sure. I think your church being enlightend does not necessarily mean that others in your area are. The general issue with the white depictions of Jesus is that many so-called Christians happily heap scorn on people of other races (remember the KKK are all Christians) and colors because of the way they have been misled. If they truly believed that Jesus was not white, it might open their eyes to the idea that people of other races/colors deserve to be treated as human beings as well. Your views do Christianity a good service. Bigots masquerading as Christians should be given the vision of the REAL Jesus to set them straight.

[iwillhunt]

The bigots aren't going to change their minds if they believe Jesus isn't white. They aren't bigots because they follow the Bible, they're bigots because they hate people not like themselves. The only reason KKK members are "Christians" is because they happened to grow up in an area dominated by that Faith. If they actually followed the Bible they wouldn't be the way they are (yes, i know there is violence and what can be construed as bigotry in the Old Testament, but the Bible can't be taken in bits and pieces). Clearly the KKK has nothing to do with the beliefs Jesus promotes in the first place, so he could be of any color and it wouldn't make a bit of a difference to them. Remember, they're all idiots.

[ansonivan]

What's everyone doing for zombie jesus day?

[Massive Lee]

... it might open their eyes to the idea that people of other races/colors deserve to be treated as human beings as well.

So, if Jesus had been depicted as a Middle Eastern man from day one, would this have changed racial tensions between white people and "the rest of the world" (majoritary non-white)?

Can I conclude that because Jesus was depicted as a white man, then it was no problem putting blacks into slavery (after all, according to the Church - I said Church, not Bible - blacks had no "soul", so it was okay as they were equal to animals). Indians in South America were also exterminated in the name of a white God, etc.

So maybe because the Roman Church depicted Jesus as a white dude, it did have some consequences on today's world.

[lowlightbw]

the bible was written in english!

[cagedbunny]

What's everyone doing for zombie jesus day?

[imsotyerred]

i wrote 2 paragraphs on why jesus was Black as part of an essay test in AP government my senior year of high school. to sum it up, Jesus loves big booty bitches.

[mooseheadm5]

Holy zombie Jesus!
-Professor Hubert Farnsworth

(ansovian beat me to it)

[Massive Lee]

i wrote 2 paragraphs on why jesus was Black as part of an essay test in AP government my senior year of high school. to sum it up, Jesus loves big booty bitches.

So, do you pretend Maria Magdalena was a big booty bitch?

Zombie Jesus?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDENmSJIlMI

[iwillhunt]

So, if Jesus had been depicted as a Middle Eastern man from day one, would this have changed racial tensions between white people and "the rest of the world" (majoritary non-white)?

Can I conclude that because Jesus was depicted as a white man, then it was no problem putting blacks into slavery (after all, according to the Church - I said Church, not Bible - blacks had no "soul", so it was okay as they were equal to animals). Indians in South America were also exterminated in the name of a white God, etc.

No, I don't think you can make that conclusion at all. What is this Church you speak of? There have been numerous denominations of the Christian faith in America since the 1700s. There is no unified Church with which you can make broad conclusions (unless you're referring to the Roman Catholic Church, which had no power in America 'til the 20th century). Furthermore, I believe you are assuming that people involved in slavery sought to justify it with religion, but people had slaves because of the economical advantages it provided, they did not question it because their fathers had done the same.

Blacks were considered "soul-less" because they were not seen as human beings. In the 1800s when slavery was at it's peak in America, social-Darwinism was the prevailing mindset, i.e. because blacks were inferior to whites, it was okay to treat them as such. Clearly this belief is not rooted in the Bible, but in scientific theory. Yes, it is a misrepresentation of Darwin's claims (just as the KKK misrepresents Christianity), but it was nonetheless based in the idea of Survival of the Fittest.

Jesus has been depicted as white since the Renaissance, but Europe renounced slavery before the United States. Their Jesus was still white, yet they progressed socially to see their wrongdoing. The difference is education. Most white Southerners were uneducated in everything but farming until the late-1800s, so they followed blindly the customs of prior generations. If you see the KKK today, you'll find that nearly all of them are blue collar workers that live in trailer parks, and have high school educations at very best (not that there is anything wrong with that). They aren't exposed to the progress society makes on matters such as slavery, so they remain the same. They still hate minorities because that is how their fathers reared them--it has nothing to do with the color of Jesus' skin. Even if they didn't think he was white, they are far to ignorant to correlate Jesus being middle-eastern and bigotry being wrong.

[87bimmerguy]

Anyone who claims to be a Christian and is a racist did not get it from the Bible. In fact, the inclusion of all peoples regardless of color, culture, ethnicity, social status, etc. is a major theme of the New Testament.
And I think as was previously mentioned, the idea of a "white" Jesus came from the Catholic church and was was passed on through all of the religious artwork produced in the Medieval Era/Renaissance. Anyone who knows his history knows that Jesus was Semitic and grew up in a Jewish Culture. Whether or not you believe he was God, the evidence is overwhelming that he did in fact exist.

[ragged325]

I'm not an expert on this, but it is my understanding that there is not any evidence from the time that Jesus supposedly lived that documents his life. Everything we "know" about him was recorded long after he "died". What are you talking about?

[lennon]

+1 on the stuff iwillhunt is saying. no BS there

[h0lmes]

Anyone who claims to be a Christian and is a racist did not get it from the Bible. In fact, the inclusion of all peoples regardless of color, culture, ethnicity, social status, etc. is a major theme of the New Testament.
And I think as was previously mentioned, the idea of a "white" Jesus came from the Catholic church and was was passed on through all of the religious artwork produced in the Medieval Era/Renaissance. Anyone who knows his history knows that Jesus was Semitic and grew up in a Jewish Culture. Whether or not you believe he was God, the evidence is overwhelming that he did in fact exist.

Show me this "overwhelming evidence".

[E30Kaiser]

I'm not an expert on this, but it is my understanding that there is not any evidence from the time that Jesus supposedly lived that documents his life. Everything we "know" about him was recorded long after he "died". What are you talking about?

You could use the shroud as evidence, whether or not it is ACTUAL evidence is contested though. Not to mention, my bible had pictures....