
As I watching television last night, the station continually showed these pictures of the person they said was Jesus. The thing that got me was that every picture they showed was a picture of a blond haired, blue eyed Jesus. This really began to play with my psyche a bit. I wondered to myself if most white evangelical Christians would really serve a Jesus if he was depicted to them as black. Now the Bible as well as other articles have always clearly shown that he could not be a person with white skin. But it is amazing to me that everyone shows that he is a white guy with blue eyes.
I remember watching Good Times and seeing this played out on the screen. JJ had painted a black Jesus andMicheal hung it in the house. When Florida came home and saw the picture she went loony. She said this is the only Jesus she knew that being the white Jesus. This is really how it is in many of the black households. Rather we want to accept it or not Jesus is depicted as a white man. We role with bit and say it doesn’t matter if he is black or white, he is still Lord. But I wonder if that is really true. The Willie Lynch theory is a massive undertaking that has really rocked the black community for years and still has a lasting effect. I know older folks who will not hire black to do anything. But in retrospect they love Barack. So to have a black Jesus would be a hard thing to swallow.
As for my white brother and sisters, I wonder how they would take it as well. If we found out today at 2:00 that Jesus was definitely a black dude with dreadlocks how would they receive that news. It would be a hard thing to call a black a nigger after that bit of information. I am not inquiringthat all whites call blacks niggers but it would be like me saying that I have never called a white person a cracker. We both have done it and when the moment gets heated enough will probably do it again if not careful. But my point is can white America really bow to a Jesus that is black. I wonder would all the churches throughout America take down the pictures of the white Jesus and place pictures of the black Jesus.
I do not think it will happen because deep down an inferior complex would arise and I do not think they can handle it. White evangelical pastors really would be lost if this happen. Would RC Sproul really be able to pontificate with such vigor if he saw the black Jesus. Could Johnathan Edwards really have stood befor people and made claims of Christ knowing he had people enslaved at his crib that looked just like Jesus. So I understand the plight of the Black Liberation Theology. I do not agree with most of it but I understand why it came. When an oppressed people have a opportunity to experience freedom you must believe that they will do all they can to stay free.
I am sure that our churches would change because people interpretation would change. If all the evangelicals would look in their scriptures and see that all the writers of the bible were black or of a darker pigment. The apostles, Paul and Abraham if they were black, how then do you get whites to relate to them. It is easy to serve a God you can relate to but can you relate to a God that you have no desire to becasue of his skin tone.
So if you can’t insert a black Jesus into you Jesus structure and have the same relationship with him as you do now. You may want to eat some carpet, that means pray.

7 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 8, 2008 at 5:00 am
lionelwoods7
He may would have died before the cross due to High Blood Pressure! You know to much Popeyes!
Seriously this is something to consider brother. Truth be told many have a problem excepting an African American perspective on hermeneutics as a viable biblical interpretive method. So to have a bible that can minister to those in a certain socioeconomic is already problem enough, throw in God Incarnate in African skin and brother Judaism and Islam may be a bit more appealing in the West! LOL!!!
December 8, 2008 at 6:22 am
Brian Foulks
You have said a mouth full right there my friend.
December 8, 2008 at 6:31 am
Brian Foulks
You would be hard-pressed to get a pastor to admit that ministering to those of another race or culture will be different. As I sat an pondered today I asked myself a question: What is the difference of Jonathan Edwards presenting the his case for Calvinism and grace of God while having slaves versus some of the heretics of today advocating something that they really do not believe themselves.
Simply stated I wonder how faithful Jesus would be to some when they found out he was of African descent.
December 8, 2008 at 8:01 am
laughingyouth
Interesting article. It is the same issue with Adam, the first human. He always has been portrayed as a white man, but some researches showed that he most likely was Black. But in the media and in the culture, Adam is still a white man and Eve, a white women…
December 8, 2008 at 9:24 am
Brian Foulks
laughingyouth
I agree with you on that brother. the concept would change the way people see everything as it relates to faith I truly believe.
December 9, 2008 at 11:51 am
Adam Hardesty
By all accounts, it seems that Jesus would be of a middle eastern skin tone. It is my belief that he is neither black nor white in the modern sense. I would imagine him to look similar to a person from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Isreal, etc. Fortunately, when we find out what Jesus really looks like, that will be the furthest from our minds. I think that the concept of Jesus being black or white is really just a mechanism that people have for relating to him. Coming from a white family living in a predominantly white area, I mostly imagine people as white, because that is what I am used to. I would imagine that if you asked a Christian child who grew up in Kenya to draw Jesus, it would be a black man with a crown of thorns.
I think my point is, I don’t know if Jesus is black, but he definitely isn’t white like me, so I think I would be fine if he were “black.”
December 9, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Brian Foulks
Adam,
I to think that the perception factor plays a big deal in the mind of most. Whether we believe it or not it would be a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people.