"Color of the Cross"

[thann]

New film by African-American director/writer/producer/actor depicts Jesus as black.

“Color of the Cross” tells a traditional story, focusing on the last 48 hours of Christ’s life as told in the Gospels. In this version, though, race contributes to his persecution.

I have no problem using a black actor to portray Jesus. I do have a problem making his sacrifice into some sort of racist event.

'thann

 

[Karin]

• “Black people in this country are the only race of people who worship a god outside their own image,” says LaMarre, 38, adding that showing Christ as a black man is “the most poignant way to deal with the issue of race in this country because it goes to the heart of how we look at the world.” clickondetroit.com/entertainment/10173594/detail.html*

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[mercygate]

• “Black people in this country are the only race of people who worship a god outside their own image,” says LaMarre, 38, adding that showing Christ as a black man is “the most poignant way to deal with the issue of race in this country because it goes to the heart of how we look at the world.” clickondetroit.com/entertainment/10173594/detail.html*

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A friend of mine once ran the only stained glass atelier in north Africa (he was White, so in Liberia he was not allowed to own his own business). He told me that when he portrayed Jesus as Black, his clients objected. They understood that Jesus was a Jew, and that He came for everybody, not just for Jews, or Whites or Blacks or Asians. These “primitive” people seemed to have a better grip on the issue than we do over here in our supposedly “civilized” world.

Racism is racism wherever it grows, and it is evil.

 

[Karin]

A friend of mine once ran the only stained glass atelier in north Africa (he was White, so in Liberia he was not allowed to own his own business). He told me that when he portrayed Jesus as Black, his clients objected. They understood that Jesus was a Jew, and that He came for everybody, not just for Jews, or Whites or Blacks or Asians. These “primitive” people seemed to have a better grip on the issue than we do over here in our supposedly “civilized” world.

Racism is racism wherever it grows, and it is evil.

Who cares what color Jesus was?
Is that all people care about in regards to Jesus ???
I for one am more concerned with his message than if he was black, purple, blue, white or any other color!

 

[Karin]

A friend of mine once ran the only stained glass atelier in north Africa (he was White, so in Liberia he was not allowed to own his own business). He told me that when he portrayed Jesus as Black, his clients objected. They understood that Jesus was a Jew, and that He came for everybody, not just for Jews, or Whites or Blacks or Asians. These “primitive” people seemed to have a better grip on the issue than we do over here in our supposedly “civilized” world.

Racism is racism wherever it grows, and it is evil.

who where his clients?

 

[Zahmir]

Probably for the fact that Jesus WAS darker skinned, not black, but tan, like I’m sure ever other Jew walking around Jerusalem was2000 years ago.

Perhaps we often make Jesus too white, and I can understand this as a concern. I can understand that making Jesus too “black” is a problem, also.

However, it is important to recognize that Christ did not have a “African-American culture” or an “African culture” or even anything like that. Jesus was a Jew and he grew up and operated out of a Jewish culture. Will portraying Jesus as black prevent people from understanding that? I’m not entirely sure, but it’s certainly something to consider.

The color of Jesus’ skin really doesn’t matter, but what does matter is what people are going to “assume” about Jesus.

 

[NPS]

Some are often guilty of making Jesus too Aryan–pale white skin, blond hair, blue eyes. But what’s funny is that the people who want to believe that Jesus was a black African are usually the same people who have such hatred towards Jews.

 

[catsrus]

"Black people in this country are the only race of people who worship a god outside their own image," says LaMarre

Wrong.
I am white and I worship my God in the flesh as a brown skinned middle eastern Jew.*

 

[brotherhrolf]

I always find these kinds of arguements to be quite odd. Anthropologists no longer talk about races but if you were to go back thirty-five years ago, you would find that the definition of Caucasian encompassed everyone from the blond haired, blue eyed northern Europeans to the black haired, dark eyed, dark skinned peoples of India. The Semites would have fallen in between and they would have been classified as Caucasian as were the ancient Egyptians. There have been efforts to portray Tutankhamen as African as well. It is wrong. He was an Egyptian pharoah and therefore Caucasian. There are pharoahs of Nubian ancestry who are most clearly African. This is simply a case of trying to turn historical fact into something it isn’t.

 

[corvidae]

That is very interesting Brotherhrolf.

It does seem that Caucasian covers a very large group of people.

I wonder why

A lone Raven

 

[brotherhrolf]

That is very interesting Brotherhrolf.

It does seem that Caucasian covers a very large group of people.

I wonder why

A lone Raven

It seems that about 8,000 years ago on the steppes of Russia by the Caucases mountains (hence Caucasian) there was a large group of people with a common language. Linguists have traced
entire families of languages back to this source.

ielanguages.com/eurolang.html

As you can see from the above link, the languages reflect where the people migrated - from Northern Europe to India. All of the people speaking the above listed languages would be considered Caucasian.

But this is only part of the equation since there are other groups in the mid east who are not part of the Indo-european language family (e.g. Semitic peoples) who meet the physical characteristics of a Caucasian. This would include Arabs, the people of Israel in Jesus’ time, the ancient Egyptians, etc.

aaanet.org/gvt/ombdraft.htm

The above link is how the anthropologists of today view race in general. Forensic anthropologists would insist that racial characteristics are important.

Hope this sheds a little light on the subject.

 

[Sam88]

I don’t care if a actor of any race portrays Jesus, but I wish all artists would represent him in a way consistant with what we know of his actual linage. Still, there have been many instances of devout people creating images of Jesus in the style of their particular group, and I do not think any harm is usually intended or that any harm usually results.

Now if this film asserts that the passion itself had something to do with racial prejudice however, this is an entirely different matter. This is simply false, and may negate the value of anything good in the film.