Have you ever come across people who say Christianity is a white man’s religion? I’m sure a lot of people have. The question is; is it true? And the answer to that is a reverberating NO. The reality is in the world that we live in today Christianity is seen as a western, white, American, or British religion. Why is this? Because of what author Pastor Jerome Gay calls whitewashing of Christianity. In his groundbreaking book with the same title, “The Whitewashing of Christianity” Pastor Gay defines whitewashing as:
The affinity of white Christian scholars to dominate the bible, Christian art, literature, and history with white people at the expense of authentic ethnicity and true scholarship in order to resonate most deeply with white audiences, primarily based on their experiences, presuppositions and worldview.
Whitewashing is using white people to represent people of color in films, magazines and almost all media imaginable. One of its goals is to erase black influence in the Christian faith. And This does not mean that every white scholar or theologian is racist, neither does it mean that every white scholar was complicit in the historic whitewashing that plagues Christianity in the West today. Furthermore, I’m not saying that Jesus’ ethnicity determines the veracity of His message. But what I am saying is if we value truth then the truth must be told, and the world must know that because of white supremacist prejudice and racist attitudes, the Christian faith has been presented, by and large in a biased fashion. At this point some people may object and say it is better to maintain the status quo rather than ruffle feathers by making statements that might be construed as causing racial division between white people and people of color, especially black people. To that I say, maintaining the status quo, that is, choosing to stay clear of this subject is being politically correct. As children of God, we must be moved to be correct rather than to be politically correct. Complete truth not half-truths must be our grounding and nothing else. Both white and black Christians who are seekers of truth will be liberated by the whole truth not partial truth. The bible says; “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” John 8 v 32
This popular portrait of a white Jesus by American artist Warner Sallman has caused more harm than good among people of color.
The entire story of Judaism and its subsequent birthing of Christianity begins in and spreads from the Middle East. The people involved are Jews not Europeans. Yet when we watch Hollywood films like “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston as Moses, all the characters are white. As a result, many people of color have shunned Christianity based on the erroneous information that has been propagated as fact. It is rare to find a white person who rejects Christianity based on skin color. While the aim of this blog is not to racialize the issue, neither is it to ignore the obvious fact that Jesus was not a blue eyed, pale skinned Scandinavian or Polish person. I believe there is enough historical evidence to portray Him as He was, a thirty-year-old middle eastern man. Many African Americans are today, turning away from Christianity, particularly millennials because they cannot reconcile the idea of a loving God who is presented by the same race of people who came from Europe and enslaved Africans. Thus, religion was presented in the context of bondage and therefore lacks credibility. Similarly, in Africa, huge numbers of millennials are repudiating Christianity on similar grounds. They view it as part of the colonial project. A tool used by white people who came to Africa brandishing a bible in one hand to “sedate” the unsuspecting African and usurp their land with the other.
Dr Umar Johnson, an American Psychologist, motivational speaker, and activist says, “The white Jesus picture is the greatest weapon of mass destruction in the black community. When a black boy or girl goes to Sunday school and sees a white Jesus from birth until they are five years old, they see God as white…and if God is white, then the devil must be black by contra-indication, which is why black folk have got to stop worshipping a white Jesus. No one worships a deity in the image of their enemy or oppressor except a slave. You can take the slave out of slavery, but until the slave takes the slavery out of himself, he will never be free”. This is why the whitewashing of Christianity is dangerous. Often a white person will reject Christianity on the basis of a theological, intellectual or scientific reason but they hardly ever say; I object to Christianity because it goes against my whiteness. The same cannot be said of people of color and that is tragic. Whitewashing Christianity creates a barrier to a faith that historically flourished in Africa long before Europe had embraced it.
Christianity came to Africa more than a millennium before the Colonialists and enslavers did
Christianity came to Africa almost one thousand years before the first enslavers and colonialists ever set foot on African soil. It was freely embraced by Africans like the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8, who happens to be one of the first gentile converts in the history of the Christian faith. Also, recall that the Jews had been in Africa for a period of over two hundred years during Joseph’s time. Therefore, long before the Eunuch of Acts 8 converted to Christianity, there were large numbers of diaspora Jews who had settled in North Africa for decades and decades. As a consequence of this, the foundations of the faith were laid in Africa long before Christianity began. But let me make it clear that the answer to the whitewashing of Christianity is not blackwashing it because the true Gospel is colorless, always has been and always will be. Sadly though, the message presented to African unbelievers with the flood of white imagery is that God will save you, but he did not use anyone that looked like you in His redemptive plan, nor are you included in scripture.
Depicting Jesus as white when He was not, was and still is a weapon of mass destruction because it creates a barrier that is used by cults, false religions, individuals, critics and cynics to point at a reason to deny Christ. While there may be justification for questioning the truth and credibility of Christianity based on its being hijacked by evil white enslavers and Colonizers, the reality is that it is the only faith that transcends color, ethnicity and culture. Also Christianity is not the same as who Jesus was. Many religions are often associated with specific cultures and people groups. For example, Hinduism is often linked with Indians, Buddhism with China and Japan, Islam with Saudi Arabia and Shintoism with Japan. The faith introduced by Jesus Christ is a global faith. True biblical Christianity is neither a white man’s religion nor a black man’s religion. The sovereign creator of the universe decided that the Jewish people would be His chosen prototype group of people through whom He would introduce Himself to the world. And as soon as He descended to earth from heaven, as a Jew born of Mary, He was not going to look like everyone else. If he was a Palestinian Jew, He certainly would not have looked like a Japanese or an Indian or a black man. But because He was a historical figure who lived, He was always going to look like someone. Therefore, it is important to establish what color He really was so that we can destroy the lie that He was white. The imperialist white racists who deliberately portrayed Jesus as a white man sought to co-opt the image of Jesus to lord it over people of color by suggesting that if Jesus is white and He is God, He looks like us so we are your God. Conversely blackness symbolized that which is cursed, dark and evil. The overall impact of slavery, direct and indirect media messages reinforcing the superiority of white people over black people and various other methods of subjugation over a long period of time would without any doubt leave a lasting negative psychological effect on the black man’s self esteem and self worth.
Colonialism, "Civilization" and Christianity
So where did the white image of Jesus come from?
As soon as Rome was under the rule of emperor Constantine, he decided that the Christian faith which was illegal when he came to power, should be legalized. After legalizing it, Constantine went on to make Christianity the official religion of all of imperial Rome. From that time onwards statues and images of Christ took the form of a white Jesus. To be fair, all cultures depict Jesus as themselves, it is not just white people who portray Him in their color. Every single culture into which Christianity goes China, India, Japan, sub Saharan Africa they all make Jesus look like them. That is just a human thing, it is an attempt to connect with a higher power and also helps with identity. The difference is the Ethiopian version of Jesus, or the Japanese version did not go and colonize people and then plant that Jesus in front of colonized people. The white Jesus was everywhere and forced on people of color. There was a belief that blackness equated to sin and depravity. That view was held even among the Jews of antiquity according to the Midrash (Jewish commentaries on the bible) The painters of white Jesus did it with the belief that Jesus could only be white because whiteness equated to purity.
Iconography
What did an average Roman man look like in Jesus’ time? White, short hair and clean shaven. The Christianized Roman rulers understood this and therefore early depictions of Christ reflected this image because the rulers knew that this would be an image that Roman people would accept.
At a different time in history the perceptions of ordinary people in terms of what a "god figure” should look like would change. Jesus had turned water into wine in his ministry. The Greeks had Dionysius as the god of wine hence there was a time in history when Jesus’ images looked like Dionysius. So over time, the images and portrayals of Jesus would evolve to accord with the mood and cultural swings of the age. For example, because Jesus was known as the Son of God, in Greece where the head of the Greek pantheon was Zeus, Jesus took on the looks of Zeus, long beard, long hair and looking like a ruler. The most common picture of Jesus seen all over the world which presents Him as white, with blue eyes is that of famous American artist, Warner Sallman painted in 1940.
The evolving images of Jesus intra culturally and inter culturally over time
And why is the complexion of Jesus important? Because Christianity is now believed, falsely so, to be a western white dominated instrument of oppression and tyranny. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of Truth and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.2 Corinthians 3 v 17
People must know the fact that African nations such as Aksum (now Ethiopia) and Nubia (now Sudan) became Christian at a time when white kings/ Emperors of the powerful Roman empire were still persecuting and killing Christians. The first gentile convert to Christianity was an African. It was the Ethiopian Eunuch mentioned in Acts eight. The term Ethiopia is a Greek word which means burnt faced or dark faced person. Famous Greek historian, Philosopher and writer Homer speaks of two types of Ethiopians. One from Sub Saharan Africa and another from the East or Indian. And the gospel was brought to Africa by the Ethiopian Eunuch and by Frementius a slave from Syria who was shipwrecked on the Red Sea with his uncle who was a merchant. The irony of this story is that as black people we’re often told that Christianity started for us in slavery. Well, there is a sliver of truth in that, but the twist lies in the fact that African people in this context were the slave owners. These slaves were Christians and they shared the gospel with their slave masters among whom were King Ezana of Egaze or Aksum which is present day Ethiopia. Both Nubia (present day Sudan) and Aksum were powerful kingdoms which freely embraced Christianity about one thousand years before the notorious trans Atlantic slave traders landed on the shores of Africa looking to enslave Africans. Many of the Church fathers from the first to about the tenth centuries who played a very significant role in enlightening Christians and unpacking doctrinal issues in the bible were African. Names that come to mind are Augustine of Hippo, Lactantius, Tertullian, Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria Cyprian Bishop of Carthage to mention a few. They were well educated and wrote in Latin which is why their work was so profoundly influential in Rome and found acceptance in the church universally. Thus, contrary to traditional thinking that says Africa received the Gospel through European missionaries, it was Africans who actually shaped European understanding of Christianity. Only much later did the Colonizers and Enslavers invade the continent using the bible as a tool to achieve their nefarious agenda.
END OF PART ONE
In part two, we look at African representation in the bible and what Jesus could have looked like.
Comentarios